I just expanded my NI kit with Session Strings Pro. Very nice, I'm not much of an orchestral programmer but it was very easy to get the articulations I wanted for the track I was working on. Dropped my string track count from 8 to 3 and sounds much better. The only tricky bit is you have to make sure the articulation events happen before the notes.
W00t!

I don't have the Pro version, but do like Session Strings and planning on using it in an upcoming project. What are your thoughts on Action Strings? that looks very interesting......

Mesh
I don't have the Pro version, but do like Session Strings and planning on using it in an upcoming project. What are your thoughts on Action Strings? that looks very interesting......

It looks like Action Strings is a collection of canned phrases. I haven't had much luck using that sort of thing with the music I do. Pro is much much better than Session Strings, you can switch articulations on the same channel instead of sending the MIDI to different channels to get them. The production mode is pretty nice.

Thanks Tom.
 
When funds are available, I'll be putting the money in for the Ultimate upgrade (rather than just getting Pro only). I still yet have soooo much to play with the stuff in K9 to keep me busy for awhile.... :) 

I bought EWQL Hollywood Strings during one of their Buy one get one free deals plus the $100 off.  All in all, I paid $150 for Strings silver and Brass Silver.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty disappointed with them.  The sound is pretty good but Play is just so buggy that I find them almost unusable.  Really unfortunate.  I wish I could have that cash back and get Session Strings Pro...  

mikebeam
I bought EWQL Hollywood Strings during one of their Buy one get one free deals plus the $100 off.  All in all, I paid $150 for Strings silver and Brass Silver.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty disappointed with them.  The sound is pretty good but Play is just so buggy that I find them almost unusable.  Really unfortunate.  I wish I could have that cash back and get Session Strings Pro...  

Sorry to hear that Mike....
If Kirk Hunter does have another group buy, you should check that out. I have the Diamond collection (strings, brass, woodwinds, & percussion) which are excellent straight from the box.....no tweaking. I was impressed with the quality of sounds immediately. KH also has good support/tutorials in using them.
 
You should look into selling your license/library of EWQL over at KVR and possibly make some of your money back. Everyone over there is always looking to get a deal, but the general pricing for stuff is 50% off the going price......unless it's in demand.
  

mikebeam
I bought EWQL Hollywood Strings during one of their Buy one get one free deals plus the $100 off.  All in all, I paid $150 for Strings silver and Brass Silver.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty disappointed with them.  The sound is pretty good but Play is just so buggy that I find them almost unusable.  Really unfortunate.  I wish I could have that cash back and get Session Strings Pro...  

Hence why I rail on EastWest all the time in this forum. I have found Play to be too buggy to be useful, and I've been using it since the beginning. As Mesh said, I'd look at Kirk Hunter strings instead of Session Strings. Session Strings isn't bad, but I'm not thrilled. I'm pretty happy with KH though. Over all I like the sound better than EastWest's older SO stuff that I own. Haven't compared it to Hollywood Strings since EW isn't getting any more of my money.

I didn't realize I could sell my licenses...  I'll definitely look into it.  I would love to recoup some of the cash.  I'll also look into some of those other options.
 
The sound of Hollywood Strings is much better than Cakewalks SI-Strings.  I actually just went through a project replacing EW with Cakewalks Strings and was pretty disappointed with the results.  Sycraft, I've been dealing with a Volume problem where the volume will just drop randomly - meaning that a project will be playing fine and then, for no apparent reason, on a playthrough it will play 15db lower than before.  I've posted here about it and emailed them - they did not respond.
 
I also tried starting the Project from scratch and freezing the tracks.  Most of the time it worked fine, but on one occasion, I had the volume drop.  Spent too long trying to figure out if it was a CC value or something - thought that I was just still new at this, but then have found others who've experienced the same problem.

I've never had that particular problem, but I'm not surprised they don't respond. Basically Play has lots of issues and they happen on different setups. so as far as EW is concerned it is fine because it works on their Macs and their one Windows system using Cakewalk. Anyone having problems, it must be your own fault. Not everyone does, you can find people here who have no issues, but those of us that do, well we are screwed. I got sick of it and so now I have Kontakt plus a bunch of libraries and I'm happy. NI might not be perfect, but their software works well, and has for a long time.

I'd first check with EW to see if re-selling is even an option.........and if it's yes, find out what the costs are (if any).