LINEAGE STRINGS BY PROJECT SAM

LINEAGE STRINGS BY PROJECT SAM

KK-ACCESS REVIEW

Project Sam are synonymous for their production and delivery of high quality sample libraries, which is something quite evident by the fact that products such as the Symphobia series are still highly regarded by working composers many years since their first release, they are still well maintained and hold a special place in countless DAW templates as a go to for certain projects.

Having received many requests for a dedicated strings library over the years, Project Sam finally bowed to the overwhelming demand, and spent two years developing Lineage Strings, which now accompanies the previously released Lineage Percussion, and shows all the signs of an ongoing
product line.

Those String library demands were obviously going to be pretty high, primarily to deliver to the loyal customer the signature Project Sam sound, but in a wrapper that gives composers access to crucial articulations, several microphone positions, as well as Legato, and flexible dynamics and expression features.

Not to be thwarted by such a goal, the Project Sam team rose to the challenge and have worked tirelessly to not only deliver these features, but also developed their own take on the attributes and implementation of ‘look ahead’ , auto phrasing, and a bunch of other useful tools that are designed to make life that bit easier for deadline driven composers.

Join us now as we take a tour and unveil the next generation of orchestral string composition from Project Sam.

TECH SPECS

Lineage Strings runs in Kontakt version 8.8 or higher, either the full or free Kontakt player edition.

It is compatible with all versions of Komplete Kontrol hosting the above Kontakt specifications.

The library requires 76GB of disk space for installation, compressed from 151GB using the NCW lossless compression format.

The library was recorded at 96 kHz / 24-bit, and is delivered to the end user at 48 kHz / 24-bit.

Lineage Strings uses the Kontakt NKI format for the presets, rather than NKSN snapshots.

There is a single microphones folder which hold 28 less ram intensive instrument variations, and a further 7 presets covering the fully loaded microphone versions.

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

Lineage Strings is downloaded and installed entirely using Native Access after registration of your post purchase serial number.

Once complete, the library will be added to the factory browser through the Komplete Kontrol auto scan upon launching either the desktop application, or an instance of the plug-in within your DAW.

FULL KOMPLETE KONTROL NKS PARAMETERS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE END OF THE REVIEW FOLLOWING THE MEDIA SECTION

ACCESSIBILITY

Project Sam have always been quite mindful of the need for accessibility, and with Lineage Strings they have endeavoured to ensure that the most important elements have been made available through both NKS1 & NKS2 compatibility, as well as the implementation of keyswitches for other functions when possible.

I did however observe one or two areas which have the potential to be improved, and noted something a little strange between the available host automation and NKS parameters, for which I will expand upon later.

LINEAGE LIBRARY CONTENT

Having been recorded at the same location as previous Project Sam libraries, the end result is consistent in overall sound, and thus works well when partnered with Symphobia 1 & 2.

In particular it should be stressed that if you need to access more of the effect style articulations such as clusters or those famous creepy horror risers. Lineage Strings does not contain such material, instead quite rightly concentrating squarely on the playability and musical realism detail.

Lineage Strings whilst not being an overblown and full Symphony sized string section, instead delivers a string section ensemble of 35 players featuring Contrabass, Cello, Viola, & Violins 1 & 2.

these are distributed among the instrument players as follows:

3 Contrabass
5 Cellos
7 Viola
9 Violin II
11 Violin I

This choice of orchestral string arrangement successfully results in a warm cinematic timbre, which can be optimised for your project, for example using the 3 available microphone positions, use close for a dry and more intimate sound, Stage for medium, and Ambient for a larger more grandiose reverberant setting.

There are also a selection of Pre-mix presets, which have been carefully put together as a more globally balanced and immediate combination of the main three microphones, for an instant out of box no fuss solution that should work well for many typical situations.

In terms of the provided factory presets, Project Sam have thoughtfully put together a collection that will match individual scenarios.

As implied by the name, Single Microphones are ideal for when you already know which microphone you wish to use, as they will only have either Close, Stage, Ambient, or Pre-mix preloaded, which will save on loading times and precious available system ram.

Here there are 5 individual instrument presets for each microphone choice, alongside the Arranger & Builder multi instrument presets, giving you a total of 28 distributed across the four microphone scenarios.

These are then replicated across the collection of 7 fully loaded mic presets, where you can mix and match your own personal choice of microphones to taste.

THE ARRANGER & BUILDER PRESETS

Unlike the single instrument patches, instead both the Arranger and Builder presets have all of the available string section instruments already loaded, and again come in both single or multi microphone flavours.

The Contra bass, Cello, Viola, & Violins 1 & 2 are assigned across the keyboard according to their natural playing range, and because the library originally utilised a total of 35 players at the point of recording, it has been cleverly scripted in such a way so that this total is not exceeded when you are playing using the complete ensemble.

