Is LA Scoring Strings out of tune?

I was thinking of getting this library, but a composer told me the library was out of tune and he knew people that had to stop using it. Can anyone that uses this library give me some insight on this?

thanks for the help

Hi Stenzer,

As a very early adopter of the strings I can give you a basic rundown of what's happened.

LASS has some patches that are not perfectly and consistently in tune — some notes bend to the correct pitch slightly. This is intentional and is only really noticeable when you're using the divisi sections separately. The intent is to preserve the natural imperfections inherent in real performances, and so when you layer all the divisi sections together the effect is that the tuning is hidden but there's that magical realism and organic feeling to the strings that simply isn't present in any of the other far more manicured string libraries. Furthermore, the 1.1 update has significantly tightened up the tuning so that now it's really only problematic with a few patches when played completely alone (rather than layered, as intended).

So in short the library is not "out of tune"; rather, it is left very much unprocessed (there was no auto-tuning, or other typical corrective processes done to the raw samples) so that you get the absolute most flexibility in terms of reproducing realistic performances, warts and all. If you're looking for a pristine, manicured set of sounds, VSL or EWQL's new Hollywood Strings are probably the place to look. LASS' legato is extremely convincing though, so keep that in mind as you make your decisions. The short articulations are also marvelously aggressive.

Hey Stenzer,

What can I say, Marius pretty much hit it right on the spot. You have to understand that most patches from other companies are mathematically "perfect." That is to say that everything is tuned perfectly to concert pitch or A440 blah blah. Also, every interval from that is tuned with exact mathematical precision, which of course as stated above, does not give a realistic sound since no string players play with perfect mathematical pitch even 50% of the time-much less 100%. Also the recordings were done very "dry." This means that while some companies use extensive reverb to make up for realism, LASS gives you a realistic interpretation. Of course in a live recording/scenario there is the overtone series that you must take into account, which will create an infinite amount of "mixed" textures depending on the space size, decay, etc. Of course if there is a patch that sounds "out of tune" and you are not mixing it with any ensemble, just use the tuning feature on the patch itself. I'm just barely scratching the surface with what this program is capable of, but so far I am astounded at the realism and expression. Also, if you plan on using it-read the manual. I can't stress that enough. There are so many features on how to mix and match patches and advanced functions that could easily be overlooked. Anyways, I hope these reviews help you in your decision.

Happy Scoring!