BBO Strings

Name: BBO Strings
Price: 212 USD
Author: Vienna Symphonic Library

by Vienna Symphonic Library · Instrument · Sampled large string ensembles

Not rated yet

A Big Bang Orchestra 2.0 pack of large string ensembles, including 14 first violins, 12 second violins and 8 violas, and a 112-piece string ensemble.

Articulations include legatos, glissandos, espressivo, swells, trills and pizzicato, for €189 (about $215).

Best for: Acoustic Instruments. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic.

Keywords: strings, ensemble, cinematic, film & game audio, sample-based, epic, lush.

What it does

BBO Strings is the string pack of Vienna Symphonic Library's Big Bang Orchestra 2.0: large, pre-combined string sections recorded on Stage A of the Synchron Stage Vienna. It is aimed at big, emotional lines rather than detailed section-by-section writing; the developer sums it up as "Pure Motion. Pure Emotion."

Section sizes: 14 first violins, 12 second violins and 8 violas, plus a massive 112-piece string ensemble.
Unison and octaves: string ensembles play in unison and in octaves, for instant weight on a melody.
Ensemble presets: High Strings, Low Strings, Low & High Strings and Supermassive String Ensembles.
Articulations: real legatos, glissandos, espressivo, swells, trills and pizzicato.
Mic positions: Main (Decca tree stereo and centre), Main surround, High stereo and High surround, plus a dedicated high-strings mic.
Mixer presets: Room Mix, Stereo Decca Tree, surround variants and processed presets in the Synchron Player.
Flow View: a simplified playing view in the Synchron Player, new in BBO 2.0.

The pack holds 129,991 samples. BBO 2.0 regrouped the original 12 modules into seven packs, also sold together as the Big Bang Orchestra Bundle, and uses lossless compression to cut file sizes. It runs in the Vienna Synchron Player. It has a 30-day free trial.

Source: Vienna Symphonic Library product page

When to use it

BBO Strings is the faster pick when you want a huge string sound straight away, without building it up from separate sections. Compared with Spitfire's BBC Symphony Orchestra Core or EastWest's Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition, it gives you far fewer instruments and articulations, but its sections are already combined and sized for epic themes. Berlin Strings from Orchestral Tools is the deeper option for detailed, section-by-section string writing, while BBO Strings trades that control for scale and speed. Its 112-piece ensemble and octave patches give a bigger sound in one patch than Arturia's Augmented STRINGS, which leans towards hybrid, processed textures instead of a straight orchestral section.

Best for: soaring film themes, trailer and game cues, and quick sketches that need a large, finished string sound.
Genres: cinematic, trailer, game and epic orchestral music.
Look elsewhere if: you need intimate or chamber strings, or every articulation per section; Synchron Strings Pro or Berlin Strings go deeper, and BBC Symphony Orchestra Core covers the whole orchestra.

What producers say

Reviewers welcome BBO 2.0 as a quick route to an epic orchestral sound; there is little published commentary on the strings pack on its own.

Sample Library Review (November 2025, on the whole BBO 2.0 bundle) called it "Instantly Epic!" and praised the "lush, cinematic full-ensemble sound" of Stage A.
Workflow changes: the same review liked the regrouping from 12 modules into seven packs, the new Flow View and the smaller files from lossless compression, with backward compatibility kept.

Sample Library Review: Big Bang Orchestra 2.0

Where to buy

Best Service: $212
PluginFox: $212
Vienna Symphonic Library: $214.61 (Listed at €189; converted at €1 = $1.1355 (ECB rate, 29 Sep 2026))

Tutorials and reviews

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