Endorsements
Sound on Sound - April 2010
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 you’ve read any of my past reviews, you’ll know that I can get a little overwhelmed with a lot of options. But
with all of LASS’s control features, the learning curve is more like a speed bump.
I’m not a gusher when it comes to sound libraries. There’s 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, it’s 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 can’t afford
it... figure something out and get LASS. You won’t be disappointed.
John Debney
Oscar™ nominated composer (The Passion of the Christ, Sin City and the upcoming Ironman 2)
“I have a myriad of tools at my disposal. None is more crucial to the creative process than the sonic quality of my mock-ups. Presenting to a director a fully orchestrated and realized demo is of paramount importance. LASS is a quantum leap forward in giving me the creative tools to produce realistic mock-ups of my cues. I love the new library and am already using it on two films. I recommend the library highly!”
Danny Elfman, Oscar™ nominated composer, (Milk, Good Will Hunting, Edward Scissorhands and the upcoming Alice in Wonderland)
“The LASS string library has been my newest addition to my orchestral sample library and has been a great help. Working now on the score to ‘Alice in Wonderland’, I find myself turning to the LASS library for many interesting and useful performance articulations and dynamics that I don't have with any other library. It’s proving to be very versatile and intuitive. I’m having a great time using the portamento which has always been a problem in the past, and is a large part of this score."
Trevor Horn
Grammy Award winning producer
“Fantastically useful in the studio! Sonically rich, detailed and expansive. LASS allows you to quickly access a range of articulations placing the focus firmly on creativity and not endless programing. Intuitive, simple to use and well thought out from a players perspective. Having strings of this quality at your fingertips is very, very powerful!”
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Oscar™ winning composer for Finding Neverland (2004)
“When I compose my scores, detail and expressive range are crucial. LA Scoring Strings with it's extensive divisi sections, first chair solo instruments and amazing scripts are unmatched in this regard.”
Kevin Kiner
Composer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, CSI:Miami, The Other Side of Heaven
“LA Scoring Strings are the main backbone of my scoring template. They especially get heavy use in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and these are the ONLY samples that can pull off those legit licks with stunning realism. This is what real strings sound like! No other library I own comes close to the realism and expressive emotion that the LA Scoring Strings give me.”
Danny Lux
Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, My Name is Earl, Ally McBeal, etc.
“LASS sounds fantastic and is more flexible than any previous library when it comes to assembling various size sections. If I want the violins to be a small section, large section, with a lot of vibrato, no vibrato, or any where in between I can create it with ease. The programming is exceptional, easy to use and the scripts are very unique.”
David Newman
Oscar™ nominated composer for Anastasia (Ice Age, Cat in the Hat...)
“Being able to have total speed control of the portamentos and glissandos in real-time is fantastic... especially when you can do it with different divisi sections! And another salient thing for me is the Spiccato string engine (the A.R.T script)... there is nothing like it on the market. LASS is a wonderfully organic sounding library and is part of my current template.”
Details
FREE SIBELIUS SOUNDSET
Audiobro has just announced that Sibelius Soundset's created by Jonathan Loving will be available on the Audiobro site for registered users. See the Audiobro forum for details.
SHIPPING
We give FREE FedEx two-day shipping in the U.S., and FREE FedEx International Economy worldwide. Please note: we're unable to ship to Germany and Japan. However, we do ship to the rest of the world.
FREE WHEN YOU PURCHASE FROM US:
When you order LASS from Alexander Publishing you get these benefits no other dealer offers: FREE Professional Orchestration 2A PDF (Orchestrating the Melody Within the String Section), The Spectrotone Chart, and now LASS Class videos and special support materials available only to Alexander Publishing customers (see Study Hall on the Alexander Site for current video listings).
HOW LASS IS ORGANIZED
LASS is organized by a series of ensembles, from full to small. Here’s the full orchestral ensemble.
LASS then breaks down into these divisi segments by section. The illustration shows a typical div a 2 breakdown.
You can also create smaller ensembles creating the size section needed or desired for the piece or cue you’re working on. To give you the ultimate string writer's tool kit, L.A. Scoring Strings also includes matching solo first chairs. So you have solo Violin 1, solo Violin 2, solo Viola, solo Cello and solo Bass (including pizzicato). With the First Chairs, you can have a soloist within the composition, you can layer the solo strings with the ensembles, and you can write for either a solo string quartet or quintet - all possible within a single library!
L.A. Scoring Strings Revolutionary Recording Approach
At the heart of its revolutionary sound are Real Legato performance sample patches and a unique “layered ensemble” approach. These ensembles were all recorded individually in a large film scoring studio. Because they’re made up of different players (avoiding the dreaded “same player” sound), they combine seamlessly to produce entirely cohesive small, medium, or large sections with the right divisi ratios.
LASS also features solo instruments performed by the section leaders. Rather than sounding like “guest soloists,” these instruments sound like the first chair players they actually are, blending perfectly with the sections they come from.
The players are recorded in position on the scoring stage and mixed in the traditional orchestral seating perspective, making it simple to get a magnificent string mix out of the box. Meanwhile we took the utmost care to ensure that the instruments can be panned anywhere with virtually no phasing problems should you need to do that.
And to make it easy to get just the right sound, all LASS patches and programming are consistent from the first chair to the full mix. If apart sounds right using the first chair patch, the same sequence will sound right with the full ensemble — no MIDI reprogramming required.
The result is unprecedented control over dynamics, performance, and section size.
Featured LASS Scripts (Note: These are just 3 of many scripts!).
LASS Real Legato — REAL legato performance samples — meticulously programmed and scripted for non-repetitive legato transitions and real-time control of legato articulations.
A.R.T. (Auto Rhythm Tool) — an advanced (yet simple to use) rhythm and accents script with humanization features.
