TOP 10 VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS (VST) FOR MAKING MUSIC (ROCK,POCK,METAL,R'N'B,JAZZ,BGM)

1. Guitars 

Ample Sound AGT

Virtual Instrument based on Samples of a Taylor 714 Acoustic Guitar

Ample Guitar T is a virtual acoustic guitar which is based on samples of a Taylor 714 Acoustic Guitar. The Library has 4112 samples, all in 44.1 kHz and 24 bit recording quality. Furthermore Ample Guitar T offers all common playing varieties such as strumming, fingerpicking and much more. Another feature is the integrated tab player that can play all popular formats of Tabs.

Sampling:

• 4112 Samples, Size: 5.21 GB, 24bit 44.1khz
• DFD(Direct from disk)
• Multiple Stereo and Mono Modes.
• Any chords & any rhythms with real Strum Samples.
• Controllable Resonance.
• Rich Fingering Noise - more vivid and realistic.
• Strum, Pick two Instrument libraries to fit different needs.
• Each Cycle & Rhombic Sampling structure - Separate sample cycle for each note and vel layer to improve sample utilization efficiency.
• Sustain, Hammer On & Pull Off, Legato Slide, Slide in & out, Palm Mute, Popping, Natural Harmonic, Slide Guitar, Strum 11 articulations, Legato at random length & pitch & poly.

Technology:

• Support for MIDI guitars, users can get the same strings and positions, some articulations (slide and hammer on, pull off), and velocity with live playing a MIDI guitar .
• New and different GUI for extensions
• Improve "Open string first" feature.
• Add SYNC for Tab player.
• Capo Logic - Intelligent play according to guitar rules.
• Doubling Guitars - different samples at L & R.
• CPC(Customized Parameters Control) - any button knob etc can be controlled by MIDI CC or Automation.
• Poly Legato.
• Slide Smoother.
• Combined Articulation - combine 2 articulations via pressing 2 keyswitches at the same time.
• Poly Repeater.
• Open String First for playing arpeggio.
• Alternate Tuner.

The Tab Player can load and play several prevalent guitar tablature file formats. Users can load, display and playback any specific track inside a tablature file. When used in DAWs, the Tab Player also allows users to export the tablature as an audio file.

The Tab Player supports all the fingering, looping, chords, articulations and other markers in the loaded tablature. Supported articulations articulations include: Strum, Natural Harmonic, Artificial Harmonic, Hammer On/Pull Off, Trill, Bend, Tremolo Bar, Legato Slide, Slide In, Slide Out, Vibrato, Tremolo Picking, Palm Mute, Popping, Tapping, Let Ring, Staccato, Dead Note, Grace Note, Ghost Note, Accentuated Note, Fade In, etc.

As a built-in function, the Tab Player works seamlessly with the Ample Sound instrument engine, which has extremely customized guitar playing logic so as to model a real world guitar being played. The Tab Player can even judge on its own to automatically add some refining articulations when it thinks it is appropriate, such as slapping on strings or body, or other realistic and indispensable noises.

Strumming is an important factor of guitar playing. By taking advantage of the Ample Guitar Strummer engine, the Tab Player can not only mingle different articulations into strumming, but can also alternate between strumming several strings (i.e. multiple notes) simultaneously and strum at a particular string (i.e. one note).

Strummer:

• 14 Strum notes + 28 ways to play for every chord.
• Strum Legato - both Slide and HP can be played while strumming.
• Easy Strum Time Control via velocity.
• Body Resonance and Mute Depth.
• Total and Each Strum time, 4 humanization settings.
• Customized Chords in Select or Detect mode.
• Chord inversions to Positions.
• Strum SEQ with customized rhythm.

2. Electric Guitar

Ample Guitar P II

Ample Guitar P II is an Electric Guiar developed by Ample sound.Which gives you studio quality sound in your profession,

Sampling:

• 6422 Samples, Size: 4.7 GB, 24-bit 44.1kHz.
• DFD (Direct from disk).
• Rich Fingering Noise - more vivid and realistic.
• Bridge, Both (Neck pickup as an extension library) two Instrument libraries to fit different needs.
• Each Cycle & Rhombic Sampling structure - Separate sample cycle for each note and vel layer to improve sample utilization efficiency.
• Sustain, Hammer On & Pull Off, Legato Slide, Slide in & out, Palm Mute, Popping, Natural Harmonic, Slide Guitar, Strum 11 articulations, Legato at random length & pitch & poly.

