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9/10/11 4:56 AM
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Background Divide & Conquer Wait, Theres More ART Imitating Life LA Scoring Sound Summing Up True Divisi: A Holy Grail? Audiobro LA Scoring Strings $1099 pros
Incredible-sounding string library. Easy to use. The Automatic Rhythm Tool could be a game changer.
LA Scoring Strings hopes to set itself apart from the competition with clever devices that make it both more realistic and more user-friendly.
David Ricard
ou wrote that? my wife asked, after hearing the results of my toying around with LASS for about half an hour. That sounds really good. Did you really write that? she added. In a way, that sort of sums up my experience with LASS, but since Sound On Sound doesnt print two-sentence reviews, Im going to have to elaborate.
cons
Background
No hard copy of the manual LASS is the brainchild of Andrew Keresztes, an accomplished film composer who or printable cheat sheet. was frustrated with the current crop of string libraries and decided to do something Its quite pricey.
summary
Whether youre attracted to the true legato, the real divisi, The Auto Rhythm Tool or the first-chair players feature, LA Scoring Strings is currently the king of the hill when it comes to string-section libraries. information $1099 from the Audiobro web site. Click here to email www.audiobro.com
about it. While most of us would sit back and wait for technology to catch up with our ever-increasing demands, Mr Keresztes hired a string orchestra, booked time at an LA film scoring stage, and created a string library that overcomes many of the limitations of other libraries, while implementing several innovative ideas of its own. LA Scoring Strings, or LASS (thank heaven for acronyms), is installed from six dual-layer DVDs, takes up about 40 gigabytes of hard drive space, and uses the ubiquitous Native Instruments Kontakt player. Now 40GB of samples is a good chunk of hard-drive real-estate, but when you take into account that it includes both 16- and 24-bit versions of the library, its actually a pretty efficient usage of samples.
Test Spec
LA Scoring Strings v1.1. Apple Logic 8.02. Apple Mac with dual quadcore Intel Xeon CPU (2 x 2.8 GHz), 6GB RAM, Mac OS 10.5.7. Samples streamed from internal serial-ATA drive.
The manual for LASS is in PDF format, is well written and explains LASSs unique features quite capably. I would have liked a hard copy to peruse away from the computer, or at least a chart with the MIDI controller info and possibly quick how-to guides. I ended up copying and pasting excerpts from the manual to create my own version of a one-sheet reference to print out. While this is a minor issue, in view of LASSs price tag I think something more substantial than a PDF is in order.
LASS is a deep sample library. Fortunately, a fair amount of information is visible from each instruments window and is specific to that particular articulation.
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So many great film scores get their eeriness from strings playing harmonics, but GLOSSARY: technical terms most libraries overlook harmonics, or include a throwaway patch or two. Each explained LASS section (and sub-section) contains very usable harmonic patches. The same can be said for its sordino (muted strings) WIN Great Prizes in SOS patches, which offer yet another palette of sound.
Competitions!
Whether youre dividing the sections into sub-sections, as pictured, or using the full instrument patches, instantiating multiple Auto Rhythm Tools add a tremendous amount of movement and colour to your string arrangements.
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LA Scoring Sound
This is probably a good time for me to address the big question and let you know how LASS sounds: exceptional. I was glad to hear that the library has a dry overall sound without much ambience, allowing for more definition in phrasing. The strings themselves sound pristine and smooth, while the shorter articulations possess a slight grit to their attack. I own a few string libraries, but I dont think Ill be using any of them in the foreseeable future. LASS covers everything very well, even as a solo instrument. The other major libraries have some big things in the works, but they would have to really hit it out of the park to touch LASS, which is outstanding and ready now. I had to adjust how I set up my composing template while using LASS: since it doesnt use keyswitching (you can set up keyswitching easily enough in Kontakt), I needed to load more tracks than I normally would. I used LASS to, quite quickly, write thriller-sounding movie music. I also used it to write soaring romantic cues with tremendous results. One of the side effects of LASSs true divisi is that you start to think more like an orchestral composer. I havent always given much thought to how I would divide a chord in a section, and now its something I ponder way too much.
Summing Up
The great thing about LASS is that in spite of it doing so many complicated things and doing them so well and with incredible control it is very easy to use. If youve read any of my past reviews, youll know that I can get a little overwhelmed with a lot of options. But with all of LASSs control features, the learning curve is more like a speed bump. Im not a gusher when it comes to sound libraries. Theres typically a ratio of how good it sounds to how easy it is to use that determines my rating. But I have to gush about LASS. It sounds fantastic, its easy to use and best of all, it inspires to me to compose. If string writing is a major or even a minor part of your music production make-up, and you can afford it, get LASS. You will not be disappointed. If you cant afford it... figure something out and get LASS. You wont be disappointed. True Divisi: A Holy Grail? When I first heard about LASS and that its big claim was true divisi at last, I had to chuckle and roll my eyes a bit. Most of the composers I know dont care if the string sections are dividing accurately or not. Many of them load up a string patch and play chords. For them, bigger is better, so having more notes on a divisi is excellent. But then I thought about it for a minute. Yes, your divisis are bigger, but now your unisons are smaller in relation to them. Thats not ideal. The other case for true divisi: film composers need to play accurate mock-ups for directors before they record an orchestra, so that there are no surprises on the scoring stage. Thats a fair point. However, the trend nowadays is to record orchestras in sections and, in many cases, overdub the strings once or twice or three times. So your true divisi is irrelevant, right? Not so fast. It all comes down to ratios and if the composer wants half the cellos playing Bb and a quarter of the cellos playing D and the last quarter playing G, then thats how the notes need to be distributed, no matter how many times the section is doubled. But the great thing about true divisi is this: before LASS, if I wanted my violas, for instance, to all be playing an F, I would call up the viola section and play F. I might add some nuance with expression, and that would be it. Now, however, thanks to LASS, I load up the two three-player sections and the six-player section and do the same thing as before only this time to each sub-section and the part really comes alive. Add the first chair and youre all set. Verdict: true divisi is not a trivial matter.
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