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Best way to get an orchestra/strings sound?


Hog

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any sample based keyboard would be good. have a look into the alesis QS range(first one i can think of off the top of my head)

however if you were willing to go for the software route I'd imagine the sampletank 2 XL would be a good option, or reason 2.5.

www.provster.com go to the downloads and select a song called "work hard, play hard." the strings section in that was done by the reason 2.5 sampler (not sure whether it's the NN-19 or the NN-XT) but it should give you inspiration!

good luck!

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Guest lime ruined my life

edirols orchestra (vsti)

samples are better.

a real musician is bestif im right a mellotron is like a keyboard, that pushes read heads down onto magnetic tape like you get in a casette.

you can get mellotrons samples online too.

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Guest Sundaram

I will now have real Mellotron on my recordings thanks to a good friend in Edinburgh.

My 7 track album entitled 'Sundaram' will be released next spring, wistful, contemplative, happy and optimistic, mixing pop, folk, jazz and indian classical music.

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thanks Imprinted' date=' I will check that out. Whats a Mellotron guys?[/quote']

A mellotron/novatron is a fairly simple piece of kit which uses pre-recorded loops of tape in large banks, you hold down a key and it plays the tape loop for about 7 seconds you then have to release the key so the tape can rewind (very fast)

Many 70's bands used them to good effect The Moody Blues, Yes, Genesis being the most obvious examples, less obvious were bands like Uriah Heap who had their complex and often used vocal harmonies recorded on to the tapes....cheating!!!

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Uriah Heap who had their complex and often used vocal harmonies recorded on to the tapes....cheating!!!

that must've taken ages to do - read somewhere that the mellotron tapes were a completely different size to the standard audio mastering tapes at the time so you had to send away your tapes to get them sent back in the mellotron tape size!

incidentally GMedia Music have released a VSTi version called M-Tron (witty huh?) which is apparently very good...but since i aint used it (or the originals for that matter) i can't say how accurate it will be...

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that must've taken ages to do - read somewhere that the mellotron tapes were a completely different size to the standard audio mastering tapes at the time so you had to send away your tapes to get them sent back in the mellotron tape size!

Not sure about that one....Pallas had a mellotron....in fact it might still be kicking about somewhere...but they had the standard sounds on it....flutes, strings, choir are some that spring to mind, I seem to remember having to take the thing to bits on a regular basis because the tapes used to stick, teching for a prog band in the 70's/80's was an endless maintenance task, moog taurus bass pedals, hammond organs and mellotrons required regular fixing....in fact, as I recall when they moved on to midi (oberheim OB8 and Yamaha DX7's) things didnt get much better.... :rolleyes:

I have an easy life these days just looking after the bass player on tour or all the guitar's on 1 off gigs.. :up:

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The best way I have found to make a good sounding string section, First try and find some good samples of all the parts eg: violin, viola, cello, D bass and maybe a good string pad. then start to put the parts down as per what the instrument would play like top line bass line etc, then if needed add the pad playing the basic chord progretion to thicken out. It takes a while to do but when all the parts fit together it works well..

Hope this helps

Mark...

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