Technology:

• Capo Logic - Intelligent play according to guitar rules.
• Doubling Guitars - different samples at L & R.
• CPC (Customized Parameters Control) - any button knob etc can be controlled by MIDI CC or Automation.
• Poly Legato.
• Slide Smoother.
• Combined Articulation - combine 2 articulations via pressing 2 keyswitches at the same time.
• Poly Repeater.
• Open String First for playing arpeggio.
• Alternate Tuner.
• Capo - Transpose without need to modify midi.

Riffer:

• String Roll Editor: can clearly show fingering, articulation, expression, and even playing noise. Every note has 8 attributes - pitch, velocity, length, off velocity, articulation, legato, vibrato and bend, with which you can make a delicate lick.
• Dice - Random Riff Generator: A click will create a new inspiration because it is not simply a random algorithm. Rather, it summarizes the rules through analyzing a bunch of music scores.
• Multiple Formats Conversion: The conversion between Riff, MIDI, Tab multiple formats, Every fingering, articulation, expression, humanizations will be automatically converted to MIDI keyswitch and controller.

Tab Player:

• The Tab Player can load and play several prevalent guitar tablature file formats. Users can load, display and playback any specific track inside a tablature file. When used in DAWs, the Tab Player also allows users to export the tablature as an audio file.
• The Tab Player supports all the fingering, looping, chords, articulations and other markers in the loaded tablature. Supported articulations articulations include: Strum, Natural Harmonic, Artificial Harmonic, Hammer On/Pull Off, Trill, Bend, Tremolo Bar, Legato Slide, Slide In, Slide Out, Vibrato, Tremolo Picking, Palm Mute, Popping, Tapping, Let Ring, Staccato, Dead Note, Grace Note, Ghost Note, Accentuated Note, Fade In, etc.
• As a built-in function, the Tab Player works seamlessly with the Ample Sound instrument engine, which has extremely customized guitar playing logic so as to model a real world guitar being played. The Tab Player can even judge on its own to automatically add some refining articulations when it thinks it is appropriate, such as slapping on strings or body, or other realistic and indispensable noises.
• Strumming is an important factor of guitar playing. By taking advantage of the Ample Guitar Strummer engine, the Tab Player can not only mingle different articulations into strumming, but can also alternate between strumming several strings (i.e. multiple notes) simultaneously and strum at a particular string (i.e. one note).

Strummer:

• 14 Strum notes + 28 ways to play for every chord.
• Strum Legato - both Slide and HP can be played while strumming.
• Easy Strum Time Control via velocity.
• Two ADSR Modes - Body Resonance and Mute Depth.
• Total and Each Strum time, 4 humanization settings.
• Customized Chords in Select or Detect mode.
• Chord inversions to Positions.
• Strum SEQ with customized rhythm.
• Delicate presets with Drag & Drop Support.

3. Bass Guitar

Scrabee Rickenbaker Bass

Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass is one of the newest products from Native Instruments and is also included in the new Komplete 9 Ultimate that has just been released as well. It is modeled on the Rickenbacker 4003 Bass and for the first time, this is an instrument that has been officially approved by Rickenbacker.

The Rickenbacker Corporation has been around since 1932, was the first to produce electric guitars, and by 1957 began producing bass instruments with the introduction of the 4000 series. The 4003 line was introduced in 1980 and is still in production today. With its distinctive sound, this Rickenbacker bass has been used by such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, John Entwistle of the Who, Chris Squire of Yes, and Geddy Lee of Rush

Ample Bass Yinyang II

Ample Sound Yinyang Bass has an incredible sounding set of samples. And a nice broad palette of articulations accessed by a simple and elegant key switching system. The interface is set up with five panels, designed to easily access all the sound shaping features and parameters.

