Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials
Groundbreaking workflow and a world-class studio string ensemble sound at an affordable price.
$249
Audio Demos
- Lively Town Koichi Sugiyama (Arranged by Tarik Maljanovic)
- Basil Festival Sarah Mancuso
- Rumbidum Woods (Anima Mix) Nabeel Ansari
- Rising Second Sun (Anima Mix) Nabeel Ansari
- Last Grains Of Sand Sarah Mancuso
- Inquisition Sarah Mancuso
- New Home Artem Akmulin
- Lively Town (Library Only) Koichi Sugiyama (Arranged by Tarik Maljanovic)
- New Home (Library Only) Artem Akmulin
Overview
Our flagship Tokyo Scoring Strings beautifully captures the perfection and agility of Japan’s world-renowned Koichiro Muroya Strings, the top Japanese session string ensemble heard on countless world-famous anime and game soundtracks. While it is especially well-suited for Japanese-inspired music, it holds its own across all genres and will let you easily realize virtually any score. This Essentials version includes everything you need to write score-ready compositions, with groundbreaking legato, an easy-to-use workflow, and a generous spread of essential articulations, at an affordable price.
This library is available in three editions: Tokyo Scoring Strings Complete, Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials, and Tokyo Scoring Strings Free. (To compare what’s included in each edition, see this Tokyo Scoring Strings series guide.)
Note: When you add Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials to your cart, the free Delay Compensator plugin will be automatically added as well. This is an essential plugin that can be used to easily sync your DAW with instruments that use Lookahead, such as TSS.
Product Info
Five orchestral string sections & Ensemble patch
8 violins 1, 6 violins 2, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 3 basses, plus a convenient, efficient new Ensemble patch.
3 hand-sculpted mic mixes in a legendary space
Choose from Anima Mix (a light and airy mix most suited to agile and intricate writing), Cinema Mix (a dark, smooth mix suitable for cinematic scoring and low string chorales), or Mitsunori Aizawa’s own upfront Board Mix (using his hardware setup at Sound City).
5 distinctive legato types
Legato Bow, Legato Slur, emotional Lyrical Legato, super-agile Runs Legato, and powerful Marcato Legato incorporating adjustable bow noise.
All crucial playing techniques
Sustains, pizzicato, staccato, staccatissimo, spiccato, and tremolo.
Expressive dynamics, legato, and vibrato
Multiple legato speeds, three vibrato levels (senza, con, molto), and up to five dynamics per articulation.
Features
Elegant and streamlined UI
Groundbreaking lookahead mode
Total Articulation Control Technology v3
Deep editing for power users
CONSOLE modular FX rack and mixer
Requirements
84GB disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
8GB of RAM minimum
16GB recommended for loading all sections.
Apple M1, Intel i5 or equivalent CPU
A faster CPU with more cores will allow you to play more simultaneous voices.
Kontakt Player 7.8.1+
This library will run in the FREE Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OS
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 11 or later
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11 or 12 (latest update)
Kontakt Requirements - Windows
Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit). Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU. Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher. Windows 10 strongly recommended.
Tutorials
Full Walkthrough
Articulation System
Lookahead 2.0 Tutorial
Behind the Scenes Story
Teaser Reveal
Featured Artists & Composers
Christopher Gordon
Ladies in Black, Mao's Last Dancer, Salem's Lot, Master and Commander
"Impact Soundworks' range of guitars and fretted instruments sound amazing and are crafted and nuanced with expert detail. Intuitively set up to get straight to composing. And I have a real soft spot for the juicy, screaming Shreddage 3 Hydra!"
Jimmy Hinson
Black Ops 4, Mass Effect 2, There Came An Echo, Borderlands 2
“Between Shreddage, Super Audio Cart, Juggernaut, and Mega Brass I don’t remember the last time I haven’t used an Impact Soundworks instrument in a track. The attention to detail is astonishing and it’s all so easy to use out of the box, which is a big deal.”
Richard Jacques
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Overwatch 2, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
"I'm a huge fan of the Ventus Winds series. They feature rare instruments deep-sampled to an incredibly high level of detail. It's so liberating to have such a wide range of articulations & phrases that perfectly capture the nuances and performance style of these instruments... from beautiful to haunting, celebratory to sorrowful. Each is expertly recorded and the sound quality is superb, sitting in the mix with ease. If you want to add authentic world winds to your palette, then look no further."
In a crowded field of string libraries, Tokyo Scoring Strings stands out for its unique sound, extraordinary lookahead technology, and remarkably easy-to-use workflow.
