Opinions on the best string libraries. Is Spitfire Albion?

We have been thinking about buying Spitfire’s Albion One and Two… but cannot decide whether we really need it or not, or what it will offer that our current setup doesn’t. We have VSL, Vienna Ensemble Pro, and have just started a monthly subscription to EW Hollywood Strings. The EW libaries are astoundingly good from what I’ve heard so far. We do love the Vienna libraries too, and appreciate the flexibility they offer, but I had been layering them with Epic (VEP) and some really old stuff from Sonic Implants. The blend was to me, just ok, so my plan is to replace Epic and Sonic Implants with the EW string sections. Whatever we choose, we need to be able to change the attacks on individual notes in a track, which is what VSL and EW allow us to do.

It’s just hard finding objective unbiased reviews. Maybe we don’t need another library … I just wouldn’t mind hearing from people who are in a position to compare Albion to VSL and EW.

Thanks :slight_smile:

LA Scoring Strings 2.5 is still the best and most malleable sound string library I think. Spitfire’s baked in reverb makes it more difficult to blend with other libraries.

Thanks. I’m glad you mentioned the reverb. I don’t know why they do that. I can’t see that its of any practical use to have that kind of detail decided for you in advance. I’ll definitely take a look at LASS. Hubs has been talking about them after reading reviews. I’ll see how it goes with VSL and EW before making any major decisions but if we do get a third library I would like it to be LASS.