Panels

Noises, playing techniques, envelopes, and articulation switching is handled on the Main Panel. The Tab Panel is used to bring in preset patterns for Ample Bass Yinyang II to play. There are a variety of functions here to manage the files, as well as control their feel and timing. The FX Panel provides a variety of useful stomp box effects. The Edit Panel is used to tweak the tuning and level of each sample individually, Something I didn’t find necessary to do; it sounds great with the factory settings. And finally the Settings Panel is used to manage content, presets, MIDI settings, sample cycling, and master controls.

4. Drums

Superior Drummer 3 

Superior Drummer 3 yields endless choices for honing, shaping, and molding drums. Over 230GB of raw sounds were captured at Galaxy Studios by the legendary George Massenburg. There's also drag-and-drop support for individual or third-party samples. SD3's mixer provides advanced routing and control over individual mic bleed, and it's loaded with 35 top-tier studio effects. And with integrated audio-to-MIDI conversion, Superior Drummer 3 provides powerful drum replacement and augmentation. Finding the right groove is easy, thanks to advanced search functions, and you can build and arrange full drum tracks without leaving the program. Complete with custom drum graphics, a scalable interface, and detachable windows, Toontrack's Superior Drummer 3 is the final word in drum production.

Award-winning engineer George Massenburg recorded the sounds in Superior Drummer 3 at Galaxy Studios in Belgium. He utilized Galaxy Hall (the studio's main multi-purpose room), which is renowned for its near-perfect acoustics. Over 230GB of raw, unprocessed sounds were captured with 11 surround microphones for playback in stereo and up to 11.1 surround. Massenburg used nothing but world-class gear, including mics from Neumann, Sennheiser, Ehrlund, Beyerdynamic, AEA, Sanken, and Schoeps.

The mixer in Superior Drummer 3 is loaded with 35 studio-quality insert effects, so you can process your drums before they hit your DAW. Create groups, buses, routing, and sends exactly like you would with a hardware mixer. A wide variety of presets are available for all included kits, and you have complete control over mic bleed and more. You can even save your own custom instruments, including third-party samples and drum stacks.

5. Grand Piano

Old Black Grand By Kontakt

Everybody keeps on sampling the best and cleanest piano ever! here is a completely different approach. We sampled an old Pleyel Grand Piano (F-71240 model from 1928) with vintage gear like a studer console and tube microphones, it has the rich and warm sound of the old jazz/blues or even classical music recordings.

• The release Volume: the sound produced when you release a key if a note was going on.
• The Key Noises: the sound produced when you release a key and no corresponding sustain was played.
• The Pedal Noise: the sound produced when you press or release the pedal, it adds a lot to the realism.
• The Tone: a simple way to make the piano sound brighter or darker.
• The sostenuto CC, also called the middle pedal. You can sustain selected notes, while other notes remain unaffected.
• The polyphony. If you lower the buffer or simply want to be light on CPU, then increase or lower this value.
• The Reverb. We use a convolution reverb and you can adjust the dry and wet parts separately as well as choose from a large selection of high quality Impulse Responses.
• Round Robin. We added a software round robin feature for the users that need to play repetitive pieces.

• The release Volume: the sound produced when you release a key if a note was going on.
• The Key Noises: the sound produced when you release a key and no corresponding sustain was played.
• The Pedal Noise: the sound produced when you press or release the pedal, it adds a lot to the realism.
• The Tone: a simple way to make the piano sound brighter or darker.
• The sostenuto CC, also called the middle pedal. You can sustain selected notes, while other notes remain unaffected.
• The polyphony. If you lower the buffer or simply want to be light on CPU, then increase or lower this value.
• The Reverb. We use a convolution reverb and you can adjust the dry and wet parts separately as well as choose from a large selection of high quality Impulse Responses.
• Round Robin. We added a software round robin feature for the users that need to play repetitive pieces.

6. Synthsizers

Nexus 2 reFX

Nexus 2 has EXTREMELY high quality sounds, full of rich warmth, and will bring a noticable difference to the catchiness and quality of your productions.

Now, Nexus 2 is not your average VST. It’s a ROMpler, meaning that you are not able to create sounds from scratch. You can take their sounds and tweak knobs, add effects etc. to create your own sounds, but they don’t give you oscillators to start from RAW sound.

