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Playing Strings with a Keyboard

  • 2 replies
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Topic Playing Strings with a Keyboard
I would like to add some strings to my recordings with using a keyboard.
My wife is pretty good at playing the piano, but this whole playing strings to make it sound real, is not working to good.

Does anyone know a site or book or something that I could do some research on how to play the strings with a keyboard and make it sound good?

Please let me know.
2
What sort of string samples are you using?. If it's general midi stuff then you won't get any decent sounds. You firstly need to buy some decent string samples, the reply above gives some good options. Other options are Garritan Strings or Garritan Personal Orchestra. Native Instruments Kontakt has some good strings. Vienna Symphonic Strings are amazing in terms of realism, I've used both Vienna and Garritan in mixes and had a violinist or cellist do solo work over this mix and it sounds absolutely real, even the violinist couldn't tell that I had used samples.

The main problem with all sampled strings is that they do not sound great as solo instruments. There is no way in the world you will even approach the realism of a solo violin on a keyboard. The reason is that a string instrument like a violin is played in a completely different way to a keyboard and it is the expression added by bowing it which is a huge part of the sound. This goes for sampled guitar, bass, and any other non keyboard solo instruments.

If you use sampled strings as part of a mix, you can get a very high level of realism if you have good samples with different articulations to choose from, most people (even professional orchestral players) won't be able to tell.
3
I find that just playing a tri chord or piano chords don't cut the mustard...
You actually need to use counerpoint in order to be able to properly mimic strings...

Alex-4U and Theo_C make good points...
The sound is just as important as the movement...

I'd start by picking one or two different sounds one for high strings and one for nice deep bowed bass strings...
Hold the lower strings to less movement - long notes
Then move to the mid / high strings and build a melodic movement around those sounds...

This should give you a good start...
But also listen to real strings to see how they move in a composition...
And of course read to find ways to expand...

Hope this helps...