![]() ![]() I’m talking about the natural volume envelope that an orchestral musician uses. I’m not talking about slight variations between different notes, mind you, though that’s important. When listening to live string musicians perform, you’ll notice that the notes they play are not all the same volume throughout. The second most important skill for having realistic virtual strings is using velocity and expression appropriately. This can create an airy and emotional effect, but requires use of divisi(or divided section) patches, which not all sample libraries have. There are also times where we may want to create a tight chord using only the high strings. For example, having the second violins cross over into the first violins’ range can have a dramatic and impactful effect. Remember that these are best practices and not rules. The bass will often double the cello part, albeit an octave lower, to give the ensemble a foundation. We generally give the highest voice to the first violins, the second highest to the second violins, the third highest to the violas, and the lowest to the cellos. ![]() It can be helpful to think of the string section as one cohesive unit with four possible voices: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Now that we know the ranges of the instruments, we can break down how to write parts for them. There’s no expectation to understand music theory, but I encourage you to read up on it if it’s of interest to you. Next, we cover arranging string parts and basic four-part harmony writing. Certain string tunings or extended ranges do exist that can affect these. Here’s a quick chart outlining the range of each instrument: These ranges are approximations. Just remember that they will have a different timbre than those in the lower registers. That’s not to say that the upper registers are off limits. It’s easier for a musician to play the notes in the lower registers of their range with more finesse. Strings have an upper and lower range for the notes they can play and, often, the notes of the higher registers can sound strained or thin. The first thing to consider is the natural range of the instruments. ![]() This is a common pitfall when writing for orchestral strings, as our minds can come up with beautiful parts that may not be playable by a whole section, let alone a single performer. It’s tempting to write whatever comes to mind when working in a DAW, since the flexibility that MIDI provides is a creative blank slate. Writing Realistic Partsįirst things first: realistic strings rely on realistic writing. In the mean time, Soundfly instructor Charles Burchell just launched his own sample pack on Splice called “The Luv Pack, Vol. (For this tutorial, I used Symphony Strings Essentials in Kontakt 5.) If you own Kontakt and a string library, I encourage you to try these techniques with your own samples. Feel free to Splice any of the DNA players to open the Logic Pro X session on your own computer - the project contains rendered audio files of the Kontakt instruments and the associated MIDI tracks. This tutorial will specifically focus on the basics of realism when producing orchestral strings.Įach technique discussed will have an accompanying DNA player so that you can hear how they affect the sound. Before we begin, attaining realism with orchestral productions is quite the rabbit hole, especially if we branch out into all the sections of the orchestra. Thankfully, the techniques needed to achieve realism are easily within reach - all it takes is a little know-how and some careful mixing. The issue crops up with some frequency, especially with newer orchestral producers, as we expect these $400+ libraries to have a turnkey solution for our realism woes. Modern orchestral samples are extremely high quality, miles ahead of some from previous generations, but we still run into the issue of making those samples pass for a live orchestra. You’ve just finished writing a beautiful string orchestra piece but can’t shake the feeling that it sounds off. + If you’re serious about using MIDI string libraries in your music, whether for a film score or an epic rock ballad, maximize the emotional pull and expressiveness of the performance with Making Realistic MIDI Strings. This article originally appeared on the Splice blog. ![]()
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