In creating Tokyo Scoring Strings, we wanted it to be fun, inspiring, and easy to use, while still powerful enough to create truly realistic, lifelike performances. We’ve gone to great lengths to polish and perfect our legato so that it sounds perfectly natural and real, whether you’re writing expressive or rapid passages.
The Essentials Version of Tokyo Scoring Strings gives you incredible fine-grained control, as well as extraordinary levels of detail and the ability to mock up an even wider range of performances due to expanded articulations.
In creating Tokyo Scoring Strings, we wanted it to be fun, inspiring, and easy to use, while still powerful enough to create truly realistic, lifelike performances. We’ve gone to great lengths to polish and perfect our legato so that it sounds perfectly natural and real, whether you’re writing expressive or rapid passages.
Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials gives you a generous selection of articulations, including everything you need to write professional, score-ready orchestral compositions. It also comes with three hand-sculpted microphone mixes:
- Board Mix: An upfront mix by Mitsunori Aizawa, using his hardware setup at Sound City.
- Anima Mix: A light and airy mix most suited to agile and intricate writing.
- Cinema Mix: A dark, smooth mix suitable for cinematic scoring and low string chorales.
For even more articulations and greater control over individual microphones, look at Tokyo Scoring Strings Complete.
What exactly is Lookahead? It’s the ideal solution to make programming parts in MIDI as realistic and easy as possible. Lookahead allows you to work directly on the grid with consistent delay for all articulations and legato speeds, and polyphonic legato that works perfectly with no additional effort on your part. For the ultimate in realism and saving time, you can even choose the optional Easy Artic mode, which selects articulations polyphonically without needing to use keyswitches.
[full width video embed of lookahead tutorial]
The sound of Japanese strings is both captivating and highly unique. What makes it so distinctive? Smaller ensembles recorded in focused studio spaces lend themselves to more agile playing, and a focus on perfection leads to incredible accuracy. These strengths make Japanese ensembles equally capable of delicate nuance and sweeping emotional performances that move listeners to tears. For many of us who have admired Japanese soundtracks for years, this sound has long been a source of inspiration, but it’s been out of reach for most composers outside of Japan — until now.
Our goal with Tokyo Scoring Strings is to give you the orchestral string sound featured in so many world-famous Japanese productions. This project has been a dream come true for all of us at Impact Soundworks, and we’re thrilled to have worked with some of our musical heroes to bring it to life.
Writing music is a deeply personal act of creation, and your workflow preferences are just as unique. Our TACT system allows you to personalize how you use Tokyo Scoring Strings to suit how you work best, regardless of which DAW you prefer or whether you use a MIDI controller or not. Do you rely on keyswitches, stick to MIDI CSS, set everything by velocity, or use a combination of all three? If you can dream up the perfect articulation mapping, you can make it real in Tokyo Scoring Strings.
The updated and improved Tokyo Scoring Strings 2.0 features stunningly realistic, consistent, and smooth legato created using our in-house developed Spectral Fusion System. Using proprietary DSP software, editing, and programming techniques, all 60,000+ legato samples have been carefully balanced and matched to all combinations of source and destination notes, including the associated recorded dynamics.
Normally, this processing would be impossible to achieve through any manual process due to the sheer number of samples involved. That’s why legato recording, editing, and programming is by far the most time-consuming part of creating realistic sample libraries, and why results often come up short — lumpy transitions, rapidly-changing timbre from source to destination, a “sucking” effect that makes the recording space sound suddenly lifeless, and more.
The unprecedented, library-wide balance from the Spectral Fusion System does not compromise the versatility or range of legato either; Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials includes a total of five distinct legato types along with four independent speed profiles which allow stunning and consistent performances at all dynamics and tempos.
Purchasing Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials will qualify you for a discount if you later decide to upgrade to Tokyo Scoring Strings Complete.
View the Tokyo Scoring Strings comparison chart to see what is available in each edition!
We are honored to have partnered with an incredible team of musicians and collaborators in Japan:
- Koichiro Muroya Strings, led by Koichiro Muroya. The most in-demand session ensemble in all of Japan. Their exquisite playing can be heard on many of your favorite soundtracks.
- Mitsunori Aizawa, Japan’s top engineer, responsible for mixing and recording hundreds of world-famous scores.
- Sound City, an incredible recording space with over 60 years of history. This choice of studio gives Tokyo Scoring Strings a tighter, more focused sound that lends itself extremely well to more agile playing and mixing with external reverb.
