Strings - copying from star wars

Hey
I set myself the task of doing a mock up of a John Williams piece,taken from Star Wars. Its starts with the violas and this is where already I am stuck lol  !!!  Heres the link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37TkOu-unz0

What I'm trying to work out is if its the whole group of violas playing the same part or if the violas have been split in 2 with one part playing some of the time and then the seond group of violas taking over and playing the other parts ?? Its really hard to tell.  Sometimes it feels like they are playing on the left speaker and then other times on the right ---- maybe this is just the variation in dynamics though ??
In order to get the chorused sound I've done a few overdubs - but it really sucks !!! The phasing sounds pretty bad. Maybe I'll try a short delay or something like that.Does anyone have any suggestions on getting a realistic chorus sound ?? Or tips in general on how to produce stings ?!! Many thanks for your help,
Kev

hey
I'm trying to copy the instruments panning as they appear on the video.I know I will never get it close to this but yeah I guess what I'm to trying to do is make it 'convincing' !! I'm using Vienna for the violas.They do have an option to use 10 violas in unison which sounds ok...but I want it closer to what I hear on the recording! I like your idea of cloning and then quantising + using a delay.I'll give this a go tommorow !!!
Many thanks
Kev

Bristol_Jonesey


How are you getting the notes into the PRV? Drawing them or playing them?

If you're drawing them, I suggest you try playing them from your keyboard.

You'll get natural timing variations, natural velocity variations, all you need now is to add some expression & pitch variations and that's probably as good as it gets.

Do this multiple times on different tracks and build it up a phrase at a time.

If your DAW starts to struggle with so many instances of Viena, bounce them down.

And you can honestly turn round and say - "I played that"

Yes I started playing the parts in and it sounds much much better :) I've started playing with delays combined with reverb and this is defo giving it some space.I'm saving the expression til last (CC11 ??). Adding pitch variations is a fantastic idea !! How can this be done ? I've thought about using two or three tracks with differant attacks / release times. Maybe this would give it some pitch variation as it would create slight overlaps between the notes ?? Is there a midi controller for pitch ? I've checked the vienna plugins and so far all I can see is a control for pitch in 'semi'tones' lol not right for this one me thinks ;)
Thanks for your help !!!!
Kev

feedback50


I generally record each part at least twice to seperate tracks, often repeating an octave up or down for strings. I use both solo and section samples for each part and intentionally vary the timber, pitch, volume and timing on each part. The illusion this creates is that you are hearing a section of human players with all their imperfections. Your ear hears the section as a whole but every once in a while it will pick up one single player rising slightly above the section. I generally pan left to right: 1st violin, 2nd violin, viola, cello, bass as one would normally view an orchestra. You can split ranks as necessary to cover parts or create textures. The Garritan site has a version of the Rimsky Korsakav orchestration text on line, with some audio demonstrations of various voicings. Lots of good info on balancing brass or woodwinds against strings.

Great advice,thank you !

The results will depend somewhat on which string sampler you use and what controller commands they respond to. Using the same patch over and over will likely create your phasing issue. If you have more than one viola section sample to use it might help eliminate some of this.

I use Garritan for most projects, but there are much better tool$ out there. If I were doing this, I'd just use one or two section patches for violas, and one or two solo violas. Each pass would be recorded independently, or copied and then carefully make slight adjustments to the start and stop times of each note to pull them very slightly out of unison. In Garritan the volume is controlled with the mod wheel, so you can control dynamics of sustained notes (swells). It ususally pulls up different samples at different volumes in your sampler. I try to follow the volume of the piece but I do intentionally vary it from part to part, especially the solo instrument tracks. I then draw controller events to vary the pitch slightly in a somewhat random fashion for each part independently. I also do a controller send for timbre variation on each part.

With that done I would normally go to the 1st and 2nd violins and repeat the entire process (usually each an octave up). I have spent upwards of eight hours doing an eight bar orchestration for the bridge of a rock song. It's very painstaking work, but some of it can be automated with midi programs or taking advantage of special features in your sampler software.

feedback50


The results will depend somewhat on which string sampler you use and what controller commands they respond to. Using the same patch over and over will likely create your phasing issue. If you have more than one viola section sample to use it might help eliminate some of this.

I use Garritan for most projects, but there are much better tool$ out there. If I were doing this, I'd just use one or two section patches for violas, and one or two solo violas. Each pass would be recorded independently, or copied and then carefully make slight adjustments to the start and stop times of each note to pull them very slightly out of unison. In Garritan the volume is controlled with the mod wheel, so you can control dynamics of sustained notes (swells). It ususally pulls up different samples at different volumes in your sampler. I try to follow the volume of the piece but I do intentionally vary it from part to part, especially the solo instrument tracks. I then draw controller events to vary the pitch slightly in a somewhat random fashion for each part independently. I also do a controller send for timbre variation on each part.

With that done I would normally go to the 1st and 2nd violins and repeat the entire process (usually each an octave up). I have spent upwards of eight hours doing an eight bar orchestration for the bridge of a rock song. It's very painstaking work, but some of it can be automated with midi programs or taking advantage of special features in your sampler software.

Hi !
I'm using the vienna preset of 10 violas.Yes maybe you're right its probably better to try a differant patch against the first.I have vienna solo viola also a cheapish viola sound from my Colossus library...I'll give it a go !
It makes sense to vary the pitch for sure...but how do you do this ?? Which midi controller effects pitch ? I'll look up it if you don't manage to get back to this post.
8 hours on 8 bars !!!!!!!!!! Hahah thats crazey !!! I guess the results are going be much better though the more time you put in eh.
Thanks for your help,
Kev