Welcome to Impact Soundworks flagship orchestral string library, Tokyo Scoring Strings. Introducing the distinctive sound of Koichiro Muroya Strings, the top Japanese session string ensemble, heard on countless world-famous anime and game soundtracks.
Recorded in the legendary Sound City Studio by Japan’s top recording engineer, Mitsunori Aizawa. Incredible agility, stirring vibrato, and enough deeply-sampled playing techniques to realize virtually any score.
Tokyo Scoring Strings - Japanese Anime & Game Orchestral Strings
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. But we weren’t satisfied with just capturing this remarkable sound; we also sought to deliver an outstanding, inspiring UI, flexible editing, beautiful legato, and recording depth to rival any other industry-standard string libraries.
Features
- Elegant and streamlined UI
Easy control over dynamics, dynamic range, vibrato, and legato speed from the front page - Groundbreaking Lookahead Mode
Analyzes MIDI with a lookahead to produce expressive and realistic performances; Zero Latency and Standard modes also available - Total articulation control technology V3
Easily create any mapping you want using keyswitches, velocity, midi CC, pedals — to fit your personal workflow - Deep editing for power users
Adjust legato transitions, sample offsets, overlays, and much more
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. But we weren’t satisfied with just capturing this remarkable sound; we also sought to deliver an outstanding, inspiring UI, flexible editing, beautiful legato, and recording depth to rival any other industry-standard string libraries.
Impact Soundworks Japanese Partners
Impact Soundworks 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 features five independently recorded sections (Violins 1, Violins 2, Viola, Cello, Bass) in a typical Japanese ensemble size (8/6/4/4/3) suitable for small and large productions alike.
Tokyo Studio Strings 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
Note: All articulations below are true, unique recordings, not created by re-pitching or processing other samples!
- Arco (Sustain) – 5 dynamics, 3 vibrato levels (senza, con, molto)
- Bowed Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Slurred Legato – 3 dynamics, 2x rr
- Bowed Portamento – 3 dynamics
- Slurred Portamento – 3 dynamics
- Rebow – 3 dynamics, 5x rr
- Staccato – 5 dynamics, 6x rr
- Staccatissimo – 5 dynamics, 6x rr
- Spiccato – 4 dynamics, 6x rr
- Crisp (Secco) Spiccato – 2 dynamics, 6x rr
- Sforzando – Dotted eighth & dotted quarter lengths, 3x rr
- Decrescendo – Dotted eighth & dotted quarter lengths, 3x rr
- Pizzicato – 3 dynamics, 4x rr
- Tremolo – 4 dynamics
- Trills – 2 dynamics, whole tone & half tone
- Releases – natural, excited, and staccato
- Harmonics
Console: Modular FX Rack and Mixer
Console is a fully-featured mixer, modular effects rack, and pedal board, designed to give you full control over your mix. Effects include multiple EQs (digital and analog-style), compressors, spatial FX, modulation FX, amps, distortion pedals, reverbs, and more.
Each mic channel can be loaded with up to 8 FX in any order, plus another 8 slots on the master channel, with support for send routing as well. The new “Galois Reverb” added in Kontakt 6 Player sounds fantastic as an alternative to our included custom IRs.
WATCH WALKTHROUGH
Content:
- Five Orchestral String Sections
8 violins 1, 6 violins 2, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 3 basses - Four Mic Positions in A Legendary Space
Pristine 24-bit, 48kHz samples (downmixed from 96kHz) captured at Sound City: Close, Room, Decca, and Surround - Mitsunori Aizawa's Board Mix
Custom, pre-mixed sample set that delivers Aizawa’s personal sound out-of-the-box - All Crucial Playing Techniques
Sustains, spiccato, staccato, staccatissimo, spiccato, spiccato secco, tremolo, harmonics, trills (whole-tone, half-tone), long & short decrescendo and sforzando - Expressive dynamics, legato, and Vibrato
Two legato and portamento types, multiple speeds, three vibrato levels (senza, con, molto), and up to five dynamics per articulation
Listen To All The Demos
Ben Hicks Ikigai Board Mix
Ian Dorsch Sunrise at the Bramble
Fredrik Hathen Partum Artifex Part of the Creation
Henning Nugel 199
Hitoshi Sakimoto Vagrant Story Staff Roll mockup by Will Roget II
Andrew Aversa Kouyou v2
Nabeel Ansari A Celestial Promise Lookahead Demo Dressed
Andrew Aversa Sacred Memories
Sarah Mancuso Grave
Andrew Aversa Tangledeep v2
Henning Nugel Polyphonic Cello Legato
Jeff Ball The Story Part 4_ Finale
Aversa Short Showcase Dry
Jeff Ball The Story Part 2_ Allegro
Jeff Ball The Story Part 3_ Adagio
Steven Cravis Satos Journey
Jeff Ball The Story of Tokyo Scoring Strings Complete Score
Nabeel Ansari A Celestial Promise Lookahead Demo Naked
Jeff Ball Paper Boat Journey
Ben Hicks Ikigai Close Mics TSS Only