As David Tobin’s 2020 round-up made clear, today’s music and soundtrack producer is spoilt for choice when it comes to ultra-realistic sampled orchestral string libraries. Here, though, we’re approaching that same subject from a slightly different angle, looking at five brilliantly individualistic alternatives for when you need something a little bit different in the strings library department…

Spitfire Audio Hans Zimmer Strings

In every sense the biggest string library ever made, Spitfire’s Zimmer-endorsed instrument comprises a string orchestra of 140 violins, 40 violas, 140 cellos and 24 double basses, captured (at AIR Studios, no less) in over 366,000 samples across 26 mic channels, and weighing in at a drive-busting 251GB. At launch, it was also one of the first Spitfire libraries to run in the company’s own proprietary engine, rather than Native Instruments’ Kontakt Player, and the no-frills interface makes the instrument admirably easy to use, with its Expression and Dynamic sliders, assignable ‘big knob’ (Reverb, Vibrato, Tightness or Release), and straightforward Mixer and articulation switcher. Speaking of articulations, there are 147 of them, going far beyond the expected sustains, legatos and pizzicatos and into a wealth of expressive techniques and effects, including Con Sord, Sul Tasto, Flautando and Tremolo Harmonic Waves.

Hans Zimmer Strings sounds every bit as vast and cinematic as you’d hope, but is actually at its most impressive when that formidable density and depth are turned to less titanic sounds – sustained atmospheres, textural beds, dramatic builds, etc. It might cost a fair bit, but you won’t find string sounds of such extreme scale anywhere else.

Native Instruments Cremona Quartet

Produced by e-instruments, this sublime Kontakt Player library puts an exquisitely detailed chamber quartet at your beck and call, built on multisamples of “four of the world’s most valuable string instruments”. Housed in the Museo Del Violini in the Italian city of Cremona – where traffic was literally brought to a halt to keep noise down during the recording sessions – and dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, the Stradivari ‘Vesuvius’ violin and ‘Stauffer’ cello, Amati ‘Stauffer’ violin and Guarneri ‘Prince Doria’ viola are provided as four separate solo instruments (averaging around 25GB each), rather than a single pre-blended NKI, for independent programming and editing. Each instrument features 20 articulations, as well as real-time modelled vibrato, adjustable fingerboard positioning, phase-aligned velocity crossfades for convincing bow changes, and Close, Mid and Far mic channels. There’s also a ‘virtuoso mode’, which combines multiple velocity- and wheel-switched articulations for live MIDI performance, and it all comes together as a truly beautiful package for the production of small-scale virtual string arrangements. David Tobin’s in-depth review gets into the details. 

UJAM Striiiings

As is the UJAM way, Striiiings is all about making professional sounding orchestral string section parts effortlessly accessible to every producer, no matter what their musical ability level: simply load a preset, hold down a chord and step through increasingly busy rhythmic ensemble phrases within the preset using MIDI keyswitches. The samples powering the thing come from (UJAM co-founder) Hans Zimmer’s archive of string recordings, and the engine divides them into High (violins and violas) and Low (celli and basses) sections for mixing, EQ, sustain shortening/lengthening and effects processing, the latter using various one-knob Character (sound shaping) and Motion FX (rhythmic and modulated) modules. UJAM’s nifty Finisher effect then applies 20 under-the-hood DSP algorithms to the mixed output, set up via 25 diverse presets and again adjusted with a single macro knob, alongside a 24dB multimode filter and a one-knob reverb.

Striiiings covers a lot of sonic ground, branching out from regular strings into more ’electronic’ territory, and thus making a great fit for the desktop producer seeking a quality source of string-based pads, progressions and arps. Find out more in our full review.

G-Force Software M-Tron Pro

Okay, now we’re really breaking off from the traditional notion of the string library, but G-Force’s superb Mellotron emulation serves up some of the most quirky and charming string sounds you’ll ever hear. The Mellotron – for those three readers who don’t know – is a revered keyboard instrument from the 1960s and ‘70s, most famously used by The Beatles to create the instantly recognisable flutes in Strawberry Fields Forever, for a famous example of the Mellotron’s strings think of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Often referred to as ‘the original sampler’, each of the Mellotron’s keys controlled the playback of an eight-second tape strip containing a recording of the particular instrument specified by the selected tape bank, pitched to that key’s note.

M-Tron Pro recreates and expands greatly on the original Mellotron design with the ability to layer two tapes at a time, and the addition of filters, effects and more. Around 200 lovingly sampled tape banks are onboard (expandable to over 450 through a huge catalogue of add-on packs), including a variety of solo, section and ensemble strings that unfailingly evoke the particular old-school orchestral vibe for which the ’Tron is – and always will be – so beloved.

It’s clearly not a viable contender for lavish, epic and/or ‘realistic’ orchestration, but for retro-electronic character, M-Tron Pro’s string patches can’t be beaten.

Gothic Instruments Dronar Live Strings

As the name suggests, Gothic Instruments’ extensive Dronar series of Kontakt libraries focuses on the creation of drones, ambiences and pads through the manipulation of samples within a powerful scripted four-layer engine, each one based on a specific instrument type, from synths and guitars to brass, woodwinds and, of course, strings.

Dronar Strings Live, then, draws on 10GB of string recordings performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to offer up a whopping 731 endlessly customisable presets. The four layers in a Dronar patch each contain two mixable samples, and there’s a healthy showing of filtering, modulation and processing options with which to transform them, as well as an arpeggiator, a pattern sequencer, and automatic chord voicing based on single- or multiple-note input.

Although it’s perfectly possible to coax ‘regular’ orchestral string parts out of Dronar Live Strings, the real point in this amazing library is the twisting of its extraordinary sample bank into new shapes and textures, with as much or little of the source instrumentation remaining recognisable as your imagination sees fit. An under-appreciated classic that any sound designer should have on their radar.

What string libraries do you turn to when you need something more than workaday strings? Let us know in the comments.