I’ve been experimenting with the Glass Strings today, and I think this library is fire! I have the other Crow Hill string libraries, and this one fits in well with those. That being said, I’m blown away by how easy these are to use. I’ve been playing with these for a couple of hours, and I feel like they have a short learning curve as compared to the String Gestures and Murmurations libraries. The various articulations are absolutely shocking to me. Granted, I’ve only been playing around with these for a couple of hours. I’m trying to find a weakness, but these are very pleasant to the ears and sound somewhat intimate to me. I tend to prefer to have the timbre under 90, but that’s a personal preference. I’m not sure if I’ll make use of all of the “Selects,” but the one that is just mind-blowing is the “Media (motors).” The way it transitions between tempo changes left me staring at my screen in disbelief. I’m shocked. I’ve paid a lot more for libraries that were no where near as useful as these, so the current price is a bargain. Thankfully, my wife was okay with me buying these. 
My only complaint is that I wish I had these years ago. Has anyone else gotten these yet? What is your first impression?
I did, indeed, buy them. I composed a 2 minute cue and sent it over to a film maker for whom had composed an award winning score (2023 regional film festival)…his response was…“
nice! I love the strings!”
I compose a lot of cues for an international music source company in L.A…mostly moody - noir-ish jazz…and I intend to compose a LOT of material using glass strings…and BTW…I have all of Crow Hill’s libraries and think they are perfect. Henson is an exceptional young man (I’m 81 and have been in “the biz” for decades as an actor and musician) and I have never regretted doing business with his products. His presentation skills and zeal should be an inspiration to the younger generations…I’ve been around some of “the greats” in the film business…and he could be on anyone’s team…I hope he inspires you and others in that regard…Best of luck to you, Seth.
Do you know if there are templates for Dorico or Noteperformer? Thanks in advance!
I’m not sure in all honesty. I personally use Sibelius for notation, and I know people do run external libraries on Sibelius. I’m just not sure if Dorico or Noteperformer would be similar. I’ve never tried to run any of my sound libraries through Sibelius because I know I would have less control over them, and it seemed to be a difficult process to get them to integrate. If it’s possible to use these with notation software, I think the downside would be that I don’t see a way to take advantage of the gestures within the library. That being said, the gestures are only part of this library’s strength. Maybe someone more knowledgable can chime in and comment on this.
Thank you, Charles! This is awesome! Congrats on your award winning score!
I’ve been adding this library into a project I’m working on, which is a low budget film, and they work well with the other Crow Hill libraries I’ve been using. I do feel that they help my workflow. I teach full time, so I have to make the best of what little time I have to write music. I’m working on creating themes, and I’ve manage to put together more than 6 minutes of music with maybe 8 hours of writing, which has to be some kind of record for me. I know there are others out there that write much faster than this, but this is quick for me. I’m not sure why they speed things up for me, but they do seem to inspire my creative juices in some way.
I picked up Glass Strings about a month ago and have had some time to play with it. The samples IMO are breath taking. And I hardly have to do any post processing at all.
I’m a novice writer so my opinion (as with everyone’s, I guess) is subjective.
What I’d like to ask, is how do Glass Strings, Murmurations, and small strings differ from each other?
Thanks,
Jorey
Others may have different opinions, but I think they are similar in concept in that they all have “gestures.” However, each one has unique gestures, so they are not redundant. Here’s a very watered down explanation of how I view these libraries, but there may be others out there who have a better understanding. I’ve learned these instruments on the fly as I’m using them, and I’m still discovering new features as I go.
Small Strings is focused on gestures, and they’re beautiful.
With Murmurations I feel like they built onto that same concept and made it bigger. They have more gestures, but the also added “Blurs,” “Constellations,” and “Crow Hill Selects.” Blurs are single short little string passages that consist of around 4 quick notes downward or upward. They’re very reminiscent of Bernard Hermann, and they’re incredibly useful. Constellations are more atmospheric, which is also nice to have. The Crow Hill Selects are presets that include some gesture-like sounds along with what I would consider more traditional samples.