- Renowned anime & film composer Masaru Yokoyama, who brought his experience recording scores around the world through his companies Plugnote and MiracleBus.
- Crypton Future Media and SonicWire, our Japanese distributors who have helped with the project from the very beginning.
Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials features five independently recorded sections (Violins 1, Violins 2, Viola, Cello, Bass), as well as an Ensemble Patch, in a typical Japanese ensemble size (8/6/4/4/3) suitable for small and large productions alike.
Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials includes a well-rounded set of articulations recorded in superb detail. We have paid particular attention to delivering outstanding legato as well as the agility and crisp short notes that are such a strength of smaller Japanese string sections. You’ll be able to easily write and mock-up sweeping melodies, intimate legato, and aggressive agile passages.
Articulations
- Arco (Sustain) – 5 dynamics, 3 vibrato levels (senza, con, molto)
- Bowed Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Slurred Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Marcato Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Bowed Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Slurred Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Rebow – 3 dynamics, 5x rr
- Staccato – 5 dynamics, 6x rr
- Staccatissimo – 5 dynamics, 6x rr
- Spiccato – 4 dynamics, 6x rr
- Pizzicato – 3 dynamics, 4x rr
- Tremolo – 4 dynamics
- Releases – Natural
A beautiful new version of our Console modular FX rack and mixer is included with the updated Tokyo Scoring Strings 2.0. Here, you can access over 40 different analog and digitally-modeled effects ranging from EQs, compressors, and limiters, to multiple flavors of reverbs and delays. You can sculpt and shape Tokyo Scoring Strings entirely in Console without using a single external plugin!
Download the Console manual here to learn more!
Reviews
Testimonial – Hiroyuki Sawano (Attack on Titan, Kill La Kill, Seven Deadly Sins)
“I was curious about TSS because my work friends, Mr. Muroya and Mr. Aizawa were involved in the project. It was recorded in a studio that I often use for my string recording. I have enjoyed using this library as its sound presence and moderate ambience is unique and different compared to overseas recorded libraries that I usually use. I think it can be used effectively in a wide range of genres, not only for epic sounds, but also for rock, pop and dance music.”
Testimonial – Yasunori Nishiki (Octopath Traveler)
“It sounds exactly like what I’m used to hearing, Muroya Strings x Sound City x Mitsunori Aizawa! The staccato and pizzicato reverberation in particular gave me a sense of Sound City’s unique reverb, and I felt like I was in the Sound City control room. The sound definitely has the sense of Japanese strings and studio, making it easy to use for any kind of music. I believe this library delivers the sound of Japan to the world!”
Testimonial – Satoru Kosaki (Lucky Star, Monogatari, Beastars)
“I feel proud that a library made by close representative members of the Japanese soundtrack industry will be released. I played back MIDI data from one of my past compositions which was eventually recorded with the exact same team, and it sounded astonishingly similar. I was also impressed by how easily I was able to produce their sound without having to adjust or mix any details such as the space size, instrument balance, and legato speed, etc. I would absolutely recommend this library to anyone who wants to replicate the sound of Japanese soundtracks, and personally, I feel it will prove to be crucial in my arrangement process as it will be so much easier to imagine the final recorded result.”
Tokyo Scoring Strings – Kevin Kuschel
“But when it comes to smaller section-sized string libraries with a great legato, TSS has become a valid, new contender here that also brings a whole lot of workflow power to the table. If you want that JRPG tone with a smaller, focused ensemble size, for telling musical stories in a big context, then TSS is for you.”
Kevin Kuschel (12/21)
Tokyo Scoring Strings – StrongMocha
“Tokyo Scoring Strings is the answer to any composer’s dreams of having a world-class strings library in their arsenal. It’s also perfect for those who’ve never used such an instrument before because it has everything from deep-sampled playing techniques and expressive scripting that will take care of all the work of creating the perfect sound for you…not limited to just movie soundtracks or anime themes, as they could also fit well with anything from jazz, rock & roll, or even heavy metal!…The library is so much more than I ever could’ve imagined. It does seem like a magical palace, and it’s perfect for people who love to compose and produce.” (5/5 stars)
Thorsten Meyer (StrongMocha)
Tokyo Scoring Strings – ShadyCicada
“I’ve been using Tokyo Scoring Strings for everything from soft emotional tracks to video game battle themes. The amount of intimacy and feeling you can get out of it is incredibly varied!”