First Chairs Reviews

Despite the 33% disapproval rating, the two violin samples are the best currently available on MuseHub. Vibrato is almost non-existent, contrary to the description which states there is length-dependent vibrato. Also, artificial harmonics work, gliss./ports. don't work, pizz. works fine with some dynamic adjustments, and staccatos are accented (just change the dynamic marking for the note to make it not accented). Hopefully AceStudio and SpitFire release better solo violin samples. Also, all customer support questions to MuseHub go unanswered. I don't know if refunds are successful, haven't tried those.

There are a lot of problems with this library. First, the instruments themselves do not sound natural; they sound as if they came from a soundfont. The overall volume of the instruments must be increased (especially for the contrabass, as it is literally impossible to hear it when played). More sound flags must be added, like nonvib and muted (mutes placed on the bridge of the instrument), plus the random accents that the first violin does when there is no accent mark written in the score must be removed.

It needs an update especially for Slur : remove the big accents at the end of the phrasing !

The sounds just aren't very good and the slurs dont at all work. Sometimes on the violin especially with the first A on the E string, it accents it randomly. Also the dynamics are not great with most of the solos and the pizzicato is very loud.

The main issue is with the violins. In fast pieces they are sounding nice but when it comes to a medium tempo, long notes are weak, some other notes are very quiet and unclear, there is not a general solid sound. The viola, the cello and the bass are very good and realistic. Also, for all instruments, the tremolos and the staccatos need to be less mechanical and more realistic. It's a 6.5/10.

one thing that ive noticed while using this is that it captures the unique playing style of the majority first chairs. a good example of reference is it kinda sounds like the choppiness of the Juresalem string quartet. While working with this the only flaws I see is the staccatos are a little too loud, and 16th notes are quiet. when working with staccatos right next to 16th notes, there's a dramatic change in volume. overall its a good plug for the buck, but if youre someone who wants the closest thing to a string quartet I wouldn't recommend it, but it give you a really good example of what a string quartet should sound like

The sounds are good by themselves, but the programming is so so bad that it makes it even worse to work with than the basic MS sounds. Just a shame, really, I'm sure a lot of work went into the recordings.

Still with lot of issues, good library, but needs update

It’s a shame that the sound of the strings is beautiful and realistic but there’s so much wrong with the way it was programmed for articulations and especially sustained notes… the vibrato is off and no matter what the dynamics are, there are random accents that happen here and there. Please fix.

First time I bought I was very lost with some articulations and the way the library responds to notation, now after a few days of use, its my favorite solo string library of musesounds, still I think needs a good update, maybe more round robins, Ostinatos are a big problem, it sounds very fake, Long notes are beautiful, maybe add the possibility of having harmonics?, I think this library does not have them, that would be nice. Thanks for the good work.

In quieter legato passages, the sound is full and rich. With faster tempos and shorter note values, odd things happen. Short notes play as if they have an accent over them—when they do not. For example, in a series of 8th notes followed by quarter notes, as in a 6/8 meter, the 8ths will all sound quite accented. I ended up going through my entire piece, reworking the articulations to accomodate for this odd behavior. I would add legato markings over notes to try to compensate for the strangeness. One consistent thing seems to be that in louder dynamics (f, or ff) the articulations get really short. These two things should not go together. Getting a loud, legato sound is difficult.

First 5 minutes of using this shows me I wasted my money. A simple line of three legato half notes and a half rest can't be played right. When playback reaches the rest there is an extra, very short but louder articulation before the rest happens. It's like when the bow is released from the string it pops out one more articulation. C'mon! Glad this only cost me $8. The Muse Strings library does not do this and it was free.

Hopefully improvements are coming. There are several really annoying issues. 1) Even without score markings, dynamics are all over the place. One phrase plays really loud with hard accents, and the next plays really soft. 2) Randomly, a note sounds where there is a rest in the score. 3) Where dynamic markings are present in the score there is often a click as if the note-on occurs first then the new dynamic is applied afterwards. A composer should not have to alter a score to make up for flaws in the player. The player should interpret what the composer has intended.

I loved the product when it was released but after 1.0.5 came out it has been terrible. Notes are incredibly detached, accents cause all notes to play staccato and it generally ruins the flow of the music. Not only that, but support takes over a month to get back to me after I send them comprehensive information about the issue to tell me they will add the information to a ticket to get it fixed. The issue has been going on for over a month and you only now see what I sent?

Yes, it is better than the free solo strings where violin 1 plays with horrible portamento. However violin 1 in this plays with mysterious accents on shorter off beat notes and is very quiet on long note on the beat - violin 2 is better.

Very expressive in a chamber setting and super versatile and realistic as soloists. It has a few quirks in how it interprets music, and can become super loud and aggressive if things aren't slurred, but it isn't difficult to learn how it behaves and adjust your writing accordingly. Much better than old musesounds in my opinion. If you are looking for a better demo than the articulation video, I encourage you to look at this demo I threw together for pag 24: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNHdtwSn_zk (note, I don't really care about subscribers or anything so please don't think this is a plug. Just a demo)