I’ve played with many a string library over the years and there is certainly no shortage of content with several developers offering all sorts of variations. But I was intrigued by the name of this latest release from The Crow Hill Company, based in Edinburgh, and thought I’d give it a try.
GLASS STRINGS GUI
I was immediately impressed with the clean aesthetics and deceptively simple controls in the GUI. Key switches, often concealed in secondary screens on other devices, are easily accessible on the main (and only) screen. There’s no need to search through multiple windows to get where you want. There are useful settings for mic position, expression, timbre, release time, and stereo width. The Room Tone setting is an interesting and effective parameter allowing the user to add a natural sounding room ambience to the sound–nice idea.
PRESETS
The preset library is organized by longs, shorts, gestures, plucks, and extras. Within these main divisions you’ll find many standard playing techniques and effects like sul tasto, sul ponticello, harmonics, tremolo, spiccato, staccato, col legno, pizzicato, Bartok pizzicato, marcato, etc.
Under Gesture preset category you’ll find sounds that evolve and transform as you sustain the notes, creating harmonics that gradually emerge and disappear, or surprising variations in bowing that momentarily pierce the texture in delicious ways.
Gestures are key and mode specific and the Appendix – Scales and Modes indicates appropriate trigger notes. Motoring gestures will sync to your session tempo but be aware that all are recorded at 100 BPM, “so straying 20-30bpm may produce artifacts”.
CONTROLS
Three areas of control inhabit the bottom of the interface:
Glass
This section controls a parameter that lies at the essence of this string library. It is a solution that mitigates the problem of obtrusive resonant frequencies and is designed to control “how the fundamentals and harmonic series behave” for every note. This is a great approach for sculpting the harmonic content of a sound.
Bass
This controls allow you to turn the bass on or off and dial in a setting. (available for most core articulations).
Reverb
You can choose reverb type, size, early reflection, and wet/dry mix.
EXAMPLES
The gesture preset category offers a luscious array of possibilities. A few examples below sustaining a simple 2nd inversion triad (E2-A2-C3) and no additional processing:
Outer Space
Beautiful Thing
Its Drooling
Leapzilla
Octavia
Rubbing Shoulders
Scoopy Doo
The Individual
The effects vary dramatically when you explore other parts of the spectrum, more complex chords, and even single notes.
VIDEO WALKTHROUGH
VAULTS
Although unrelated to this review, Vaults, the free instrument offered by Crow Hill, deserves a mention here. Similar in concept to the early release of Spitfire’s LABs, which started as a free instrument and is now subscription-based, this is an expandable library interface with new free content added periodically on the Crow Hill site. Current offerings include: Studio Drums, Shimmer Guitar, R&D Strings, Chorus Synth, Celestatone, and Attic Grand Piano.
CONCLUSION
This was my first experience with an instrument from The Crow Hill Company and I certainly plan to explore more. The company’s philosophy and mission is admirable and composer-centric. What this particular device lacks in bells and whistles and surgical editing capability, it more than makes up for with playability, ease of operation, and fantastic sound in a single window interface that immediately inspires the creative impulse. The Glass control offers a unique approach to adjusting timbre and creating variety based on manipulating the levels of harmonic and fundamental content with just three simple dials. All-in-all this is an amazing string library that deserves a place in every composer’s arsenal.
EXTRAS
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