This VST has a massive amount of sounds which are ready to use and just great. The FX sound incredible as well. However, it has very little ability to tweak sounds, which means it's harder to get something unique. The fact that it's sample based also means you're relying on presets completely although great sounding expansions keep on coming out. Basically I feel that it's great for getting into the feel for a track but then switching to something a little more versatile for some parts of a track.

Codex

Waves Codex is a cutting-edge polyphonic synthesizer based on an advanced granular wavetable engine and powered by Waves’ Virtual Voltage technology. Designed to create sounds that range from warm acoustic and analog emulations to completely new, never-before-heard intricate and evolving textures, Codex’s sound design capabilities put infinite possibilities at your fingertips.

The Codex synth comes with hundreds of original sound presets, but also lets you import your own audio files, turn them into wavetables and manipulate them as you like. Thanks to its advanced formant control technology, Codex maintains consistent resonance character that is true to the original signal and gives you direct control over the acoustic resonance of the sound. Codex also innovatively uses a high-resolution FFT-based automatic interpolation technology that results in extraordinarily smooth morphing as you sweep through wavetables.

The original design of Codex’s oscillators, combined with the dynamic visual display of the synth’s waveforms, allows you to create very complex sounds with very simple settings – all this before you even start adding the bells and whistles of the built-in modulators, effects and arpeggiator/sequencer!

Combining analog subtractive synthesis components with an intuitive layout, Codex lets you easily customize existing presets or build custom patches from the ground up. And thanks to the user-friendly single-page GUI, everything is laid out conveniently in front of you so that the entire patch can be seen at all times, freeing you to focus on what matters most – your creativity.

7. Voilin 

8Dio Solo Violin Designer 1.0

SOLO VIOLIN DESIGNER Virtual Instrument VST is a massive collection of over 4.000 phrases performed by renowned concert violinist: Thomas Yee. The intention of the library was to sample completely realistic solo violin by creating an incredible collection of musical phrases. We programmed the library in a way that gives you maximum control over the phrases and literally allows you to sculpt 100% realistic solo violin performances. It was deliberately designed to support, augment and in some cases replace existing solo violin libraries. Essentially this library takes over where normal multi-samples (ex. legato, sustains) can’t perform. This is what we call deep phrase-sampling.

SOLO VIOLIN DESIGNER comes with a variety of phrase sculpting tools, including pitch-control, time-stretching / time-compression, sample offset (which allows you to “scroll” into any phrase and trigger any part of it, FX  and convolution reverbs. The pitch-control is not affected by tempo, so by controlling pitch, time-stretching/compression and sample offset you can essentially adapt the phrase to match the pitch and tempo of your composition.

In addition we added a variety of other features. You can control the dynamics, attack and releases of each sample. You can control the EQ (high, mids and lows), Gates and Filter. You can also control a variety of FX directly from the keyboard, including bit-resolution, delay, reverb, distortion, rotator and we added a beefy collection of custom convolution reverbs.

Important Note: SOLO VIOLIN DESIGNER is phrase-based. If you want multi-sampled violin please check out our Adagio Violins, which contains round robin legato based Solo Violin.

8. Horns

Session Horn Pro

Section Building
Three file types are available. Performance, Key Switch and Solo. The Performance folder features phrases and sound sets for a variety of different genres. For example, the Full Horns patch contains two trumpets, two tenor saxophones, a baritone sax and a tenor trombone – a fairly large setup with a powerful modern sound.

Vintage Horns, on the other hand, features a Stax/Motown-style section of two trumpets plus tenor sax and baritone saxophones. Unlike the more basic Session Horns, customised sections can also be built from the ten available instruments, which includes a tuba.

If you’re a good keyboard player the horn sections can be played polyphonically, which triggers all the selected instruments. However, this can sound muddy if too many notes are played at once. A better bet might be to use the so-called Smart Voice Setup, which distributes the voices realistically among the notes played.

Within a four-note chord the lowest determines the lower range instruments, trombone for example, the next highest controls the instruments with the next highest pitch range, and so on. Add a fifth note and one of the existing notes will be replaced according to the pitch range of the new note. It works brilliantly and should prove a significant time saver, particularly if your brass arranging skills are limited.

True polyphonic legato is available, too, for even more realism. Monophonic legato is also an option, of course, along with a choice of two velocity-controlled keyswitches – enough for general playing and subsequent editing if necessary.

