www.shortscale.org

[roachello]

What do you guys suggest someone use if they want to record cello or violin but can't get the real thing? Keyboards, synth, or another program?

[Mages]

pinky on the volume knob

[Ian]

If you want the sound of one cello, make friends with a cellist. And then make sure you use a nice large diaphram microphone on it. (Make friends with somebody who has a studio)




But really, having the real thing is way cooler than any modeled sound can do. I wish I could have had real piano on all of my tracks.

[Doog]

Get handy with yer E-Bow would be another option-o.

You could always programme it in MIDI if your track is to a click, providing your MIDI sounds don't sound as ASS as the ones on my PC's internal soundcard do..

While it can sound very mechanical, it'll give you a LOT of control over accents, note lengths and that, so with a bit of patience, can get you fairly close to the real thing.
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[Mike]

Synth all the way. if you're not looking for a lead line and just some augmentation it will be fine.

[vivadeluxxe]

You could use string samples if you wanted a really realistic string sound, but they'd be hard to program fluently for a complicated part with a lot of notes, fine for one note stuff tho...
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http://vivadeluxxe.bandcamp.com/

[James]

[Sloan]

The Reason Orkester sound bank in conjunction with the built-in sampler thing works ok. As long as your hasing it in teh background or supporting the song and not having it a featured instrument, it'll be ok.
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Record your next album with me in Atlanta, GA. It'll be a good time.

[joshua]

[aen]

[Reece]

+ 1 to reason. it's quality for supplemental strings.

i can't get a decent piano out of it though, it always sounds a bit thin.

[Mike]

[Reece]

woah i thought this was new.

a ten month bump, to say precisely NOTHING AT ALL.

to say this has been a bumpy start would be akin to saying hitler had a slight problem with jewish people.

[JamesSmann]

i use reason...a "borrowed" copy and i buy their sound library upgrades when they go on MEGASAYLE a musicians friend. i recently got some kick ass folk sounds for it...the slide guitar is just epic. and the double-bowed fiddles are fantastic.

i think those sounds are pretty authentic. but i rarely do much more than half and whole note swells with the strins...i'm working on my pizzicato and super twirly-whirly string accomps. it's hard with keyboards and such when you're not really a "keyboard player" per se.

[william]

its interesting that you guys use reason. i always found it really limited, but i dont think i was quite understanding its strong points. always seemed like i was playing canned instruments, i never felt like there was much "me" there.

sorry, im no help with this. depending on how natural you need the strings to sound, you could try sampling and cutting up strings from other recordings. aphex twin did this to great effect. and venetian snares, too.

there are some synths that people say are good for strings, but i think they mean good for synthy strings, like youd hear in a dubstep track or something. still, that can be a neat sound.

[Reece]

what were you using sampler/synth wise? reason takes quite a bit of tweaking to get sounding a bit real.

[william]

[JamesSmann]

[Reece]

woah.

i've never even look at the orkester sound bank! hahaha i'm gonna have to have a play about.

[JamesSmann]