Hello John,
I guess many users are more experienced with the Dimension Strings than me (I only got them rather recently), but I find them great and extremely flexible. The big advantage is surely that you can fully dial the number of players, and in addition also all strings are individually sampled. Moreover, the positioning in MIR(x) and VI pro’s humanize feature work very well with the Dimension libraries - and the auto-divisi in Articulate Presets guarantees that all this can be used very conveniently. Dimension Strings are probably already the most complete string library on the market and in contrast to the Cube libraries they are still extended.
However keep in mind that they use significantly more resources (SSD, Ram & CPU). Working on a single machine, this often prevents me so far from using them in a larger orchestra (which is no problem with the much “lighter” Cube). Moreover, they are roughly chamber-sized, so you won’t easily get the sound of the larger sections (Orchestral, Appassionata), but maybe this is possible in MIR pro.
All the best
Kai
Best for me to skip, I guess, since I already have Solo, Chamber and Orchestral Strings.
Leave well enough alone and see what comes down the pike early this year.
Here is another Dorico demo score (Hewitt Jones / DORICOverture) played with the VSL powered by the Articulate Map. Like the baroque score posted above it is based on the Solo Strings, but this is a rather different score 
and it includes more varied playing techniques (staccato, legato, accents, …). It is again played without any adjustments/edits (Violin 1 & 2, Viola, Violoncello, Vienna Imperial; Mozartsaal) - merely the relative volumes were adjusted to get a balanced mix, since the Vienna Imperial (coming with its own player) does not offer VI pro’s convenient natural volume feature:
And this is the HSO version for comparison:
Finally here is again a version that uses repetition samples for the strings, where required:
As this is such a well known piece, I thought it might be instructive to offer by way of comparison what I do with it using the Synchron player version of the Solo Strings and my own Expression Map. Absolutely no editing whatsoever, other than reducing the master volume of the piano (the SE version of the Steinway) a little for balance. Which you like more will be down to personal preference 
Thanks for sharing this version - very nice rendition and I have to say that I like your version more .
I wasn’t happy at all with the mix in my case (combining the piano with the strings).
In order to use the Vienna Imperial (which unfortunately does not support MIRx), I had to use the Mozartsaal venue, which can sound a bit muffled. Generally in a concert hall, the instruments are not as clear and present as in a Scoring Stage. This does not work well for this kind of music (for the baroque piece above it worked much better - which makes sense taking into account when the Vienna concert hall was built ). In your case one gets a convincing impression that these instruments are in the same room - and the Synchron Stage works great for this piece.
Aside from the big advantage of being a Steinway 
, the grand in your version seems to include repetition samples (the Imperial only offers them for pedaled notes) and your piano is more wet, which helps a lot in the final part (I had used the “player position” of the Vienna Imperial probably making it too harsh/direct and I should change this). The VSL apparently learned a lot when sampling pianos in the last 10 years.
Lovely rendition !
thanks Kai and Bogdan for the appreciation. Every form of programming of the VSL (or other) libraries is likely to shine in some areas and be less strong in others. I think my approach works quite well for some rhythmic and well articulated music such as this example. On the other hand, a piano quartet I just converted from Sibelius required quite a bit of correction using the same map. And the Rameau works quite nicely,
The decision on how to use the note length features is inevitably a compromise and what counts is being able to quite easily override the programming when the wrong articulation is chosen by the automation. Your approach, Kai, is more sophisticated than mine and does indeed take advantage of some VI specific features.
Although in theory, both versions of the solo strings have much the same samples, my impression is —from having used VI exclusively in Sibelius – that a different sound is often produced. My guess is this is mainly down to the articulations chosen. Synchron is more straightforward if arguably still less powerful. Of course the decision on VelX fade on or off is very important and we’ve discussed this earlier.
Yes, since so far the note length is the only criterium to automatically select playing techniques there are unfortunately inevitably still cases where this does not work well, yet. Therefore, at this point manual adjustments are still necessary in some cases.