Riffs and Licks
An upgraded Animator phrase library remains, and, with 200 or so ready-to-play riffs, should prove useful to many. It’s a good feature but obtaining satisfactory results by fitting prerecorded horn phrases around an existing song melody isn’t always easy.

The phrases are editable; for example, you can alter the start points and lengths, but we found playing them on a keyboard and switching notes a bit clumsy. However, we switched to a DAW and drew the changes needed in the piano roll, and used this way they have considerable creative potential.

9. Orchestial Instruments

Symphony Essentials - Collection 

The second instalment of Native Instruments’ Symphonic Series of orchestral instruments, String Ensemble, follows hot on the heels of the impressive Brass Collection. While the standard practice is to use the same creative team, orchestra and recording venue across such a series, this is not the case with these two libraries. Brass Collection was recorded at St Paul’s church in San Francisco by sample maestros Soundiron, whereas String Ensemble (henceforth referred to as SE) comes from the hallowed halls of Audiobro. Why hallowed? Because Audiobro are the very same company responsible for LA Scoring Strings (LASS), considered by many to be one of the finest sampled string libraries in the business.

So, is SE a redux of LASS for the masses? Well, no — SE is crafted from new recordings done in Budapest, whereas LASS was recorded on an LA scoring stage. Does it matter that the strings and brass are playing in venues 6100 miles apart? Considering that a good many people mix and match orchestral libraries from disparate sources, then probably not — as long as it sounds good. And given SE’s provenance, expectations will be unsurprisingly high.

Rosins To Be Cheerful

Maintaining consistency across the series, SE employs the same stately black and gold GUI as the Brass libraries, and barring some conceptual differences, the same operational paradigms. Content is arranged quite simply into five presets: one each for violins, violas, cellos and basses, plus a full ensemble preset that presents the whole string orchestra laid out across the keyboard range. The latter is useful for sketching ideas or laying down basic pads, and provides a quick and easy way to create tutti stabs, runs and more. Each section preset contains everything needed to access articulations, control legato, portamento and repetitions, select section size and, perhaps most interestingly, a system for managing divisi parts, more on which later.

The main performance page, with the full complement of 30 violin players loaded. The legato articulation is selected, Auto Divisi and legato portamento/transitions are active.The default method of changing articulations is via keyswitches. However there’s also the option to use velocity switching or a MIDI controller instead. The latter method has the advantage of chasing MIDI, and is best for producing clean notation scores without those unwanted ‘rogue’ keyswitch notes. Articulation mapping is fully customisable, so you can load only the articulations you need, saving RAM and reducing subsequent loading times.

The mixer provides control of on/off status, and volume and panning of the stereo pre-mix and close, mid and far microphones. Global effects are three-band parametric EQ, compression and convolution reverb. The reverb boasts 104 impulses, most of which were specially created for SE by Audiobro, including four ‘cinematic’ ambiences. A handy Transfer Settings feature allows easy copying of the Mixer settings across all sections — as long as they reside in the same Kontakt instance.

All GUI knobs, sliders and switchable functions on the Performance and Mixer pages can be assigned to MIDI controllers, making it easy to adjust parameters such as attack time, portamento speed or EQ on the fly. The process of setting up of all these functions is identical to the Brass Collection library, the details of which are covered in the Brass Collection review in the March 2016 edition of SOS.

Divide & Conquer

The inclusion of divisi sections in SE is a luxury usually reserved for much larger libraries. It solves the issue of sample build-up typical in standard libraries where the number of players is multiplied by the number of notes played. Whereas other libraries require you to consider the need for divisi parts in advance and load separate divisi sections, SE sidesteps that forward planning with its Auto Divisi feature. Auto Divisi monitors your playing and distributes divisi parts appropriately between the number of players in a section, thereby keeping the section size constant. This is best illustrated by the violins. The default setup on loading is the full complement of first and second violins, a total of 30 players arranged into four layers: Violins I A and B sections, with eight players each, and Violins II A and B sections, with seven players each. They will all play a single note in unison. When two notes are played, they are distributed between Violins I A and B (16 players) and Violins II A and B (14 players). Three notes divide as 16/7/7, four notes as 8/8/7/7. You can add more notes, but as the four divisi sections are all busy, SE will simply add more players. While it’s considerate of SE not to restrict the maximum polyphony, sticking to a maximum of four-part divisi for the violins, and two-part for the violas (6/6), cellos (5/5) and basses (4/4), keeps things within the bounds of realism.

