Kirk Hunter Studios Concert String II review

I’m not a composer, I’m not a string major…I don’t know all the parts of an orchestra, or a symphony, or a chamber ensemble…

But I know I like strings, and I know I like strings that sound good, but most importantly that are playable.

Today I want to share with you a collection that is more  inline with those that look for the best of the best.

Kirk Hunter’s name is pretty much synonymous with great and realistic sounding instrument samples.

He recently released Concert Strings II, a collection of strings, really it’s a collection of four string sections in one library.

To all the composers, game music producers, tv/media producers and professionals that look for nothing but the best, take a moment to journey through these strings with me.

What is Concert Strings II?

This is first and foremost a professional string library for professional musicians, composers, and music producers.

You get 4 string sections which include 1st and 2nd violin, 1st and 2nd viola, 1st and 2nd cello, and bass.  You also get a section of combinations.  In each of those sections you get the full (16 players), half (8 players), quarter (4 players), and solo divisions. These are also known as Symphonic (16), Studio (8), Chamber (4) and Solo (1) string sections.

The patches are organized into 5 main folders which represent the 4 sections and a combinations folder.  Within each folder you have quad, triple, double, and single instrument.  Each with 20 different articulations.

Quad instruments contain all 4 divisions in one instrument, easily switchable from the front panel.  Alternatively, triple contains 3 divisions, double contains 2 divisions, and single of course is one.

The patches are labeled so that you can easily tell which division you will load. For example if I choose 1st violins 16,8 in the double folder, I know the instrument will contain the full 16 players as well as the half division of 8 players.

This makes it very easy to chose what you want to play.

Quick Specs

• Content: 25gb of Symphonic, Studio, Chamber, Solo strings with additional Combination patches  (Approx. 50gb for EXS version)
• Format: Kontakt or EXS
• Price: $799 (Kontakt format) and $699 (EXS format which is on sale for $359 until March 15)

What is all this talk about divisions and sections?

Honestly, that’s what I said at first, because I didn’t know.  The great thing about this library is that it comes with it’s own thorough manual.  I spent quite a bit of time just reading about sections and divisions, so that I had a better grasp of the instruments I was using.

Not only does the manual give a better understanding which allows you to pick the instruments you want to play a lot quicker, it gives you a better appreciation for the programming that went into this library.

DivisiLive, VibratoLive, EQLive?

Kirk spent tons of time developing some very useful and innovative features that work in the background of this library.  Basically a lot of the stuff you would normally have to do by hand, or with key-switching and mod-wheel acrobatics, are easily accomplished simply by turning the feature on and playing.

My favorite is DivisiLive. Basically what this does is automatically plays divisis for you when you play a chord.  I learned, from Kirk’s manual, that when a string section plays a chord, everyone in the section doesn’t play the same notes.  So if you have a full section of 16 players, when you play a 2 note chord, the notes are actually split among them, so 8 players hit one note, and the other 8 hit another.

I never knew this, but this is exactly how it would be done in a live situation.  With DivisiLive, I can do this same exact thing automatically.  To my knowledge this is a first when it comes to string libraries, and it definitely gives your parts a more realistic feel.

Similarly, you have live programming functions for vibrato and eq as well, both equally useful for making your parts sound more realistic, allowing you to focus on playing instead of programming and key-switching.

So it has tons of useful features but how does it sound?

This is what it really comes down to right?  Because let’s be honest, if something is super easy to use, has a ton of features, but sounds horrible, you won’t use it!

This library sounds pretty darn realistic to my ears.  What I immediately noticed about this library compared to a few others, is it’s lack of fx and reverb drowning each instrument.

The sounds were recorded pretty much clean, in a very dry room.  You don’t realize how important this is until you’ve used other string libraries that are drenched in reverb, pretty much forcing their sound upon you.

A great recording, left dry, allows you to mix and match these sounds into a variety of music, using your own reverbs and fx so that it doesn’t work against your productions but with them.

I like how the instruments respond to velocity, the looping is spot on, no glitches or “transitions”.

This is just a very well recorded, versatile sounding library.  I really enjoyed it’s lack of reverb on the samples, that was quite a breath of fresh “air” so to speak.

So what’s the final verdict on this library?

I really feel this is a great string library. I know there are tons of different string libraries out here, and it’s hard to choose.  I say demo them if you can. This is definitely for those that need a very high quality library with tons of options, articulations, and flexibility.

For the sound quality, flexibility of the instruments, and the superb programing of the library, I have to give this a 5 out of 5 subs.

I was just really impressed, I think the dry recording and under the hood programing really made me enjoy it, not to mention the education I got from reading the manual.

Having the option to load all sections and articulations at once, or loading just the section and articulation you need allows you to be more flexible in your compositions.

I also LOVE the fact that this library can be shipped on an external hard drive, ready to play.  That is how I received this library for review and I must say, not having to go through any registration hoops or long installs was amazing.  Just plug in and go. I really hope to see more companies do this with their large sound libraries.

Thumbs up to Kirk Hunter, this is a well thought out and programed library, and trust me when I say, I only covered a small portion of the gold that’s inside this collection.

Head on over to the website and take a look at all the features and facts about it. Kirk Hunter Concert Strings II

Of course, leave a comment below with your thoughts on the library.

UPDATE:

Kirk now has a huge collection of video tutorials on his site for anyone interested in learning how to use all the various features in this library.  Just go to this link and you will be able to see all of the new video tutorials. http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/videos.html