Glass Strings seems to have built onto this further. You have the gestures, but they add “longs” and “shorts.” The long and shorts are more like traditional samples. What is great about this is that you can use a gesture and automate the timbre and expression. You can take that gesture as far as you like, and then you can use a long on a separate track to fade into a more traditional sample. I copy and paste the automation, and as long as you’re using the correct “long” and the timbre/expression are at the same level in the fade, they work together seamlessly with very little effort. I hope that makes sense. The other amazing thing is they added “selects,” which allows you to essentially make patch changes within the same track using keys. This is similar to what some EastWest libraries do. There are lots of things you can do with these libraries, and they play well with other libraries. Another thing I like to do is if I have a pizzicato section or spiccato section, I can use some Spitfire sounds and layer the Glass Strings into the mix using the same articulation. I can pan them slightly opposite one another, and I personally feel like it adds to the realism. This is maybe too much information, but I think these libraries are the best bang for your buck you’ll ever find. Maybe someone can make a video comparing these. I’d like to, because I enjoy this kind of thing. It just seems like I never make it around to doing that, and I assume there are others out there in the same boat.
Hey Seth, thanks for the reply.
Exactly what I was looking for. Just comprehensive enough to imagine the differences. You mentioned East/West libraries. I’ve been using Opus orchestra and the Hollywood Fantasy orchestra for about 6 months now and Love them! Then I stumbled onto Glass Strings. IMO, Crow Hill has really upped the game on samples. I really like their libraries, and look forward to purchasing more in the future. I’m a beginner composer with 2 pieces under my belt. Hoping to use Glass strings to create more compositions.
Thanks again,
Jorey
Hi Seth,
My first impression is fantastic sustains, but I’m not so comfortable with the shorts. I guess I’m looking for a more usable (to me) plain old staccato. Also, I find the default volume to be quite low, but that’s not much of an issue. Maybe its me, or I’m not using things correctly - although I’ve been composing library music for several years I’m hardly an expert with orchestral libraries. All in all I’m pretty happy though. Any tips greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the delay. It’s been a wild month or two for me. I teach for a living, and I started a new position in January. I was starting that position as I was finishing a two-hour score for a project, so my head was spinning a bit. I did use Crowhill Sounds a ton within the score I just finished, and now that I’ve put them to work in that way I can say I truly do like them. I believe I did use the shorts some by themselves, but I honestly combine them with other sound libraries as well and pan the various libraries to create more width at times. I feel like all libraries (Crowhill, Spitfire, Eastwest, Native, ect.) have strengths and weaknesses, and as composers, we need to use them with that in mind. This is where it comes in handy to have multiple libraries, so that if one doesn’t sound quite right for a certain cue, you can switch and try another. It’s funny how sometimes one library just doesn’t work for a particular situation, and it could be as simple as that the tempo, key, or dynamic range isn’t compatible. You can then take that same library and use it in a very different situation and find that it’s perfect. I had one issue with the libraries, and I’ll add that to this thread.
Hi, Everyone. I finished a score back in early-January using these sounds, and I wanted to add a little update. I used these sound libraries (combined with a few others) and was able to write and mix around two hours of music in around 7-8 weeks. That was a tough couple of months, and I essentially lived in my studio during that time. I don’t recommend taking on projects with this type of timeframe, but I suppose sometimes we have to in this business. (In this case, it wasn’t suppose to come out this way, but it did due to delays in other stages of post-production.) Anyway, the big plus of using the Glass Strings along with the other Crowhill string libraries is that you can use “gestures” to create melodies. I used all of the Crowhill string libraries to do this by combining automation to bring in certain lines and blend them with single pitches. This resulted in custom melodic lines that sounded like they were recorded in a studio. It’s a nice advantage for low budget films for sure.
