KVR Audio

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:04 am

the beatles used it(i couldn't tell ya the song(s)). i heard it on a belly dance tune over the airwaves. the string section sounds kind of harsh and mellotronic, but i think it's due to the instruments and the way they're played. i have no idea what to search for.

thanks

Topiness · Post by **Topiness** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:19 am

Try taking any string preset you have at the moment, and putting a short downward pitch envelope at the start.

try playing with some different scales too. Spanish Phrygian mode is a good start. Or try some different tunings if you have this facility.

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:23 am

i already know what i want to play. i'm talking about a sound. it's rough. it's like the bow is used in a lax way

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:19 am

Try the tambura/tanpura. It's probably the second most famous Indian string sound, EDIT: but it's not a bowed string. If you are looking for bowed strings, there are some classical Indian stuff out there that's phoenominal, and they do use alot of violins in it. Is it a monophonic string, usually a little low and sounds kinda dry? ... like the Chinese er-hu, but nowhere near as whiny? If so there's one called a tuntuna you may want to look at. Also try the sarangi,

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.indian-heritage.org/music/inst2.htm

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:11 am

You only ever run into the sraod, sitar and tablas. There's TENS of other great indian instruments that aren't sampled much from what I've seen so far.
I found the MOTHER of Indian instrument pages here:

http://www.4to40.com/discoverindia/musi ... troduction

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:16 am

androidlove wrote:the beatles used it(i couldn't tell ya the song(s)). i heard it on a belly dance tune over the airwaves. the string section sounds kind of harsh and mellotronic, but i think it's due to the instruments and the way they're played. i have no idea what to search for.

thanks

guess you might mean the strings on I am the walrus. There's nothing particularly weird about the sound. Yes it's very harsh, but that's just the way it was recorded, possibly through multiple generations of tape edits. That usually results to nastiness, and also the "mellotroney" sound you describe. I seem to recall the sections were recorded with coles ribbons. It sounds like the mics very relative close to the players, almost close miking in a way.

The arrangement itself features plenty of glissandos on clusters of fifths (the interval). that's the trick to 'tindian feel.

in that particular song, the string bridge in the middle of the song is probably my favourite piece of string arranging ever.

oh and on a somewhat related sidenote, if I wanted to dirty up a string section in a modern digital environment like in this song, I'd use my own RetroBand for the task (this isn't a guerilla ad, it's just that I know it works there well). Guess you should try the free version, even if it's mono.

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:07 pm

thanks for the help all!

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:17 am

i think the strings were used on one of the beatles' eastern type tunes - the one where they were chanting? anyway, i'd like to find samples of the real thing

Armadillo · Post by **Armadillo** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:14 am

QL Ra has a very good eastern string section. It's a bit expensive just for that though.

Track no. 4 (turkish delight) on my MySpace site uses those strings quite a lot if you want to hear how they sound.

eastern string section?