And as your example shows, there are also definitely some cases where less (articulation switching) is more . Another example is legato over large intervals in a vivid score which is easily too much for any legato algorithm (even though a good player won’t have any problem). In such cases it would e.g. actually sound better to use non-legato samples. With the appropriate conditions (i.e. in this case speed & note interval) such shortcomings of current libraries could automatically be patched.
I know it is always easy to write something like this, but to implement such conditions sounds feasible (the most important ones are probably the speed of the score, the interval between the current and the previous/next note, or whether a note is part of a number of consecutive notes of the same pitch, where the number would ideally be selectable). I am sure, this will eventually be done and I am looking forward to Dorico 4.
Having these options will undoubtedly allow us to improve all this in the future. And the great thing is that the VSL still contains lots of variations (that are not automatically used, yet) to do this.
Velocity X-fade is standardly activated by now. You wrote before that you use a scaled velocity X-fade curve in your case (which could be partly the reason why your version is also louder) and this is also a good idea to improve things in the future.
Here is one more Dorico demo score (Akinola / Dorico Prelude) played with the Articulate Map. In contrast to the previous scores, this score requires a full orchestra (Orchestral Strings, Woodwinds 1, Brass 1 & 2, Percussion and Harp; Teldex) and also uses special playing techniques, like con sordino, harmonics, … . It is again played out of the box with the Articulate Map (merely the percussion had to be reassigned, since the score was unfortunately using a non-standard way to access percussion instruments):
Here is again the HSO version for comparison:
I think this score is a good example that the different MIRx venues all have their merits and for a large orchestra the Vienna Orchestra Hall can add realism. In this version also the standardly unassigned keyboard track in the score is assigned to the VSL Harpsichord:
thanks for your interesting comments. Just a small clarification on scaled dynamics using a secondary controller. Because using Velocity X-fade tends to give a much greater dynamic range, my idea is to have a higher minimum CC11 so certainly the quieter dynamics are indeed boosted. But the louder passages should be fairly similar.
Thanks for the helpful clarification. I am sure that a minimum on CC11 works better in most cases, but as you write it reduces the dynamic range and in some cases the full range is needed (very quiet passages, fade in/outs). A controller curve in VI pro / Synchron Player would be another way to achieve the same boost without actually reducing the dynamic range.
the dynamic range is still there if you need it. There’s nothing to stop you going in and manually dragging CC11 down to zero. It’s just I find scaling it makes for better results overall with fewer overrides required.
I did briefly experiment with Synchron controller curves but didn’t find they particularly work for me but it’s certainly another tool in our armoury.
Hi Kai, I just added the solo strings package, but when I load a solo instrument it still loads a single player from dimension strings, rather than solo strings. What am I doing wrong?
Tanks!
Hello,
if you select the corresponding Playback Template (“VSL Articulate Presets Strings S”) and press “Apply and Close” the score should be played by the instruments in the Solo Strings library instead.
In case you are trying to combine them into a common Playback Template, the Endpoint Configuration that appears first in the list has priority. I.e. if you want to use the Solo Strings you have to move the corresponding Endpoint Configuration (“VSL Strings S”) to the upper position.
I hope this helps. If not, just send me a PM and I can explain this in more detail.
All the best
Kai
Yes, thanks. Just realized it was the order of the endpoints.
These templates are absolutely amazing and Kai has been really helpful in working with me on the playback of string harmonics. Bravo to Symphonic Riot!
thanks so much, really appreciated !
We have just released the completely revised version 2 of the Dorico Articulate Map and new Playback Templates for all Articulate Presets packages. They contain significant improvements and lots of new features that take into account many helpful user suggestions. Due to all this the Dorico Articulate Map is with now over 1250 individual definitions (“switches”) very likely by far the most detailed Dorico Expression Map ever created. This makes the automatic playback more realistic and gives you even more opportunity to shape the playback according to your ideas. Due to all the new features there is basically nothing that you could do in a DAW but cannot do with the Articulate Map in Dorico.