I feel like I put the score together incredibly fast, so it saves time there and certainly improved my workflow. There is only one downside to these sounds, and that’s the editing phase. This is the reason I’m adding this post to this thread. There weren’t very many edits for this particular film, but when there were edits, it tended to be more difficult. The reason being is that as I used automation and multiple tracks to create single melodies, it was much more work to move or change a melodic line. There are couple of things to consider. Firstly, I’m not sure if I’m using these sounds as Crowhill intended, but I like using them this way. (And I’ll continue to use them this way.) The fact that this makes edits more difficult is truly on me. Secondly, after doing this once I now know that edits can be much faster if these melodic lines are organized better. I was frantically writing two hours of music, and if I’m honest, I should have taken time to better organize melodies that required multiple tracks. I ended up doing this for the last half or quarter of the music I wrote, and it helped. I have used multiple tracks to create melodies using other libraries in the past, but they never got quite as complex as what ended up happening with these string libraries. If you decide to use these sounds this way, I definitely recommend organizing the tracks in a way that helps you edit them later.
I would like to add that even with the edits being a tad more difficult, I would still use these sounds again. (…and again and again and again…you get the point.) In the end, I was able to deliver a score quickly, and it sounded more realistic than it would have otherwise. The overall process was still faster. I’m a fan of what Crowhill is doing!
Exploring the Depths of Sound with Crow Hill Libraries 
Hello,
Over the past months, I’ve delved deeply into the Crow Hill libraries, especially enjoying the sonic landscapes provided by Glass Strings 
, Gestures 
, Murmurations 
, Nocturnal 
, and DOT 
.
Here, I aim to share some insights on how we can harness these libraries’ unique features to expand our musical palettes.
Understanding the Libraries
Murmurations - Launchpad: This particular library offers extensive variation, which I’ll use to illustrate my memo.
Chord Structures and Voicings
Chord Types: We have 11 types of 3-tone chords at our disposal:
Major (C, E, G) 
- Happy, bright sound
Minor (C, Eb, G) - Sad, moody sound
Power Chord (C, G) 
- Strong, rock feel
Augmented Triad (C, E, G#) - Tense, dreamy
Suspended Second (C, D, G) - Gentle, open sound
Suspended Fourth (C, F, G) - Mysterious, unresolved feeling
Quintal Chord (C, G, D) - Thick, rich texture
Quartal Chord (C, F, Bb) - Modern, jazzy sound
Diminished Triad (C, Eb, Gb) - Tense, dissonant
Add9 (C, E, G, D) - Bright, airy
Add11 (C, E, G, F) - Deep, lush
Voicings: Each of these chord types can be voiced in 6 different positions. This gives us:
66 initial choices (11 chords x 6 voicings).
Expanding Choices with Murmurations:
Octave Variations: Murmurations allows these voicings to span across 8 octaves. 
Shift Variable: Adds another layer of variation with 12 additional choices. 
Calculating Total Choices
With octaves and the shift variable, our choices multiply:
66 choices x 8 octaves = 528
528 + (12 shift choices x 8 octaves) = 624 total variations for just 3-tone chords.
Practical Application
Example with A-major:
Strings 1: Demonstrates how the shift variable can change the sound of an A-major chord (A, C#, E), with each chord shifted by one step.
Strings 2: Shows 11 different A-major chord based on the chord types listed above, using a consistent wide voicing approach. 
Strategies for Managing Choices
Experimentation: The key is to keep your ears open. Explore the vast array of possibilities, noting how each variation affects the emotional and structural layers of your composition. 
Beyond Basic Choices: Consider additional parameters like note length and staggered chord beginnings and endings to further diversify your sound. 
Conclusion
This is just a starting point. With at least 624 ways to voice an A-major chord within 8 octaves, the potential for creativity is immense. Keep exploring, keep experimenting – that’s where the magic happens.
Attached are the sound samples for your reference. Let’s push the boundaries of traditional string arrangements together.
Happy composing! 
PS. I’m sure I forgot tons of stuff and I’m probably being unclear or hard or even impossible to follow. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions. D.S