Review: Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments

Fragile and dripping with emotion, Blisko Strings are Felt Instruments’ grand entrance into the sample library world. This beautiful string library isn’t going to be something you’ll be inserting into your trailer music or epic tracks. Instead, this library is all about fragile beauty. When it comes to beautiful, human feeling boutique string libraries, Blisko is among the best out there.

Jump to the Videos of Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments

Jump to the Demos of Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments

Review: Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments

Blisko Strings is a boutique collection of unique string articulations that has a human feel and movement to it. These are not strings meant to recreate a typical string performance; these are strings designed to live and move to allow you to create unique compositions that feel as if you have actual string players sitting in your studio who influence the composition as much as you do.

Blisko String Bundle sells for £219.00 from Felt Instruments

Thoughts

Some developers leap on to the scene with a bombastic or epic orchestral release. Felt Instruments have taken the opposite approach. In a world of developers releasing bigger and more polished string libraries regularly, the fragile movement of Blisko Strings has given me chills. Blisko is available either individually as Blisko Violin, Blisko Viola, and Blisko Cello, or as the Blisko Strings Bundle. There is a movement and texture to the strings in Blisko that are just so brokenly beautiful (if that’s a thing!). During the video review, I found myself several times having a “moment” and not wanting to move to another articulation. Each Blisko string library comes housed in an exclusive engine from Felt Instruments.

I’m always a little leery of new engines and wonder about their stability. After playing through Blisko for a while now, I’ve found nothing but stability and ease of use. There are two kinds of patches within Blisko: Shapes and Moments. The Shapes are single articulations that can be controlled with the typical controls you would expect to find, but there are some beautiful twists here as well, such as 3 unique reverbs, 3 unique delays, and controllable player sizes from 1-3.

The second type of articulation within Blisko, and my personal favorite, are the Moments. The Moments articulations allow you to select from 1-3 different articulations that can be blended together using your modwheel, and that’s where the magic happens. The movement within each articulation is great on its own, but when moving gently between the articulations using your modwheel, there is a heart-wrenching beauty that is not easily found elsewhere. Another nod should be given to some unique features like the Variance button, which changes the sample start time to achieve a randomness that just works.

There are also separate room and close mics (two sets each) that can be blended together, individual player controls (volume, pan, and Cascade – allowing you to delay each player’s entry by any division from 1-64T), and each library is MPE compatible, allowing you to use controllers like the Roli Seaboard for added expression. Blisko Strings are not going to be for everyone. This library doesn’t contain the traditional spiccato, sustains, and legato articulations you would expect to find in a standard string library, but that’s the thing – Blisko isn’t a standard string library, and therein lies the beauty of it for me.

Facts

Blisko Strings can be purchased separately as Blisko Violin, Viola, and Cello, or as a bundle. Blisko comes in an exclusive engine as a VST/AU/AAX plugin. Each library is MPE compatible. Blisko Violin downloads as 11.4 GB, Blisko Viola downloads as 10.1 GB, and Blisko Cello downloads as 13.3 GB. Each library comes with up to 3 players and two close and two room mic signals that can be blended together. There are both Shape articulations and Moments articulations that allow you to blend up to 3 articulations together. Each library is available separately for £79.00, or you can purchase the Blisko Strings Bundle for £219.00

Blisko String Bundle sells for £219.00 from Felt Instruments

Blisko Strings can be purchased separately as Blisko Violin, Viola, and Cello, or as a bundle. Blisko comes in an exclusive engine as a VST/AU/AAX plugin. Each library is MPE compatible.

Demos of Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments

Videos of Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments

Contributor Raborn Johnson reviews Blisko String Bundle by Felt Instruments
“Fragile and dripping with emotion, Blisko Strings are Felt Instrument’s grand entrance into the sample library world. This beautiful string library isn’t going to be something you’ll be inserting into your trailer music or epic tracks. Instead, this library is all about fragile beauty. When it comes to beautiful, human feeling boutique string libraries, Blisko is among the best out there.”