Now that the VSL has finally released the Synchron Stage MIRx extension this makes the extensive Vienna Instruments series (most of which is already covered by the Articulate Map) fully compatible with the Synchron Series! But the VI Series allows you in addition to use any of the many, markedly different MIRx venues. To celebrate the MIRx Synchron venue release the VSL offers large discounts on all Vienna Instrument libraries this month … and we have accordingly likewise extended our introductory price until end of March.
Last but not least, there is a special treat for Dimension Strings users:
The new sul ponticello articulations, that have been released only recently, are already fully included in the section version of the Articulate Presets for Strings D. In addition to full auto-divisi, they allow you to continuously control the bowing position all the way from sul ponticello to sul tasto. We took particular care to make this transition smooth and realistic and are very happy how well this works with these great new samples.
If you are a user of the Dimension Strings Bundle and haven’t even heard about these new sounds, simply go to the VSL web page and download them for free !
Finally here are the detailed changes in the Articulate Map and the Playback Templates…
New Features:
- many new playing techniques have been introduced to make it easier to control the playback (e.g. individual portato versions)
- the different recorded speeds of interval, repetition and repetition dynamics performance playing techniques (that are standardly automatically selected by speed control in VI pro) can now be individually selected by new playing techniques (slow, med., fast)
- in addition to the convenient auto-divisi it is now also possible to access all individual groups and desks/players in Dimension libraries by dedicated score symbols
- in the Dimension Strings individual player presets the section control symbols now allow you to access the individual strings
- and even in the convenient Dimension Strings section presets with auto-divisi all the individual strings (1-4 and open) are now conveniently accessible for most articulations (everything included in the standard library) in both standard and muted playing styles via dedicated score symbols
- there are now also Endpoint Configurations for the Vienna Imperial Grand Piano and the Harpsichord included in selected Playback Templates, so that you can easily activate them if you are a user of these VSL keyboard instruments
- now even additional custom matrices are accessible in Dorico - e.g. for project-specific matrices to adapt phrases, interval patches, … to the tempo of your score via VI pro’s flexible time-stretching
- all new sul ponticello-articulations are fully included in the Strings D section presets
Improvements:
- all symbols that are used to control the playback in detail can now be hidden since they do not use articulations (like staccato or legato) anymore (nevertheless many combinations of articulations that might arise in a score are still automatically handled appropriately)
- special playing styles of the strings, like sul ponticello, sul tasto, harmonics, half-harmonics and muted harmonics, are played back more realistically owing to five distinct versions for “natural” notes that are chosen based on the note length
- marcato is now more consistent and uses for the strings the sampled espressivo versions
- velocity X-fade is now standardly activated (and can easily be deactivated)
- second instruments for Timpani and Glockenspiel as well as several replacement instruments have been added to the Playback Templates to handle situations in which not even the vast VSL libraries include them (e.g. Tuba, Wagner Tuba, Bass Trombone, Piccolo and Timpani sections are played now by the corresponding solo instruments).
- Playback Templates are now even more configurable depending on the VSL content you own, for instance Strings S, Strings D and Brass D include now separate Endpoint Configurations for solo instruments and sections in order to conveniently mix different libraries (e.g. use solo instruments from Strings S and sections from Strings D)
Bug Fixes:
- the size of the instrument section does not change with the note length anymore and many Articulate Presets matrices have been updated to achieve this
- tenuto playback has been fixed so that tenuto notes do not cut short anymore even in slower movements
- harmonics, which are mapped in a non-standard way in VSL patches, are fixed now in the Expression Map and are played at the correct pitch
- wrong volume setting for a few presets have been fixed
Looking forward to using the updated product.
In addition to the completely revised update for all supported libraries (see above) we have now also released Articulate Presets for Large Orchestra,
covering all residual libraries of the standard version of the VSL Symphonic Cube - and much more (in particular all Vienna Instruments string libraries aside from the already covered Dimension Strings).
Therefore, all Articulate Presets are now available in both a full and a standard library version, each of which is fully optimized to play back your Dorico scores with the set of playing techniques included in the corresponding library. Taking into account the current VSL discounts, this gives you access to the world’s largest orchestral sample database and strongly improves the quality of your score playback at an incredible price.