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Hi David, have you checked out IK’s philharmonik

Hi, Mario.

Yes, I've got it - thanks for reminding me! I picked up the light version on the $15 deal some time back, and then convinced myself I needed to upgrade to the full version. I don't remember the price, but it wasn't too bad.

It's a nice sounding violin... Probably good enough for what I'd be using it for. I've seen a lot of posts where people refer to it, so I wonder if I'm underestimating it. Both the VIOLIN 1 LP and the VIOLIN 2 LP have (to my ears) painfully obvious loop points. But the unlooped VIOLIN 1 is actually quite nice.

To be honest, I'm not sure I need a solo violin... I was just wondering if people had experience with any of the libraries, and could shed some light. It's hard to make a decision based on an audio demo, because you can't tell the limitations of the sound.

Plus, I thought I should mention that Kirk Hunter's stuff is half off.

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I used to use the smaller classic edition of the philharmonik but I purchased Kirk Hunters Diamond Orchestra when it went on sale for half price.

How are the solo strings in that library? It looks like it includes the Solo Strings 1. I was tempted to purchase that and live with Kontakt's "demo mode" timing out every 15 minutes. But with the KH half-off sale, the Pop Rock Strings are a bit more attractive, since the work with the Kontakt Player.

But I don't know how playable his solo strings are...

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Another more expensive option is to buy the full Kontakt.

Sadyly, that's outside my budget right now.

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I would not buy a sound set that has vibrato built in.

I assume that adding vibrato is a function of the library? If you use a simple sine wave as an LFO, it'll sound weird. A violin player starts on pitch, rolls the fingerpad away to bring the note under pitch, and then back to pitch again.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?