but didn't realize there was one for orchestral strings

 
Well, I suppose that's debatable...  

Heh. Yeah I haven't even opened up the SI stuff. I figure those are just leftovers from older versions and the new tools are superior. I have seen a lot of people mention the bass is pretty handy though.

Amazing how quickly we get spoiled.  Some of the sounds we think of as throw-away now would have been life-changing for me not too long ago.


I find myself nitpicking about quirks in Vienna or Hollywood Strings now, but there was a time when an ARP String Ensemble was my most prized possession.  The SI-Strings in Producer are not the equal of the expensive and  powerful sample libraries out there on the market and they don't give you as much control, but they are still quiet good—especially for a free plug-in.

Yeah I haven't even opened up the SI stuff. I figure those are just leftovers from older versions and the new tools are superior. I have seen a lot of people mention the bass is pretty handy though.

 
Given what's already in SONAR, I personally like the bass and ep the best.   The other two aren't bad, but as Konrad mentioned there isn't much flexibility in these synths.
 

Great advice so far.  Any one else want to weigh in on this?  Anyone posted any tunes using the DSF strings library?

OK I did a bit of A/B comparisons with a few of the other things mentioned (I don't have the full Vienna or any of the EWSL stuff, so can't comment on those) and here are my impressions: 

1) DSF pretty much blows the SI strings out of the water. Not that they're useless, just... very limited. And not very 'deep' or realistic in terms of soundstage, etc. They sound pretty plastic-y in comparison to just about anything. YMMV, but that's what I'm hearing. 

2) DSF is probably a bit better, and certainly a lot more flexible and varied, than the Garritan Pocket Orchestra that I think is included stock with Dimension. The Garritan ones are quite OK, but there's not a lot of variety. 

3) DSF is not as flexible or complete in terms of articulation as the strings in Kontakt (which are a kind of basic Vienna subset, or so I am given to understand) but they're probably easier to use if you just want to throw up a quick big ensemble quickly or are looking for a big cinematic sound.  

4) unfortunately, there are some pretty glaring tuning problems here and there in DSF, which makes some of what's there unusable (for me, at least). Again, a fair bit of it seems like filler to me to make it seem like a bigger library. I would be pretty peeved if I'd paid full price for it. 

5) However, there are some really nice-sounding sections and ensembles in there (the small sections are a nice touch), and you could do a lot with it if that's all you had. So again, if you're short on string sounds this gets you a decent palette of usable stuff, along with some annoying filler that, who knows, other people might love, for a pretty good price (free). 

and that's my two euro-cents. 

4) unfortunately, there are some pretty glaring tuning problems here and there in DSF, which makes some of what's there unusable (for me, at least). Again, a fair bit of it seems like filler to me to make it seem like a bigger library. I would be pretty peeved if I'd paid full price for it.  

I thought maybe you were nit picking about this and was thinking "nah, it can't be THAT bad!", but I just listened to the wav files (no time to open up SONAR) and hmmm... One sample half way through dropped about 50 cents in tuning! And then quickly corrected! That sample is definitely un-usable. I got the impression they were on a VERY tight budget, maybe got budget musicians, and did one quick take for everything. Some of the staccatos even sounded like they were CLIPPING!! Whether any of this is a problem once loaded in DimPro and in a song, I don't know, but if the raw files have clear problems, any fixing is going to be a bit 'meh' and never 'WOW'. Still, I'm using SI Strings a bit here as a pad in many of my songs, and this should do a better job still so can't complain for free!

Do it!! Strings sound great...you know your going to upgrade anyway!

bapu

Is DSF symphonic strings worth the uncertainty?

Is it just me or aren't these mutually exclusive issues?



You either want to be an early adopter or not.

And if you do you either want the strings for free or you don't.

Being an early adopter does not require the pre-purchase (last day today).

even more than that...
 
if you want the strings, but don't want to be an "early adapter" then why are you forced to install X2 or even if you install it, why are you forced to use it until you're ready?
 
if you want the strings and are going to upgrade at some point, then do it today before the presale is over.  then don't use X2 until you feel the "uncertainty" is over (with X many updates or whatever criteria you will use).