Although similar in their constituent parts, the Arranger is designed to be a more instant and hands-on ensemble patch, where the builder in contrast is designed to potentially allow the user greater customisation options via it’s mapping page, such as removing certain instruments or microphones, expanding their playable range, setting individual velocity value and even changing their keyboard colour representations.

Here I use the word potential, as although Project Sam have overall done a great job in making Lineage Strings accessible, some of these more advanced mapping elements do remain buried in the onscreen GUI which are largely out of bounds for screen reader users who do not have the option to use a mouse.

Now for that slight anomaly I mentioned between the host automation parameters and those available for NKS.

The two at least I thought, when it came to NKS2 on the Kontrol MK3, in general should be the same, as in my experience with the extended Parameter view, where specific control types are grouped together on the soft function buttons, the KK software auto maps literally all available host automation parameters to the Kontrol MK3 knobs.

I found that the Arranger presets, did appear in the single page performance NKS view, and also in the classic NKS view (as would be seen on the MK2 & A-Series models), but did not for me, seem to appear in the extended Kontrol MK3 NKS view.

A little strange, but it can be resolved by using your DAW host automation parameter list to find the particular control and accessing it from there instead.

Similarly, there are no controls for Pan mapped via NKS for the Arranger or Builder presets, but in the DAW parameter view, there is a single pan control which was set to centre by default.

Moving and selecting a different instrument and then returning to pan, appeared to allow me to set independent pan values per instrument, which is actually quite desirable, but ideally I would like to see pan controls added to the NKS mapping within the mixer section.

I had also hoped that the above workflow might also apply as a way to set different articulations per instrument within an Arranger or Builder preset, however when trying to do so, I found that if I set the selected Violin 1 to Staccato, and switched instrument to say Cello and changed the articulation to a long, then the Violin 1 also changed.

if I understood the manual correctly, this is something that would otherwise be possible through the GUI mapping page.

These I think are fairly minor quirks which it should be possible to iron out in a future update.

THE LINEAGE STRING KONTAKT ENGINE

Much of the power behind the Lineage Strings library undoubtedly has a significant amount to do with the Project Sam ‘Smart Look Ahead’ system, and their ‘Adaptive Phrasing’ system, so let us delve a little into how these can remove some of those common headaches faced when recording string parts into your DAW.

The concept behind Look Ahead is of course not something wholly unique to Lineage Strings, however Project Sam have implemented itt in an uncomplicated and ultimately simple to use way, much the same as they did with their Adaptive Sync system in Symphobia 4 Pandora, and Adaptive Runs.

Essentially you can work with the Look Ahead mode switched on, however because the system introduces a 250ms delay, it will feel less responsive to play, rather like having your audio interface latency set too high, yes I confess I am a Windows ASIO user!!!

Instead, for me at least, using what is deemed as Live Mode, where the Look Ahead control is turned off, gives you a better experience in playing your strings in time to the metronome, which is certainly beneficial when attempting those fast short note runs.

Here the overall trick is to record in live mode, and then turn the Look Ahead mode back on for playback, but there is one further thing to do, and this is to first go into your DAW track settings, and set a -250ms delay value.

Now when you playback your recording with the feature turned on, the part will be using Look Ahead as intended and including all of those lovely natural transients that are often lost with abrupt sample starts, and ultra sharp attack settings, making for a much more realistic experience in the end result.

Another benefit of Look Ahead, which needs to be turned on for it to work, is Adaptive Phrasing.

This feature which I feel borders upon magical, looks at an then analyses your note lengths and presumably velocities, and then intelligently switches between appropriate articulations.

I experimented with this feature, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it interpreted my musical intentions, a fast apreggio with a firm press on the last note resulted in the expected short notes, but with an embelishment of a very nice string flourish at the end.

I think with some practice users will quickly learn to adapt their playing just a little in order to squeeze the most out of this innovative feature.

even simply having the automatic switching between a long sustain to short Staccato’s or Staccatissimo, should save a lot of time in comparison to the traditional methods of post recording editing of automation or keyswitching, both of which is still of course present if required.

LINEAGE KEYSWITCHES

On the topic of keyswitches, as with many Project Sam libraries, they have helpfully assigned keyswitches to allow the easy access of certain library features.

The most obvious and helpful for us blind & VI users, is being able to quickly change articulations on the fly.

There are often around 9 offered directly via keyswitching, but up to 13 are also included within the NKS mapping template, which in certain cases also has some additional sub articulations available.
These are:

Long notes , Short notes, Tenuto, Pizzicato, Tremolo, Harmonics, Trills, Grace Notes, Flourish, Staccato, Staccatissimo, Staccato, Long trills, & Short trills.,

Other keyswitch options allow for the control of certain library functions, such as the various Legato modes (mono or polyphonic), Live & Look Ahead mode switching, Bowing direction (up or down), & Con sordino.

      I did not find a keyswitch for the 8VA octava feature, which adds an additional octave to your played notes and phrases, this I believe is buried somewhere as a switch in the GUI.