Furthermore, the legato and portamento transitions work polyphonically and are preserved between chords or movements within a chord, as long as adjacent notes fall within 40ms of each other. Outside that window they are treated as new, non-transitioned notes. Auto Divisi also works very cleverly with the sustain pedal. Hold down the pedal and keep it held down, play a note or chord, let go of the keys and move to the next chord — even change the number of notes — and Auto Divisi reassigns the voices automatically, at the same time guaranteeing all notes’ legato (or portamento) transitions are preserved.

The articulation assignment edit page, showing all available articulations for the violins.The Setup tab provides the means to determine the section sizes. Sometimes you want the more intimate sound of fewer players. Alternatively, you might wish to control the behaviour and dynamics of first and second (or the divisi A and B) section players individually. The Section Setups box lists the options available to each section and, again, the violins offer the greatest number of options, having more players at their disposal. So to have individual control over Violins I and II, load the violins preset twice, set one up to play only Violins I and the other to play Violins II. You can even load just the A or B divisi sections if you want precise control over every line. This is also great for creating a particularly intimate, transparent-sounding string section with a lower player count. When using just the A or B divisi sections, playing polyphonically simply adds more players, so it’s best to treat these as strictly monophonic parts. Turning off Auto Divisi makes sure they stay that way.

Articulations

Up to 10 articulations are provided for each section (see the ‘Articulations’ box to find out which apply to each section). The presets load with articulations pre-assigned to the eight keyswitch positions, but these can be customised to suit your purpose. Legato sustains are the main feature, with crossfading dynamic layers controlled by the mod wheel. Each layer has progressively increasing amounts of vibrato, giving a wide range of expressivity from gentle, silvery calm to satisfying ‘El Cid’ intensity, especially in the violins. If you prefer to control the amount of vibrato yourself, the Legato Vib Ctrl articulation provides a vibrato amount knob to which any MIDI CC can be assigned. Both of these articulations feature a portamento speed knob. The choice of legato or portamento transitions is controlled by velocity, with a user-adjustable changeover point.

Sordino Sus Vib brings the sweeter sound of muted strings. The absence of legato here requires careful playing or programming to avoid notes sounding disconnected, or ‘dropped’ players caused by excessive overlapping of notes when Auto Divisi is on. The same caveats apply to the Tremolo articulation, which sounds particularly good on cellos and basses, with laudably clear pitch definition on the latter. Trills (violins and violas only) come with four options: whole tone, half tone, major and minor. Major and minor trills conform to the key signature specified in the drop-down menu, making sure that the correct whole or half tone trill interval is played for any given note in that key. Unfortunately the choice of key signature can only be set via the GUI, so if you’re trilling in multiple keys, or need to be specific about melodic or harmonic minor scales, it’s better to assign the trill articulation to two different keyswitches — one set to whole, the other set to half, and switch between them as necessary.

The violins’ setup page, where the section size is selected. Having both first and second sections as well as divisi sections for each of these, the violins have the most sizing options.The Harmonics are delightfully spooky, laden with breathy rosin. These have an additional release time control, extending the normal release time to enable long, dreamy crossfades. The short articulations (staccato, spiccato and pizzicato) all provide round-robin samples (4x, 4x and 2x respectively). The staccato and spiccato 4x round robins can optionally cycle continuously or randomly. For all three short articulations, a Slam amount knob applies extra compression and gain compensation for a fatter, more in-your-face sound.

The Repetition feature (shorts only) is a convenient tool for executing parts that ‘chug’ along in strict tempo-sync’ed time, with three time-base options: 1/8th, 1/8th triplet, or 1/16th. There’s also a choice of three preset accent patterns or no accents — the latter allowing you to ‘ride’ your own accents on the mod wheel. The Repetition tool works effectively enough for the staccato and spiccato shorts, but is perhaps less successful on (or likely to be scored for) the pizzicatos. I do miss not having a marcato articulation for the violins, violas and cellos. However, a similar effect can be achieved by layering staccatos and legato sustains onto the same keyswitch.

