Hecky dern! I'll suggest that to em.

@yorolpal and @lawajava:  I'll bet putting Melodyne Editor on the generated harmony track would do a good job on converting the harmonies to midi...

Even the 5 part harmonies sounded great in the demos. 

And thanks for the Melodyne suggestion @jerry.  I'll try that.

For what it's worth I emailed (Kirk, I guess) and he said no, it doesn't do that now...but he's looking into it.

cecelius2 - since you have the Concert Strings 2 - what's your interpretation of the benefit of Concert Strings 2 vs the Pop Strings set? I couldn't find any explanation or anything to motivate metro make the more expensive buy. Any tips on that?

I too have always been impressed by Kirk Hunter support.

Until recently.

Clicking on "Support" at his site now directs you to a KVR forum he has where...support, at least for me, has been virtually nil.  I'm still not up and running with Easy Arranger--despite several increasingly "whiny" posts there.  ;-)

Thanks, Cecelius2!!

I just came across this thread after posting that Kirk Hunter Studios opened up the 50% off Group Buy discount to everyone. 


@lawajava Pop/Rock Strings is really a scaled down version of Concert Strings II; it's very similar to the relationship between Superior Drummer and ezDrummer (where Pop/Rock Strings is analogous to ezDrummer), if you're familiar with those products. Pop/Rock Strings doesn't have the same amount of individual samples per octave as Concert Strings II nor all of the articulations as Concert Strings II. I advise Kirk on products and promotions and came up with Pop/Rock Strings to cater to musicians and producers who specialize in pop and rock music and are on a tight budget who may not own the full version of KONTAKT (Pop/Rock Strings is fully compatible with the FREE KONTAKT Player, whereas Concert Strings II requires you to own the full version of KONTAKT). I'd also add that despite the name, Pop/Rock Strings is useful for any genre. Kirk and I merely agreed that the library sounds great with pop and rock music and believed it made a lot of sense to communicate that with the name.  

I don't have anything that dramatically demonstrates the differences, but I own both, and haven't used Pop/Rock Strings in a while. I think if one recorded a strings-only project, and was hyper careful/critical you'd hear a small difference.

Pop/Rock Strings uses a subset of the samples in CS2... or so the literature states.

There are a couple of articulations that are unique to Pop/Rock Strings, I can't remember what they are, but they are gimmicks one would use in disco or TSOP style stuff, and you can probably get the effect using CS2, although I haven't tried. (For that stuff I use Session Strings.) And I don't believe that Pop/Rock Strings has the 2nd sections... and I do find myself using the 2nd Violins a lot, and the 2nd Cellos almost as often.

If you have the budget, and you are discriminating, or you want the 2nd sections then buy CS2. It is the flagship string offering from KH, and you won't regret it.

If budget is an issue then get Pop/Rock Strings... you can use them for 
I don't have anything that dramatically demonstrates the differences, but I own both, and haven't used Pop/Rock Strings in a while. I think if one recorded a strings-only project, and was hyper careful/critical you'd hear a small difference.
Pop/Rock Strings uses a subset of the samples in CS2... or so the literature states.

There are a couple of articulations that are unique to Pop/Rock Strings, I can't remember what they are, but they are gimmicks one would use in disco or TSOP style stuff, and you can probably get the effect using CS2, although I haven't tried. (For that stuff I use Session Strings.) And I don't believe that Pop/Rock Strings has the 2nd sections... and I do find myself using the 2nd Violins a lot, and the 2nd Cellos almost as often.

If you have the budget, and you are discriminating, or you want the 2nd sections then buy CS2. It is the flagship string offering from KH, and you won't regret it.

If budget is an issue then get Pop/Rock Strings... you can use them for a lot of styles, and it is not terribly limited, other than the 2nd sections. 

I think edrummist and Kirk put together an absolutely brilliant entry level offering, it was the first of his string libraries I purchased, and I did eventually upgrade to CS2. There may even be an upgrade path - you will have to check the web site, I'm don't remember.

Holler if you have any specific questions... I'll try to sequence some scales or something to demonstrate the audible  differences between the two, but again, they are subtle! It's really more about features.

Thanks Peter - I knew there was a chart, but could not find it.

Pop/Rock is missing more articulations than I remembered, Bartok Pizz, Trills, and Harmonics, but it does include a "Short Disco" articulation that is a LOT of fun!

Given that everything is 50% off I'd lean towards CS2, but each person has their own requirements and budget.

@lawajava Take a good look over the chart on the website. You can also search KVR comments from users and you'll find probably a dozen posts from people who upgraded from Pop/Rock Strings to Concert Strings II and were surprised by their appreciation for the difference in Concert Strings II (I never saw a single post from anyone disappointed when they upgraded). I'd also suggest looking at the additional articulations in Concert Strings II. I think Pop/Rock Strings is excellent for the price -- hey, I came up with the original idea to do it and the name. But Pop/Rock Strings is really Concert Strings II Lite in many senses. Pop/Rock Strings comes from the same sample pool, but doesn't include all of them. It doesn't include all of the articulations in Concert Strings II. The real advantages of Pop/Rock Strings are that it's a great value and it is sufficient for a lot of pop and rock productions, the stings sound great for pop and rock and it doesn't require you to own the full version of KONTAKT (i.e., it's a KONTAKT Player library). But, if you can afford it, you'll have even higher quality (more samples per octave) and greater articulations in the mother ship, Concert Strings II. 

I am downloading ESA for CS2 right now.  In case anyone is still on the fence the sale is still going on right now; not sure how long it lasts.  
Here is a youtube teaser on the Easy Strings Arranger using CS2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4yLrjsYnrQ

Here is an older video of Easy Strings using Pop/Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Rg7nGZ9fA