Hi,
I'm engineering for this band and have just sequenced a violin section for them. Im not too happy with the result. it's sounding sequenced.
I asked and was suggested the Garritan violin.It's expensive for me.. but beautifull! Im afraid it's gonna be too much of an overkill for me. What i was need is expressiveness in the form of short portamentos and vibratos. the very basics actually.
I have tried the Titanic and SGM Soundfont, and also the SJ orchestral soundfont. Found the violin with the SGM bank having quite a decent violin, however, I use SFZ, and could not get a good vibrato, also I have no clue how to get a reasonable portamento. If anyone is intrested, I uploaded a section of the sequence here :
http://thestudio.audioshot.net/Mp3/violin.mp3
I would also prefer something thats available in Halion or SF format.. Thanks a ton!
Sidhu
Help with violin sequencing
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- KVRian
- 1372 posts since 22 Sep, 2003 from New Delhi, India
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- KVRAF
- 3441 posts since 15 Mar, 2003
Have you tried using pitch bend for vibrato?
Sfz has a good sound but lacks features. Have you tried the Kxsf2-st player. I am having trouble finding a link for you. I'll add a link later if I find it.
Here it is. Its down near the bottom of the page;
http://kx77free.free.fr/English-page.html
Sfz has a good sound but lacks features. Have you tried the Kxsf2-st player. I am having trouble finding a link for you. I'll add a link later if I find it.
Here it is. Its down near the bottom of the page;
http://kx77free.free.fr/English-page.html
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- KVRian
- 820 posts since 15 Dec, 2004
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- KVRist
- 235 posts since 18 Oct, 2002
Hello, Sidhu:
I am a violinist and private violin teacher with more than 40 years playing experience, and I am experienced in both classical and popular styles of playing. Do you have a deadline for this project? Unfortunately, I am a little short of time tonight, although tomorrow I could devote more time to this. I do have a few comments that may help right now, though.
For starters, I think that it actually sounds pretty good. The first thing I would do is to avoid the two lowest notes in the first section (g and a naturals below the staff) because the sample is stretched to far to sound good down there. If you do use those two notes, do not repeat them in close proximity to each other, because if you hear them more than once they sound very phony. On some of the long held notes you might try to decrease the volumn a little as the note plays because these notes sound somewhat static. Also, you might leave some space between the phrases. By that I mean slight breaks every so often, like a singer might leave when the take a breath. The phrases sound like they are running into each other. You might also try using pitch bend every so often to slide the pitch into the note. Not to much, though, and try making it even less than a half step (semi-tone). Just a slight bend. You might also try sliding the pitch down at the end of a note or two, kind of a falling effect. This is done often in jazz.
Remember that a lot of violinists that you hear playing this kind of music are no necessarily virtuoso players, and it will sound authentic if you do not try to make the final product to slick and polished. Many pop and rock violinists, and jazz players as well, have learned to play in the school orchestra and may never have had private instruction at all. Violin is one instrument that requires private instruction to produce a really professional sound. I think that you are doing a good job here, it just needs some fine tuning. I will check back in three or four hours to see if I can be of any further assistance to you.
Baxter
I am a violinist and private violin teacher with more than 40 years playing experience, and I am experienced in both classical and popular styles of playing. Do you have a deadline for this project? Unfortunately, I am a little short of time tonight, although tomorrow I could devote more time to this. I do have a few comments that may help right now, though.
For starters, I think that it actually sounds pretty good. The first thing I would do is to avoid the two lowest notes in the first section (g and a naturals below the staff) because the sample is stretched to far to sound good down there. If you do use those two notes, do not repeat them in close proximity to each other, because if you hear them more than once they sound very phony. On some of the long held notes you might try to decrease the volumn a little as the note plays because these notes sound somewhat static. Also, you might leave some space between the phrases. By that I mean slight breaks every so often, like a singer might leave when the take a breath. The phrases sound like they are running into each other. You might also try using pitch bend every so often to slide the pitch into the note. Not to much, though, and try making it even less than a half step (semi-tone). Just a slight bend. You might also try sliding the pitch down at the end of a note or two, kind of a falling effect. This is done often in jazz.