Staccato, spiccato and pizzicato shorts all feature round robins and a tempo-sync’ed Repetition tool.Tempo-sync’ed octave runs always prove useful, and these come in major and minor variations — selectable, thankfully, by MIDI. At the time of writing there is an issue with their tempo-sync’ed playback speed; they run just a tad too fast, finishing just before the target beat. NI are currently looking into the matter, and will hopefully have corrected it by the time you read this review. The Bass section has two additional articulations not shared by the other sections — marcato and the aggressively snappy Bartok pizzicato. That’s a shame, as they would be welcome additions across the board.

Conclusion

There’s no denying the sumptuousness of sound produced by SE. It has a full, strident quality well suited to dramatic orchestral writing, yet it can equally be delicate and emotive. The Auto Divisi is especially well thought out and extremely welcome, as is the inclusion of both legato and portamento transitions. The ability to reduce the number of players is also a bonus, extending the applications of SE beyond the full-blown Hollywood approach.

While SE may not provide every articulation you could wish for, all the important and most useful ones are there — certainly enough to create a passable representation of a string score. No library is perfect. The legato transitions of the violins when playing ff could be smoother, and there are occasional notes that are duller or quieter than their neighbours (notably in the basses), but in that regard I’ve yet to hear a string library that didn’t suffer similarly to some extent.

Pricing may be an issue for some. SE is relatively expensive as a one-off purchase, although a crossgrade deal for owners of Komplete packages 2 to 10 offers a reduction of almost 50 percent. Audiobro’s experience and know-how have produced a classy string ensemble library, and at the crossgrade price, Native Instruments’ String Ensemble is definitely one for serious consideration.

10. Mandolin 

Instant Mandolin Guitar Intrument For Kontakt 

Welcome to 8DIO Instant Guitar Series – a studio collection of high-end deep-sampled electric instruments. This library contains both Mandolin Guitar Solo and Mandolin Guitar Strummer – allowing you to play completely realistic Mandolin guitar. The Solo and Strummer editions were recorded with the same instrument and amplifier, so they are 100% compatible and designed to be used together.

8Dio Mandolin Guitar Solo VST is a passionate, deep-sampled pristine sounding warm, vintage Mandolin. We recorded the Mandolin Guitar VST in great detail with both sustains and muted strings. We included hundreds of natural fret and release noises. In addition we also recorded natural strum samples, so you can play everything in a strummed fashion. 8Dio Mandolin Guitar comes with 15 core patches divided into natural, morphed and muted categories.  The morphed category blends with Mandolin Guitar with other instruments (ex. Grand Piano, Steel String Guitar, Analog Synths and more exotic type of instruments.

The Mandolin Strummer contains over 11.500 samples spread across 13 different chord types and 18 common rhythm types. All the chords and rhythms can seamlessly be blended using our x-legato technology. The X-legato system allows you to combine any chord and rhythm at any given time giving you an infinite amount of combinations. In addition the Mandolin Strummer is a round-robin based strum library, so even if you trigger the same chord/rhythm multiple times – you will get natural subtle variation. The Mandolin Strummer also contains a unique patch with motion picture inspired strums.Mandolin Strummer contains all the classic chords (ex. Major, Minor, Maj7, Min7, Dim7, 7 ) used in traditional songwriting, but also contains more elaborate chords (ex. Maj7B5, 13, Aug, Sus2, Sus4, 11, 7-5). The rhythm section is equally deep from traditional type of strum rhythms to more genre specific ones (ex. country, fingered arped, muted chugs). In addition we also recorded muted strums of all rhythms, which gives additional options to design new types of rhythms. Mandolin Strummer also contains intelligent fret noises and velocity based end chords, which allows you to make a natural ending to a chord progression by playing hard on keyboard.

We also integrated our Chaos FX 3.2 (ex. Stereo Delay, Verb, Screamer, Lofi, Dual-Convolution) into the patches, so you can trigger live FX on top of the patches by using key-switches. We also integrated a dual convolution reverb containing deep sets of both FX and normal based set of convolutions.