Quick feature comparison: ARO First Violins (Pro) vs Pacific Ens Strings

This question came up several times so I decided to make a quick comparison video for "Abbey Road Orchestra - First Violins" from Spitfire Audio and "Pacific - Ensemble Strings" from Performance samples.
To get the obvious out of the way: ARO 1st Violins only has Violins (1) while Pacific features a (more or less) full string section. They also differ in terms of their articulation list but I'm not going over that aspect in detail as you can simply read about it on the respective websites. Instead I wanted to focus on playability, customization options and well... features :)
All sounds in this video are presented without any external processing.
As always I'm happy to read your questions, feedback and sugestions in the comments! If you like this kind of content, please consider giving the video a like and subscribing to my channel. Also check out my main channel if you want to hear my original compositions: / @c-m-laurin-lenschow
...and consider following me on Instagram for more music content: / laurinlenschow.music

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

To get the obvious out of the way: ARO 1st Violins only has Violins (1) while Pacific features a (more or less) full string section. They also differ in terms of their articulation list but I'm not going over that aspect in detail as you can simply read about it on the respective websites. Instead I wanted to focus on playability, customization options and well... features :) As always I'm happy to read your questions, feedback and sugestions in the comments! If you like this kind of content, please consider giving the video a like and subscribing to my channel. Also check out my main channel if you want to hear my original compositions: www.youtube.com/@c-m-laurin-lenschow ...and consider following me on Instagram for more music content: instagram.com/laurinlenschow.music/

[@vinnygolia1596]

A very nice comparison without bashing one side or the other. Really, nicely done.

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Thank you!

[@NickKeller]

I think it's important to remember you can make good mockups with any string library. I'd challenge anyone looking at getting this library to try to make a piece sound amazing with the samples you have.

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Yes, absolutely! Anyone who thinks they *need* to buy a new library should listen to the mockups Thomas Bergersen created ~10 years ago with Hollywood Strings (and there certainly are many more examples). A skilled composer can write and produce beautiful music with tools that were available a decade ago. That said, getting new stuff can still be fun and inspiring ;)

[@tivermusic]

@@c-c-laurin-lenschow I totally agree. Those mockups Thomas Bergersen produced are still among the best I've ever heard and hold up remarkably well.

[@addd21323]

I've been waiting for someone to do this comparison!

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Haha, I'm glad I could be of service! :)

[@Transform108]

That is why we need both!

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Haha, exactly!

[@cachelesssociety5187]

Wow- super helpful thank you! I'm considering buying Pacific Strings and Apassionate Strings or Vista/Vista II.

[@5ammy13]

I feel the legatos in ARO sound really really good, but unfortunately the sustains sound dead to me. So ARO isn't suited to slow soaring lines as you hear more of the lifeless sustains. The legatos work wonderfully for agile quick runs and passages cause you hear less of the sustains. Also with Pacific, I think sticking to the 90 Dynamic range gives you the best legato. Going over makes it porta a little too much.

[@WinItReigns]

Can you do a video showing how you workflow and set up varying articulattions?

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Maybe - can you go a bit more into detail about the video you have in mind? Do you mean a video where I show my process for creating an orchestral template in Ableton?

[@cachelesssociety5187]

@@c-c-laurin-lenschow I would like to see someone's thoughts on setting up templates for their favorite libraries in terms of negative track delay, how to deal with dynamics, automation, CC's. I have FL Studio, Cubase, Reaper, Ableton & Bitwig. I may need to not do these orchestral songs in FL Studio anymore. I'm facing a weird problem in it (FL Studio) where I can't quite get Sample Modeling Solo & Ensemble Strings to pick up CC11 unless I play the track (it drops and so if I play my keyboard no sound until I play the sequence with the CC 11 again. What's weird is that my keyboard controller is sending CC11, but that ONE plugin can't "hear" it. The support team is at a loss and I don't know if it's FL Studio's issue or my keyboard - although it seems to send CC11 just fine to other things.

[@Noctarilfate]

As usual, I love your comparisons. In this case, I'm not falling in love with either of them. Pacific struggles on the fast runs, though I really like it for slow transitions. But even some of the moderately paces transitions feel slightly cut off to me. For AR, the legato here sounds slightly synthy to me in a way I can't put my finger on. Maybe something with the vibrato? Pacific's tone sounded a bit more natural through the first section.

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your thoughts! The aspect I would agree on is that Pacific has a certain inherent musicality that is missing from ARO 1st Violins (although I do think one could compensate for that with careful programming and maybe using it in larger arrangements) - ARO is more "clinical" in a way. On the flipside that makes it significantly more flexible while Pacific leans more into one specific direction. Personally I like both of them and I think they have different strengths so I'm happy that I have both, but that's just a subjective opinion of course :)