Vienna Symphonic Library Synchron Duality Strings

The latest Vienna string orchestra offers a unique dual perspective.

The most recent instalment in an unbroken line of sample products stretching back to 2000, Synchron Duality Strings began life when VSL founder Herb Tucmandl woke up one morning with double vision. I hasten to add no ocular disturbance or medical emergency was involved, and as far as we know the Vienna supremo wasn’t suffering from a hangover — this was more a case of a blinding flash of inspiration which marked the genesis of a unique double‑whammy project.

Tucmandl explains the concept: “When working with ambient (ie. hall‑recorded) libraries, sometimes you want to have a closer, more direct sound. To achieve this, you have to use close mics as you would in real world orchestral recordings. When doing this you get the section leader more prominently in your mix, more or less a zoom in on an individual player in the section. In a perfect world you would have moved the whole section closer, which is not possible in a convenient way.”

Rather than addressing the problem with different mic mixes or layering separate performances, Tucmandl proposed a radical solution: “For a perfect result you would need a performance of all musicians in a wet and a dry environment together at the same time. Thinking about the options at the Vienna Synchron Stage, I realised that it is possible. We have two stages, our famous big hall and the smaller dry hall. Doing film scoring for seven years now, our musicians are trained to perform with headphones to deliver perfect results. So what we did was sample two string orchestras in two stages at the same time.”

In musical terms, this equates to a simultaneous recording of a symphonic string section playing in the huge Synchron Stage A and a smaller chamber ensemble positioned in the smaller, dryer‑sounding Stage B (see box below for section sizes). The musicians played to a click with a video link to the conductor and their colleagues in the adjoining room, acoustically isolated yet perfectly synchronised.

Overview

The string players are all members of the Synchron Stage Orchestra, a hand‑picked ensemble drawn from the top Viennese orchestras. Looking at the photos, it’s obvious that the smaller Synchron Stage B space will create a more intimate, dryer studio‑style ambience, in contrast to the big reverberant sound of Stage A. Rather than trying to replicate the intensive multi‑miking used in the latter, VSL’s Chief Recording Engineer Bernd Mazagg devised two different setups inside the dry stage, using different mic types to create a bright and dark option.

The Synchron Player GUI’s mix tab. Samples are mapped to the white keys, coloured keys are switches, which select the basic articulation, articulation style, vibrato style, release and attack options.

Synchron libraries run exclusively on the dedicated Vienna Synchron Player, which works as a plug‑in and standalone on Mac and Windows systems. 16GB of RAM and an SSD drive are recommended. VSL have now adopted the iLok licence management system, which can be used on the iLok Cloud or with a physical USB key. The latter requires an iLok 2 or 3 key (the old iLok 1 won’t work — boo!) but comes with the advantage of excellent free instruments (hooray!). You can read all about it at the company’s www.vsl.co.at/en/News/Hello_iLok page.

As with other VSL Synchron products, the Standard Library and Full Library include the same articulations and four basic mic positions, but the latter, more expensive option adds four extra mic perspectives (Ribbon mic, Main Surround Stereo, High Stereo and High Surround Stereo), the latter three of which would come into their own in 5.1 and immersive mixes.

Having immediate access to symphonic and chamber string ensembles playing simultaneously in radically different acoustics opens up a wealth of creative possibilities. You can use the two sections in combination, or separately to provide contrast. When layered, it’s notable how the smaller ensemble adds definition, clarity and overall brightness to the symphonic section, revealing more detail, enhancing bow attacks and increasing the rhythmic drive of the spiccato and staccato short notes. The brightening effect of the chamber ensemble is evident regardless of which mic set up you use, and serves as proof of concept for Herb Tucmandl’s vision.

All Together Now

Synchron Duality Strings’ pre‑recorded runs play in all 12 keys starting on every note of the scale.

Synchron Duality Strings’ presets group together all the articulation patches of each individual section, thus, you can access all of the first violins’ playing styles within one preset, and the same is true of the second violins, violas, cellos and double basses. Presets load with both the Stage A and Stage B samples in place, after which you can use the Synchron Player’s mixer channels to alter the balance and timbre of the two groups.

