Adding strings to recordings

fastonebaz

Quite often now I'd like to add some kind of orchestral strings or keys to my songs / compositions/recordings but I've no experience of it and a little unsure where to start.

Do I buy a midi keyboard, synth plugin, can I do it with guitar and Reaper already?

Any tips appreciated 

Funkfingers

Q1) Does Reaper already have provision to include MIDI Note data alongside your audio track(s)?

Q2) Does Reaper already support plug-in virtual instruments?

Q3) Do you know any music theory? (e.g. Harmony and counterpoint.)

If the answer to all three questions is yes, you can probably enter the note pitches and durations in to Reaper already with a combination of your computer keyboard and mouse.

Unfortunately, any synthesizer or sample replay virtual instrument is unlikely to sound quite like a bunch of humans, playing violins, violas, cellos or contrabasses in a sympathetic room. 

Might prove wiser to use a Mellotron, Roland RS-202 or ARP/Solina Ensemble plug-in.

Finally, is Reaper already Orthodox, Conservative or Reformed?

elusivelight

I"d recommend the Spitfire Audio BBC orchestra plugin. They have a free version and it's very good. 

You can program it in with a keyboard or you can pencil it in on the midi roll like you would with any other midi instrument in reaper or and DAW. 

sev112

The Mel9 pedal is not bad, it certainly can go a pretty good cello, and some combined strings if yo7 get the setting ps and playing right 

TTony

elusivelight said:

I"d recommend the Spitfire Audio BBC orchestra plugin. They have a free version and it's very good. 

Second recommendation from me.  Except I'd call it excellent rather than just very good


Grab that (free) and a simple midi controller (which will connect via USB into your PC/laptop, not midi!) and you're all set.  I've got an Akai MPK Mini for simple stuff, and an Oxygen49 for when I want to get more fancy.  The MPK Mini also comes with some other downloadable plugins, so you can use more sounds than just the Spitfire Audio plugins.

If you want to learn some keyboard basics, Pianoforall is a great place to start, and is often available on Udemy for ~£15 (steal).

jasonbone75

Thirded on Spitfire Audio BBC!

It is surprisingly easy to convert your guitar DIs into midi notes literally in seconds once setup in Reaper: https://youtu.be/MbiQzNPIWWg?si=2tLcCUnIsBVhhRbt 

I tend to put most things in with the mouse but for longer passages if you had already worked them out on guitar the above setup would get you all the notes in the midi editor ready for further editing. Best for single notes though.

As most mention above, I have a midi keyboard as well. If you learn familiarity it is brilliant especially for chordal parts and is the most efficient input option for midi when used properly. In my case it is a tolerated last resort because I'm too busy/tired/lazy to learn it properly...

Bod

elusivelight said:

I"d recommend the Spitfire Audio BBC orchestra plugin. They have a free version and it's very good. 

You can program it in with a keyboard or you can pencil it in on the midi roll like you would with any other midi instrument in reaper or and DAW. 

Another vote for SA BBC - it's a great free starting point

davros

Came here to recommend Spitfire BBC too 

thecolourbox

Sorry for slight hijack but hopefully it's a relevant question for somebody wanting to use it as well. How do you guys get on with the Spitfire orchestra strings? I've not used it for a little while so i may be misremembering, but I seem to recall finding the volume swells on the strings quite annoying so that I had to double up the string parts in Native Session Strings as well which kind of defeats the object 

The other instruments all sound great though. I wonder if there's something I couldn't find to set the swell/attack to be much less

jasonbone75

thecolourbox said:

Sorry for slight hijack but hopefully it's a relevant question for somebody wanting to use it as well. How do you guys get on with the Spitfire orchestra strings? I've not used it for a little while so i may be misremembering, but I seem to recall finding the volume swells on the strings quite annoying so that I had to double up the string parts in Native Session Strings as well which kind of defeats the object 

The other instruments all sound great though. I wonder if there's something I couldn't find to set the swell/attack to be much less

I haven't done them for a while but I recall that with bowed stringed instruments the player will naturally attack the note a little ahead of the beat due to the style of sound without a transient so you will find that you need to place all/nearly all of your notes a little off the grid, ahead, to get the correct feeling and have everything gel. It takes some practice but you can definitely notice the difference and will get an aha moment as you move things around and it all starts to sound natural..

DartmoorHedgehog

Best to have the strings on the guitar when you do the recording really

I really only came here to be a dick ^ but in answer to the actual question, if it's for string pads etc on rock music I find synth strings actually sound pretty acceptable. Of course you're not going to get all the subtle nuances of real strings very easily with a keyboard but in a rock mix I'm not sure it really matters.  But having said that, my daughter's a pretty good string player so when we've wanted strings on the odd recording we usually ask her to do it... so I may not be practicing what I preach  

jasonbone75

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Best to have the strings on the guitar when you do the recording really

I really only came here to be a dick ^ but in answer to the actual question, if it's for string pads etc on rock music I find synth strings actually sound pretty acceptable. Of course you're not going to get all the subtle nuances of real strings very easily with a keyboard but in a rock mix I'm not sure it really matters.  But having said that, my daughter's a pretty good string player so when we've wanted strings on the odd recording we usually ask her to do it... so I may not be practicing what I preach  

Sounds like you only came here to be a dick and brag about your daughter

(However, if I had a string player in the family I would do the same!!!)

Roland

DartmoorHedgehog said:

… if it's for string pads etc … 

That was my experience. I could trigger string, synth, or Hammond pads whilst playing guitar. Any other sounds needed to be triggered by playing a dedicated track which accounted for characteristics of the instrument. A few sounds, notably sax, had too much latency to be practical. That was with a GR-33. More recent hardware/software might have got over this.

octatonic

fastonebaz said:

Quite often now I'd like to add some kind of orchestral strings or keys to my songs / compositions/recordings but I've no experience of it and a little unsure where to start.

Do I buy a midi keyboard, synth plugin, can I do it with guitar and Reaper already?

Any tips appreciated 

Do you know how to arrange for strings?
Try to avoid just chucking down block chords.

If you want to learn then The Technique of Orchestration by Kent Kennan is a good place to start.

fastonebaz

Cool tips thanks all, will check out the various suggestions. 

Snags

@thecolourbox I find the default attack/swell can be a bit slow for what I want, but you can tweak it in the slightly obscure UI and make it much shorter (or longer).

thecolourbox

Thanks jason and snags, I'll have to have a look again as I could use them in my cover challenge. In principle, using the strings in Native and everything else from Spitfire BBC isn't that bad, but the annoying thing is they both use a different "thing at the bottom of the midi roll" to recreate the dynamics. Sorry I don't know what they are called. you can't just use output volume as playing loudly and playing quietly sound different at the same volumes if that makes sense - I think Native Strings uses velocity but Spitfire uses one of the other Midi control things (or the other way around, can't remember) so when I do my arrangements in Musescore with dynamcs and export to midi, to import into Cubase, I then have to try to copy and paste from one "thing at the bottom of the midi roll" to the other which mixed results.

I'll have another go and see if I can find the controls and if dragging the parts back a little into the pocket works, otherwise Native Strings sound fine so I'll just keep using them. They just aren't free like the Spitfire one for the OP's purposes

mudslide73

+for Spitfire's stuff. I'll also recommend Scaler 2 if you're like me and not a natural keyboard player.

Sporky

octatonic said:

Do you know how to arrange for strings?
Try to avoid just chucking down block chords.

Yup - there should be more "motion" in general.

The occasional big chordal shift can be quite effective as contrast.

I'll give that book a look - ta.