Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
With their latest release, titled String Contours, Bulgarian company Strezov Sampling bring the world of sample libraries one step closer to the twin goals of expressiveness and realism, by focusing their efforts on the musical possibilities within a string swell.
The Kontakt‑compatible library features patches of basses, celli, violas, violins, solo violin and solo cello called ‘Contours’, which are defined as recorded performances “with a fixed length and dynamic shape”. At the risk of stating the obvious: sample libraries built using recorded performances of instruments have phrasing and dynamics baked into the patches and you, as a composer, have to work around them. String Contours makes this limitation a little less limiting by allowing you to “play these performances and seamlessly change notes [within a contour] without triggering a new performance”.
For each string section/instrument, there are seven articulations, such as Normale, Tremolo, Sul Tasto and Loure; three tempos, with the DAW’s tempo automatically detected by the library and the appropriate patch chosen; and four dynamic shapes: 1 bar crescendo‑1 bar decrescendo, 2 bar crescendo‑2 bar decrescendo, 2‑1 and 1‑2. Without any MIDI CC programming, you can ‘perform’ a piece using the combinations of articulations, dynamic shapes and tempo‑adjustable patches on offer. If you do want to tweak the arc of each swell even more, you can use the mod wheel to further shape dynamics.
Towards the end of the demo walkthrough video are words that bring sweet relief to most overworked composers: “there is barely anything that you need to master or learn with this library.” Mostly true, but don’t relax quite yet; there’s still work to be done and it involves being aware of the articulation you’ve selected and the phrase you’re playing within it. For example, a phrase you can play when you choose the 1‑1 dynamic contour is different from one you can play with a 2‑1 contour in terms of the timing of the swells and room for note changes. You do also have to time note changes so that the legato feels natural. This can be edited in the piano roll later, of course. If you close your eyes and just go with it, be aware that you need to be in sync with the ebb and flow of the patch, giving the proceedings a colour‑within‑the‑lines feeling. You can always end in the middle of a contour, thanks to the adaptive release feature, which ensures a smooth tail for your note, made even smoother if you have reverb turned on.
String Contours is a worthy addition to your toolkit for bringing those compositional ideas to life.
There is a plug‑and‑play element to the library which is helpful when putting ideas down, even if it does require a bit of practice to get the hang of how to play within the Contours. It also provides a kind of failsafe for beginners: as long as you adhere to the basic principles of good orchestral arrangement, your lack of experience won’t show in the way your string parts sound. Once you’ve taken the performance aspect out of the mix, your composition lives and dies on the strength of your musical idea, and String Contours is a worthy addition to your toolkit for bringing those ideas to life.
£249
$249