It is worth mentioning that Project Sam have done a great job on making their product manual for Lineage Strings accessible, although it uses the .pdf format, it did not present any difficulties in navigation.

They have also listed the keyswitches and NKS controls, which is something I encouraged back in 2018 when originally authoring the accessibility section for Native Instruments developers SDK.

THE SOUND OF LINEAGE

The number one question to ask is naturally going to be “what do Lineage Strings sound like?”.

There are plenty of emerging audio demos and product reviews available since the recent release, including those on the Lineage Strings product page, but in essence they do sound quite magnificent.

Certainly if you are a Symphobia library owner and have yearned for the ability to have more flexibility and creative musicality, then Lineage Strings will tick the boxes as an ideal companion library.

Even if you do not have the Symphobia series in your collection, Lineage Strings stand out as a perfect library for obtaining that lush, rich and warm cinematic sound, with enough creative flexibility to enable you to realise convincing string arrangements.

Do make time to watch the Project Sam walkthrough guide for Lineage Strings, where Maarten takes you through every facet of the library in informative detail.

CONCLUSION

Lineage Strings is a fine addition to the Project Sam product line, and looks all set to be another award winning and longstanding library that is sure to grow with future updates, and is very likely to form the basis of further as yet unannounced orchestral sections.

Despite there being some access limitations to the more advanced mappings page within the GUI, I think in general use this should not preclude blind & visually impaired owners from achieving superb results when using the library.

There is I understand, plans for a free taster version of Lineage Strings in due course, however I do not currently have a release date for this.

Lineage Strings from Project Sam is available now from their website at a -15% introductory price of 297.00, until 9th July, (regularly 349.00)

Lineage Strings Product Page:
https://projectsam.com/libraries/lineage-strings

Lineage Strings Official Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHWFeg194LA

KOMPLETE KONTROL NKS PARAMETER MAPPINGS

Lineage Strings Arranger/builder – classic View

Page One – Performance

Knob 1 – Articulations
Knob 2 – Articulation Variation
Knob 3 – Smart Look Ahead On/Off
Knob 4 – Adaptive Phrasing On/Off
Knob 5 – Auto Vibrato On/Off
Knob 6 – Aliante On/Off
Knob 7 – Sord-ino On/Off
Knob 8 – Arranger Preset: low range, Full range, wide octaves, very dense, exactly as played

Page Two – Envelope/Controllers

Knob 1 – Volume
Knob 2 – Attack
Knob 3 – Decay
Knob 4 – Dynamics: assignable to: velocity, modwheel, expression, custom cc
Knob 5 – Vibrato
Knob 6 to 8 – Unassigned

Page Three – Effects

Knob 1 – Effects Send Level A
Knob 2 – Effects Level B
Knob 3 – Brightness
Knob 4 – Limiter
Knob 5 to 8 – Unassigned

Page Four – Legato/Precision

Knob 1 – Legato Mode: Mono, Poly,
Knob 2 – Legato hopback On/Off
Knob 3 – Precision Attack: very loose, loose, balanced, tight, very tight
Knob 4 – Release: very loose, loose, balanced, tight, very tight
Knob 5 to 8 – Unassigned

Page Five – Keyswitches

Knob 1 – Articulations keyswitch octave
Knob 2 – Variation keyswitch octave
Knob 3 – Bowing Control keyswitch octave
Knob 4 – Feature Toggle keyswitch octave
Knob 5 to 8 – Unassigned

Page Six – Mixer

Knob 1 – Pre-mix
Knob 2 – Close
Knob 3 – Stage
Knob 4 – Ambient
Knob 5 – Pre-mix
Knob 6 – Close
Knob 7 – Stage
Knob 8 – Ambient

(c) Chris Ankin

KK-Access.com

3rd July 2026

KK-ACCESS – Our NON PEER PROFIT POLICY

KK-Access believe in integrity, and out of mutual respect for our blind & visually impaired readers we feel that we should not make profit from our peers.

Our product reviews always strive to be honest and unbiased, this is achieved because none of our opinions are influenced by financial gain or other incentives from a plug-in or sample library developer for which a review of their wares may be a subject matter.

Whilst such offers are appreciated, we do not publish or use affiliation links for any products under review on this website.

Disclaimer

The author can not accept any responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of this review,or Any inaccuracies found therein. All opinions and product functions stated are based solely on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product and/or gathered from official factual sources such as the developer, web or supplied product manual.

About the Author

Based in Buckinghamshire, England, Chris Ankin has worked as a freelance review writer and contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.

He has also successfully worked extensively in and around the music, recording, film Soundtrack scoring, Game & media composition, the creative arts, Charitable trusts,publishing, music streaming and property investments since 1982 whilst continuously and deliberately managing to evade any mainstream recognition under his own name by the use of various pseudonyms.
E&OE