Trill Script — the script intelligently triggers trills diatonically in any key with just 1 Key Switch.
Delay and Humanization — add delay and randomization to the timing of note playback.
CC Table — allows you to create your own volume curves for sustain and legato patches.
A.M.G. — Anti Machine Gun. Triggers alternate samples to avoid sample repetition.
Tuning Tool — allows you to create your own tuning table and add tuning randomization to patches.
LASS Version 1.1 Update Overview
After you’ve ordered LASS from Alexander Publishing, install it in your system, register it, then join the Audiobro forum.
Once you’ve joined the forum, you can then download and install the 1.1 update. Depending on your Internet speed, the complete updating process takes anywhere from 15-45 minutes.
Writes developer Andrew Keresztes, “This is a substantial update.. don't let the "1.1" fool you. Virtually every single patch has been updated.”
All patches now have full access to all user controllable scripts via tabs on front panel. You no longer have to go into edit mode (click on the monkey wrench) to access them.
The Tuning of all the legato ensemble patches and First Chair legato patches have been improved.
Auto Arranger Teaser Video
+ Click here for video
This video teaser gives you an introduction to the Auto Arranger — a feature exclusive to LA Scoring Strings that allows you to play chords and polyphonic lines and phrases… all the while splitting your chords into divisi sections or different instruments sections (if you prefer) and maintaining an accurate player count… as opposed to having the typical cumulative player count on chords as with other stringed sample libraries. This can be a huge time-saver as well as a VERY inspirational composing tool. Listen to how easily Auto Arranger tracks the voices and splits them into divisi parts while retaining all the legato/portamento/glissando articulations.
In this demo... all the divisi sections were on 1 midi channel to demonstrate what can be achieved in real-time on 1 midi track.
Spiccato Cellos and the A.R.T. script explained
+ Click here for video
This demo highlights LASS's unique A.R.T script that gives you the ultimate control over fast rhythmic patterns and accents. The demo is at 155 bpm to showcase the precision of the short articulations even with the larger stringed instruments. Hold down the sustain pedal and play a note...and you will hear A.R.T. You can read more about this amazing tool on page 25 on the LASS User Guide.
Various minor bug fixes and sample fixes.
The Delay and Humanization script has been updated with the following new features:
1. The Delay and Humanization script is now accessible from the front panel of the patch.
2. It's now possible to delay continuous controllers (CC's)
3. CC controlable On/Off
4. A CC Routing section has been added to route the most used CC's in LASS (1, 7, 11, 83) to any CC of your choice.
The A.R.T. script has been updated with the following new features:
1.A rhythm sequencer length of up to 32 steps.
2. A beat display that can be set to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 beats to help you create rhythms with ease.
3. The 'Slam” feature on all short articulation patches
4. The Seq Len knob now shrinks and grows the table to better represent the sequence length.
The Tuning Tool script has been updated with the following new features:
1.The Tuning Tool script is now accessible from the front panel of the patch.
The CC Table script has been updated with the following new features:
1.The CC Table script is now accessible from the front panel of the patch.
2.There are now 10 user presets for you own dynamic layer and volume curves
3.The default curve will never be lost.
4.There is a knob that will allow you to choose from different curves (Fig 5)
5.There is a smoothing knob that will even out any jagged table artifacts if you draw them in that way by accident.
System Specs
Minimum System Requirements
Mac: OS 10.4.x, G4 1.4 GHz or Intel® Core™ Duo 1.66 GHz, 1GB RAM
PC: Windows XP or Windows Vista (32 bit), Pentium or Athlon 1.4 GHz, 1GB RAM
Disk Space: 300MB free disc space, 40GB for complete installation, DVD drive capable of reading dual layered DVDs
Recommended System Requirements:
Alexander Publishing has spoken directly to the folks at Audiobro as to accurate system specs since what’s published in other places is info based on older CPUs from the Summer of 2009.
The recommended system spec today for L.A. Scoring Strings is no different than any of the current libraries. Whether Mac or PC you need either an i7 Quad Core or an 8-Core system.
For the Mac, there is an iMac i7 model capable of handling up to 16GB of RAM. The Mac Pro can handle up to 32GB of RAM.
On a PC, the motherboard determines the amount of RAM you can handle.
An i7 PC system capable of holding 24GB of RAM is available for a starting price of under $1100. As of today, May 26, 2010, an i7 930 CPU at 2.88Gz is what to look for.
The L.A.Scoring Strings library can be placed on one (1) 7200RPM drive (as many do) or on a single SSD Drive. For an SSD drive, we recommend either an 80GB drive (for today’s 40GB LASS) or a 150GB SSD drive to handle all the LASS updates through 2011 (which includes a complete Muted Strings Legato Library and and LASS 2.0 (an all new library with totally different material from the current LASS).
For RAM, we recommend 12GB - 16GB. More is always better because then you can load more articulations into RAM.
When running LASS on a separate farm system, you’ll need either Vienna Ensemble PRO (which enables you to connect the farm computer to your main sequencing system by LAN cable), or an audio card with MIDIoverLAN.
LASS is still available on Kontakt 3.5 native, however, if you’re planning a new system, or if you have an existing 64-bit system, we recommend you get Kontakt 4 and upgrade to the Kontakt 4.1 64-bit public beta which enables Kontakt to read all the memory on your system.
If you’re on the Mac and using Logic, we recommend that you upgrade to the current 9.1x version of Logic which is native 64-bit, and as such lacks the 4GB RAM limitation of Logic 8.x.
If you’re on the PC and using Cubase 5 or the current version of Sonar, both programs are 64-bit and with LASS/Kontakt 4.1, will also read all the available RAM in your system.