string samples, or midi instrument

[Stoneroses6300]

Just curious what anyone uses to put in string samples into their songs and if theres a midi hardware or software device/program that has good emulation...I found this loop cd (http://www.ilio.com/miraslov/stringens/index.html#demos) that sounds great but I just dont know how I would put it into a song I'm doing...I guess what I'm saying is if there is a program that can play a string arrangement you write yourself...Oh this would be amazing...

[Herman Munster]

I've heard great things done with EWQL Gold and Platinum. There is a guy on my synth messageboard who uses them. Go to www.motifator.com and go to the Motif ES forum and look under Mo' Songs for songs by a guy named Dave Coscina. I think you'll be shocked by the realism. I'll likely get them once I get everything else in my studio up and going. regards...

Mike

[Stoneroses6300]

Im laughing my ass off listening too this...Do you know if he did this all through midi?

[Herman Munster]

Yes, my understanding is that he played all this on a MIDI keyboard on his PC. Quite impressive huh?

[redddog]

Incredible.

[John The Cut]

Originally Posted by davecoscina

HALion Strings are a Dxi plug-in that I use in Sonar 3.11.

Thanks for the nice comments. I'm still amassing more samples for Gigastudio and will be getting the Gigastudio 3 (Ensemble) which will give me the polyphony that I need to really take advantage of that platform.

For winds I use the ES, and my old trusty Proteus 2, Roland M-OC1 orchestral module. Also some Peter Siedlaczek Akai format samples converted to GIGA format through Chicken Systems translater

and..

Originally Posted by davecoscina

Gear Used:

Motif Rack- for Rhodes and Vocal Pads, acoustic piano
XV5080 w. String and Percussion Sample Set- for Arco Violin, Brass clusters, Bass Drum and Cymbal Scrapes, French Horns
XP30- for Oberheim type pad in background.
Sonar 2.2- Drum Loops and Guitar Riffs (comes with Sonar)

No much actually. I'm getting into soft synths now. The load time on the XV was a pain in the arse and the way it stored samples was annoying. I'm going to be expanding my ES8 though and will grab the Prosonus Orchestral Collection since I'm always trying to expand my virtual orchestra.

Thanks for the comments folks. I was going for a funky James Newton Howard feel (he's composed scores for Unbreakable, Signs, Wyatt Earp, Sixth Sense, etc.).

Jeez, man. I'm toooo bored

[Herman Munster]

check out Pablo Schmitt (I think that's his name) as well at motifator.com. I think he's actually gotten some soundtrack/scoring deals and uses orchestral type samples. All these guys are quite good. Why it's on a Motif ES website I have no idea. I think the samples these guys use would work great behind Rock/Pop/Jazz/Hip-Hop or really anything. Later..

[Curtis Franklin]

use the EWQL Gold. It will be fine for non-intensive scoring.

VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library) is INCREDIBLE, but it is diffecult to use. I think it gets the BEST results in the hands of someone who really knows how to use it.

What most professional scoring guys do it use the stock samples in a recording/sample hybrid until they build up their own library. Good luck doing that.

[bassmutant]

I'm an electric as well as double bass player, and I can honestly say the string's refil available from propellerhead for reason is atrocious. I'm sure it's been mentioned on here, but it is terrible on the arco samples. I'm not exceptionally particular by any means, they just sound terrible in my opinion.

[dach]

both VSL and EWQL are viable options however there's a big learning curve with VSL and it will certainly take a while to learn the articulations in EWQL Gold and Plat... not to mention their usefullness expands 1000% when you buy the XP articulations.... The only problem with gold is they are using the FAR mics... you can turn off the release trails but that's another can of worms if you don't know what you're doing... Plat and Plat XP pro would be good because of the ability to use only the close mics but is WAY overkill for your intentions... EWQL Silver should work great for what you want... I would also suggest you look at some of the older Akai/etc libraries or even the Garritan stuff. The last 3 can be had for relatively cheap.... The other option is to get a sampler like K2 that comes bundled with an extremely lite version of VSL....

All these libraries have their strong and weak points.... both VSL and EWQL can be very convincing IF you know what you are doing...

[Curtis Franklin]

I think I'm going to get Plat XP pro now.