Remember that a lot of violinists that you hear playing this kind of music are no necessarily virtuoso players, and it will sound authentic if you do not try to make the final product to slick and polished. Many pop and rock violinists, and jazz players as well, have learned to play in the school orchestra and may never have had private instruction at all. Violin is one instrument that requires private instruction to produce a really professional sound. I think that you are doing a good job here, it just needs some fine tuning. I will check back in three or four hours to see if I can be of any further assistance to you.
Baxter
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1372 posts since 22 Sep, 2003 from New Delhi, India
thank you so much Baxter! Real helpful. I will take note of your sugestion and work on them. Unforunately im leaving for an outstation gig right now (im engineering) and wil be back monday only. The project is in no hurry of completion.Baxter wrote:Hello, Sidhu:
I am a violinist and private violin teacher with more than 40 years playing experience, and I am experienced in both classical and popular styles of playing. Do you have a deadline for this project? Unfortunately, I am a little short of time tonight, although tomorrow I could devote more time to this. I do have a few comments that may help right now, though.
For starters, I think that it actually sounds pretty good. The first thing I would do is to avoid the two lowest notes in the first section (g and a naturals below the staff) because the sample is stretched to far to sound good down there. If you do use those two notes, do not repeat them in close proximity to each other, because if you hear them more than once they sound very phony. On some of the long held notes you might try to decrease the volumn a little as the note plays because these notes sound somewhat static. Also, you might leave some space between the phrases. By that I mean slight breaks every so often, like a singer might leave when the take a breath. The phrases sound like they are running into each other. You might also try using pitch bend every so often to slide the pitch into the note. Not to much, though, and try making it even less than a half step (semi-tone). Just a slight bend. You might also try sliding the pitch down at the end of a note or two, kind of a falling effect. This is done often in jazz.
Remember that a lot of violinists that you hear playing this kind of music are no necessarily virtuoso players, and it will sound authentic if you do not try to make the final product to slick and polished. Many pop and rock violinists, and jazz players as well, have learned to play in the school orchestra and may never have had private instruction at all. Violin is one instrument that requires private instruction to produce a really professional sound. I think that you are doing a good job here, it just needs some fine tuning. I will check back in three or four hours to see if I can be of any further assistance to you.
Baxter
thanks for your observation on the low notes in the violin. If only we had a better sample set. We have also considered hiring a real violinst for doing these sessions. Unfortunately besides the difficulty of finding a good violin player here (i do know of one fortunately), and recording him well, there is the cash problem.
It is the static nature of the legato notes (is 'legato' correct?) and the lack of any pitch slides that kills the realism for me. I will try the pitch bend tech. along with volume moduation. But I still think that perhaps a little vibrato in the long notes would sound good.
Oh! and the whole idea is to not make it sound too polished. And also tell me one more thing, how much of a bow sound should we have in a recording ? I have come accross some sample set that seem totally deprived of any bow sound. Maybe im not listening correct.
Cheers! and thanks once again!
Sidhu
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- jaaathmaster
- 2690 posts since 1 Jun, 2001 from Marlow, S. Bucks, UK
For portamento you need to preserve the formants of the violin in some way if you are doing it synthetically. I actually made some 'pseudo-formant' modelled cello patches for Manystation when it was released by filtering out the formants from the 'pitch bent' sample oscillator and combining it with an 'unpitch bent' sample oscillator with just the formants. You'd probably get better results using Sampletank 2 STRETCH or Kontakt's Time Machine 2. Not sure if there's anything else that can do this for free...
You could consider getting Kirk Hunter's solo violin which is relatively cheap and very good, with portamento/vibrato samples, although you'll need something that reads .gig files to play it (although I believe SynthFont may do this?).
You could consider getting Kirk Hunter's solo violin which is relatively cheap and very good, with portamento/vibrato samples, although you'll need something that reads .gig files to play it (although I believe SynthFont may do this?).
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
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- KVRist
- 80 posts since 4 Jun, 2001 from Central New York, USA
Symphony Strings (in sampletank format) are inexpensive and sound pretty good. Maybe that will help. I think your first attempt sounds good. The problem with sampled strings (for me) is the long notes. Best of luck.
Please wear a mask!