I have the Journeys and the other VS-1 bank from the Content Club giveaway and some other promotion.  I like the organic but not too realistic tone of these sets, and regret not taking part in the AudioMidi No-Brainer. 
 
That said, I don't know that I'd upgrade.  Like their VA-1, this seems to be mostly a cosmetic upgrade with a sound set thrown in.

guess I'm the odd man out - I turn to String Studio and Tassman often. I think String Studio is a lot easier to program my own patches, and the new version seems to be even easier. I don't expect either of them to be realistic, but I do find them to be very useful.
 
That said I was dubious, so I downloaded the demo, took one evening to convince me that it will be $29 well spent.
 
My AAS dust collector is Ultra Analog - I really need to figure out what it is good for!

Guys,
 
Appreciate all the info here and got to bang on the thing some more before the trial runs out.
 
Note to Brando about my Warez comment. Dark humor I guess. Had a bad run of luck with AAS activation 6 months ago. Staff was more than helpful after the meltdown and got everything running again but too late for a great opportunity I had.
 
Mega studio opened out here and a rich band came in to record. The owner hyped me up and the band wanted me to engineer for $25/hour. One main focus was the keyboard guy who wanted certain sounds that could be changed later. Sounded like an AAS job and I hyped the synths.
 
Day before the 2 day session, the band came to my place to audition the synths and get the plan together. I opened Ultra Analog and it said expired and to activate. Tried to cover my tracks and checked out Tassman, also dead. Opened Lounge Session, dead. Lounge Lizard 3 dead. String Studio expired. Only got Lounge 4 still active.
 
The guys were not impressed. I fumbled to get the computer connected to the internet. Got that done and the AAS activation server would hang. Getting nowhere and the keyboard player said "Thanks for your demonstration. We've seen everything we need to see."  They left.
 
Week later I got a box in the mail. Letter said the package contained a hardware device that would help me learn more reliable engineering skills. It was a small toy music box piano you wind up and it played "Jingle Bells".
 
The money would have been nice, but the loss of credibility over a damnable activation failure is something you can't put a dollar sign on.
 
Since that time (with few exceptions) I make sure I have a working crack in place before buying software that has you at the mercy of some company. Then purchase the software and honor the license agreement otherwise.
 
John
 
 
 

Doing an A/B of presets from String 1 and 2 that cross paths.
 
The frequency response sounds fuller in ver 2 if I'm not getting tricked by the filters.
Preset navigation is better.
 
Likely worth the upgrade if you have an extra $29 to burn, and have Strings 1 in the upgrade path. Was playing with some stacked presets with ver 1 and 2 at the same time and got some awesome sounds.
 
Saw also external review complaints that the orchestral strings fall short of the real instrument, but if they sound good, who gives a fork.
 
There goes my budget for 3 good six packs of cold Sterno, chasing some sound I'll likely never catch.
 
John
 

Did some comparison of presets that carried over. The new versions sound slightly better but nothing overwhelming becuase the original presets were kind of underwhelming to begin with. I'm guessing the effects processer helped thicken things up. Like a few others here, I'm more intruiged by the potentially unique sounds than by anything actually heard.

So, are the presets in vs2 different than the original.  From what can draw for the previous posts, it looks like there are some presets that crossover, but what percentage of VS2 presets are new, what is your best guess (25%, 50%, 75% new, best guess)?
 
I am on the fence with this one.  I can's see upgrading to get the same presets all over again, and the Frontier pack is not enough to draw me to it.  I like the new GUI, and 64bit, but money is tight and this upgrade while pretty may not draw me in, unless there are new sounds.

Money is tight for me too and I still did it. In retrospect for 8 dollars morn I could have got melda production multianalyzer on sale. I still think it may be worth it if only to help a company that gives great service and puts forth the effort to try new things. Upgrading is forcing me to re-examine this vst and trt and get more out of it. The architecture is there. Xenosworks made some nice presetsfor the original that hinted what this thing is capable of.

I think if you are a AAS VS 1 owner and you use it even not a lot then this upgrade is very worth while. I feel it is quite a lot more. A whole new bunch of sounds and they are very good and interesting. I found the whole export from VS 1 and import into VS 2 painless. I am not sure but some of the more complex ambient soundscapes sound a little different in VS 2.
 
I feel the effects are a worthwhile addition and can add a lot to sounds now. The GUI is clearer and better and a little easier to use. It has been well thought out and improved. I like the fact VS 1 is still intact and untouched so you can choose which one you want to work with.
 
Overall this is a beautiful sounding instrument and for me I am drawn to it for very realistic string plucked and attacked sounds but also for its wonderful synth electronic sound it has too. Thanks David for bringing it to our attention. It is pretty cool and well worth a relook in terms of exploring again.
 
Carrying over from the 96K thread too it might sound pretty nice at 96K as well. I might do some tests again and see if that it the case.
 
Update Just investigated more deeply the new included presets with VS 2 and there are some incredible sounds in there for sure. Very interesting indeed. I also loaded the free Frontier library and it is definitely great and worth having. Some great patches in there too. It is just a matter of how you make use of them and musically one would hope. They are quite inspirational.
 
The effects rack is fun and can be treated as a whole identity. You can mangle some great effects onto patches with this now. All in one place and easy to fiddle. Arpeggiator allows for some interesting original stepping and patterns etc. Very good the way you can program this too.
 
It has a big beautiful sound most of the time and it blends well with everything else you may be using.
 
 

Jeff and friends,
 
Useful overview. I went and done bit the $29 bullet, even if a good crack is still a couple months away.
 
Activation was painless on two computers.
 
Dub's point that the upgrade redirects attention to what ver 1 did... Worth the investment having to dust off a forgotten gem and see what it was all about before most of us archived and forgot...
 
New sound pak is wild and crazy but I didn't get off on the sounds except for a possible point of departure for making home grown presets. Got more miles out of Sean Divine's stops already included.
 
Like the brittle fake strings with a touch of real resonance. These bowed presets have no credible articulation. Modulation is mechanical and obvious computer driven. Weird hybrid sound that adds a top end if mixed with something like the EastWest libraries you rich kids have.
 
Don't know if it is worth buying the plug from ground zero, but an upgrade should be considered.
 
John

 
 
I really like it. I think of it is being in a plucked, bowed struck sort of vibe and for some reason a great electronic sounding vibe to it. It can sound so much like a great analog synth for some reason.  Think of the string motion/action as a starting point for the creation of a very unusual electronic instrument.
 
I agree the bowing and other aspects of it may not sound completely real. But in a way think of it not that way but more a very interesting sustained portion preceded with a very interesting attack transient. And it takes on a different purpose. Yes it does do some string effects with great realism and I have used it that way too but I tend to think of it as adding textures amongst other things. And some quite unusual sounds in the process.
 
For example check out all the patches in the new VS 2 factory sounds Ambient section. Any of those sounds represents amazing material for soundscape production that is for sure. It forms the basis of interesting ambient soundscapes to be created. It can also be a very expressive tonal musical instrument working with other parts to form total musical concepts.
 
Because of its percussive nature of String Studio I feel it sits well with very natural percussive sounds, but it has a foot in the camp of interesting electronic sounds bridging those two genres together well. It seems to combine well with my other virtual instruments and hardware setup. That is a force to be reckoned with in itself.
 
I can get it playing at super low latency making it enjoyable to play from a drummers or percussionist perspective. It can respond fast and that is great. The compressor in the effects rack is important now too. Some patches can produce wildly swinging output levels and the compressor really helps to tame all that down and keep it sounding level and sweet.