Vienna Symphonic Library Synchron Solo Violin & Solo Cello

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars

Two new libraries fill a vital gap in VSL’s catalogue. After seven years of constant recording in the Synchron Stage had yielded no solo strings, users were beginning to grow impatient. Bowing to public demand, VSL began work on a large sampling project which now bears fruit in the shape of Synchron Solo Violin and Synchron Solo Cello. Both run exclusively on the free Synchron Player and respectively require 25.1GB and 22.6GB of storage space.

The new instruments feature violinist/concertmaster Marina Dimitrova and cellist Florian Eggner, principal players of the Synchron Stage Orchestra with extensive classical, film music and sample recording experience. In the interests of musical consistency, sessions (described as “heavy”, “exhausting” and “insanely intense”) were scheduled so that the players could execute the same articulations on the same day.

This Olympian sampling marathon has generated an encyclopaedic articulation list. Short‑note styles include spiccato, staccato and détaché with a choice of bold and agile attacks, ricochet, saltando, a lighter ‘performance spiccato’ option and ‘saltando glissandos’, which combine a bouncing bow stroke with up and down slides. In addition to their normal, short, soft and no‑vibrato deliveries, the détachés also feature graceful up and down tone slides and despairing semitone falls.

Long notes are played with normal, fast and soft attacks with no vibrato, poco (light) and molto (strong) vibrato; for note offs, you can choose between a normal release tail, the abovementioned comic falls and animated, ear‑catching octave slides. Also included are regular and snap pizzicatos, col legnos, tremolos, fast 16th‑note measured tremolos, trills, harmonics, crescendos, diminuendos and a furious, edgy sforzato artic that will easily cut through a cinematic drum battalion, all offering multiple performance variants.

The solo strings’ performance legatos sound absolutely sensational. Played over a G3‑E7 range, the violin legatos epitomise the instrument’s expressive powers, whether playing soaring melodic themes, high‑speed runs or quiet reflective passages. The cello (C2‑A5) is no less emotive and adaptable, sounding equally great on passionate fast arpeggios and slow sombre melodies. I found the instruments’ agile/fast attack legato to be beautifully smooth and responsive, while the evocative, slower‑moving lyrical style, exuberant Bollywood‑esque portamentos and Zigane semitone slides add further creative options.

Two new features are worthy of note: Sequence Control switches between a series of different articulations on each key press (great for rhythmic spiccato and staccato ostinatos), while Slot XFade lets you adjust the split point between playing styles (such as no vibrato and poco vibrato). The libraries are available in Standard and Full versions: the samples are identical, but the latter contain more microphone positions.

Immaculately played, sonically rich, stunningly realistic and superbly playable, these solo strings represent the pinnacle of VSL’s sampling achievements.

Immaculately played, sonically rich, stunningly realistic and superbly playable, these solo strings represent the pinnacle of VSL’s sampling achievements — 20 years of experience distilled into two remarkable virtual instruments.