There are four preset types: the old‑school ‘Velocity’ assigns dynamics to keystroke velocity, while ‘VelXF’ and ‘VelXF sus’ presets allow you to crossfade between the instruments’ dynamic layers with the mod wheel (a very effective way of creating crescendos, diminuendos and subtle volume swells). A new ‘VelXF + Velocity control’ category also uses the mod wheel but adds key velocity to determine long notes’ attack behaviour, and occasionally to velocity‑switch between different playing styles (for example, spiccato and staccato).

Those versed in the dark arts of MIDI orchestration will no doubt dive straight into the individual sections and start furiously programming viola parts, but if you’re simply looking for a quick, playable full strings sound for sketching or playing live, there are some magnificent ‘tutti’ presets which map out the five sections over six octaves with a full set of playing styles.

I had an indecent amount of fun playing these presets, emerging after a few hours with a good understanding of what the Synchron Duality strings are capable of. Played in a choice of light and strong (‘molto’) vibrato styles, the full section’s long notes sound majestic. I generally preferred the lighter vibrato, but you can crossfade between the two and enjoy a seriously lush sound when they overlap.

If your mission in life is the creation of rhythmic string ostinatos, you’ll be pleased with these strings’ spiccato short notes. Played in normal and tight styles (the latter featuring more round robins), they are tremendously strong and propulsive and have a sumptuous full‑bodied sound. The pizzicatos are equally impressive: tight, plump‑sounding and melodious, they’re complemented by some brusque, tidily played col legno hits. They also have an evil twin in the form of an utterly vicious ‘snap pizzicato’ delivery, which when played chordally sounds like a gang of brigands thrashing a wooden beer barrel with bunches of birch twigs.

Artic Conditions

An altogether more subtle short‑note bowed articulation is the détaché. Its maximum length is about one second, but as Herb Tucmandl points out, you can play this style shorter with very realistic results, and the provision of soft, regular and marcato attack options increases its flexibility. Speaking of note attacks, this collection lacks the traditional Vienna ‘sforzatissimo’ dynamic delivery, which I would always turn to in moments of unbridled musical passion. This library uses the less forceful sforzato style as a sustained note attack option, marking a retreat into slightly calmer orchestral waters.

When it comes to fashioning melody lines, VSL’s legato patches have always yielded superior results, and that still holds true. The ‘agile’ legato style works beautifully across all five sections, transforming everything I played into a smooth, graceful melodic continuum. Normally I’d expect to have to tidy up the MIDI notes after programming a fast legato line, but that wasn’t necessary here — the agile legato patches always seemed to know what to do, and kept pace with the fastest lines, trills and flourishes I’m physically able to play.

In addition to the normal and agile legato modes is a nice slurred legato which introduces subtle expressive slides between notes, and a fabulous portamento variant which exaggerates and elongates the slides. The latter is the style you need for the exuberant, sinuous ‘Bollywood strings’ sound heard in Indian film soundtracks and pop records. Superbly played by all five sections, it’s one of the highlights of the library.

You can also use the library’s excellent glissando samples to program dramatic‑sounding slides which end on a sustained target note. Chromatically mapped and played up and down, fast and slow over an octave, fifth and major second ranges, they’re a great source of cartoon‑style comedy effects and so‑called ‘disco slides’, while the major second variant can add evocative and subtle grace note slides to a melody.

Digging deeper into the artics, one notices the VSL’s trademark ‘bold’ and ‘agile’ variations cropping up repeatedly. Though often hard to tell apart, the difference between these two lies in the speed of transition between notes. Herb Tucmandl explains, “The agile version becomes important when performing melodic phrases. The normal (bold) version offers a kind of starting sound for each new note — in most cases musicians wouldn’t play a phrase that way, they would perform it in a way similar to the agile style, which has a more natural fluidity.” So as a rule of thumb, you should use the ‘agile’ style for faster melodic phrases.

