Dimension Strings III

The most delicate string sound

This Collection expands our unique and successful Dimension Strings series to the softest string sounds ever. These instruments were exclusively played “sul tasto” (near the fingerboard), offering all-new sonic subtleties. As opposed to “con sordino” (with mute), this special playing technique is characterized by placing the bow near the fingerboard, resulting in a lack of (even) harmonics and in a very soft, breathy timbre, similar to that of a flute playing in pianissimo. The possibility of gradually increasing the number of players presents all-new subtleties for starting your arrangements “dal niente” (from nothing), or to fade out a note to little more than a bare whisper (“al niente”).

As with Vienna Dimension Strings I & II, all of the human interactions and slight imperfections of a live performance have been captured. The players were recorded in four homogeneous groups, but with dedicated microphones for each player, allowing for automatic or manual access to each individual voice and resulting in unlimited performance flexibility and authenticity.

Stunning realism through imperfection

Even the best musicians never play in perfect unison; one listens and adjusts a little slower, another faster, but perhaps with more dynamics, and so on. When playing as a group, musicians continually adapt, matching timbre, intensity, vibrato, intonation, bow speed and more. All of these interactions happen automatically in a good ensemble, led by a good conductor, and reveal the “magic” of a live performance. With Vienna Dimension Strings, individual changes in dynamic levels of the players within a group can be achieved easily with velocity crossfades. You may even designate one or two “weak” musicians to play sloppy notes, with hesitant or delayed starts, for instance.

Vienna Dimension Strings III includes the free Vienna Instruments player. With the optional Vienna Instruments Pro and its Auto Humanization feature, all kinds of nuances and variations are possible while simply playing on the keyboard, making the final result sound absolutely striking.