disco house strings.. need some advice!

[LouisC]

hey there guys and gals.
been curious about this for a while. i'm talking... disco styled strings!
i've got lots of very good string libraries and sample patches that I use for things like my
classical compositions and for some other styles of music but i've never been entirely sure how
to use these to get that real disco/house stabby clear cut string sound.
i've played around with envelopes and effects and stuff but still not achieving the sound I
probably want by a long shot.

to let you hear what i'm talking about, i've uploaded a zip file with 5 different examples from
some very commercial songs, (hope you don't mind! they were the best examples I could find for
the time being.


http://download.yousendit.com/C7D2DBFA13711D1E


i would think a lot of dance producers would be doing some sampling from old disco rekkerds and
stuff for sure but i don't really own that many old school disco tunes but i thought surely
i can pull off something with my samplers and libraries so i arrange my own disco string sections!


anybody got some ideas?
thank you! have a great weekend

louis.

[rounser]

ARP Solina is what you should google for - apparently it's what they all used. The same string ensemble sound is also on the ARP Omni and Omni II and the ARP String Ensemble, apparently (see http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/vie ... aceb9128b9 )

Here's a VST based on samples from it:
http://home.bman.ch/wombat/WombatSolina.html
EDIT: hmm, the download links from that don't work.

I think there's another one called Cheezemachine as well. I don't think that's actual solina samples, though, just "in the style of" a solina string ensemble which may well be all you need anyway.

And these guys seem knowledgeable, say layer synth strings with real strings:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much- ... everb.html

Another thread says another lead is the Crumar Stringman.

If you find some source of original Solina samples, give a yell...they're proving elusive.

[Hernan123]

Those old disco tunes usually featured real live string sections. You probably need some string sampleset with lots of different articulations to reproduce what the players are doing there.

Some tunes did in fact have a string synth (ARP String Ensemble or similar), but I'm not sure if those could do the wow! cliche disco string stabs. The disco songs where I can hear a string synth, it's usually as background, not quite as percussive as the ones with the live string section.

Just my two cents, I hope this makes sense...

[Chris Roberson]

for the synth strings, even those string machines were pretty simplistic. If you layered anywhere between three and maybe five detuned saw waves on top of each other, did some fiddling with a high-pass filter to eliminate the low end and a very shallow low-pass to remove some of the brightness without being very obviously low-passed (I'd got with a -6dB low-pass for this), you can get a good sound with it. Personnally I'd go with fewer saw waves stacked and then use effects like a slow chorus used fairly dryly and/or a slow stereo phaser.

Now on the live accoustics, it's not just a matter of accurately reproducing the disco sound, it's a matter of accurately modelling the behavior of accoustic string instruments and their playing style with a sampler or virtual instrument. That's pretty much not easily done, in any genre.

[speccyteccy]

Strings (and brass) in house/disco/pop etc. often have a hard/fast attack that's not found on most samples.

[Spring Goose]

bump

disco/jackin house - any tips on the strings? I have Arturia Solina