Runs, Trems & Trills

Though you can create ultra‑realistic runs with the agile legato artic, pre‑recorded runs offer a quick and convenient alternative. In this library they’re played legato and détaché in a straight major scale, up and down in all 12 keys in a choice of octave, fifth and major third ranges. The runs start on every note of the scale, so if you select the key of G and choose the ascending version, playing a note of G triggers a G‑A‑B‑C‑D‑E‑F#‑G run, a note of A triggers A‑B‑C‑D‑E‑F#‑G‑A, and so on.

Although the runs lack whole tone and chromatic scale variants, you can trigger a minor key run by playing a note three semitones down from the root note — in the key of C, that creates the natural minor scale of A‑B‑C‑D‑E‑F‑G‑A. However, if you want the more exotic harmonic minor scale (A‑B‑C‑D‑E‑F‑G#‑A), you’ll have to switch to agile legato mode and play it yourself! If you’re having problems with the fingering, remember that you can always temporarily slow your DAW’s tempo down to a manageable speed to record a scale run.

Tremolo is the classic nail‑biting orchestral strings style denoting tension and imminent danger. Nowadays it sounds a bit corny, but this library’s slow tremolo variant sidesteps the clichés and imparts a subtle timbral motion to sustained notes. The so‑called ‘measured tremolo’ artic is actually a set of fast 16th‑note repetitions, brilliantly played across the instruments’ full ranges in a range of tempos from 120 to 180 bpm — instant, driving rhythmic ostinato material. Another orchestral strings library staple, trills come in the standard semitone and tone flavours, but there are also minor and major third variants which can add an electrifying shimmer to single high‑register violin notes.

In Operation

As reported in previous VSL reviews, the Synchron sample player incorporates an ingenious and elaborate switching system which enables you to change playing styles in real time. This can be as obvious as switching from bowed to pizzicato, or as subtle as quickly changing from regular legato to slurred legato in order to add expression to one particular note of a melody. Either way, the colour‑coded keyswitching system works brilliantly, and once you get your head around the layout and become familiar with the various articulations, it can be used fluidly and intuitively.

The player’s built‑in mixer contains a wealth of useful effects, including parametric EQ, filters, compression, expander, delay, reverb, chorus, phaser, tape saturation, power pan and stereo widener. The reverb includes an excellent plate effect which adds a cinematic dimension to the concert hall acoustic. To help you get started with integrating these effects with the numerous microphone channel options, VSL have supplied a large number of mix presets ranging from close, relatively dry perspectives to panoramic ambience‑drenched soundscapes. Being something of a reverb addict, I enjoyed the ‘Lush Long’ and ‘Airy’ presets, which make good use of the plate and room reverbs.

Conclusion

Doing the maths, even your dull‑witted reviewer can see that buying a symphonic and chamber string section in one package is likely to be cheaper than purchasing them separately. But why buy this particular library? The sound quality is stunning, but for me a deciding factor would be the amazingly unified nature of the performances. Having spent seven years recording film scores and classical works together in the same building, this team of players have developed a musical empathy and collective feel which allows them to deliver the most precise, expressive and finely coordinated string samples you’re ever likely to encounter.

If you’re considering the benefits of the Full Library, I can say that in the vast majority of cases it’s a luxury you don’t need. Gone are the days when you had to shell out extra cash to acquire the full range of VSL articulations; nowadays the only difference between Standard and Full versions is the number of microphone positions, so unless your work routinely involves surround and immersive mixing, the Standard version will do you proud.

It’s good to know that having unleashed this innovative ‘two ensembles performing simultaneously in different rooms’ concept, VSL are not about to abandon it — the company have already announced that con sordino (muted) and smaller ponticello and flautando libraries are in the pipeline, which I’m sure will please avid Vienna collectors. Having heard Synchron Duality Strings bursting into life in my music room, it’s clear that Herb Tucmandl’s bold vision works supremely well. Duality is now a reality, and I look forward to hearing its future manifestations.

Having spent seven years recording film scores and classical works together in the same building, this team of players have developed a musical empathy and collective feel which allows them to deliver the most precise, expressive and finely coordinated string samples you’re ever likely to encounter.