Synth Strings

[EleKtriKaz]

I love the sound of strings on a melodic track...anything from acoustic to rock. I'm wondering how I can get a good synth string sound for my tracks. I know some of the commercial stuff that I hear is actual strings, but I think a lot of it is synthesized. Any suggestions?

[TexRoadkill]

I like Kurzweil's K series for rosiny strings and the Korgs for warm pads. Mixing the two together sounds great.

[Sennheiser]

Yeah, any Kurzweil will have excellent strings. Some units more than others but they are all good.

These are samples though rather than synthisized.

[Alchemist3k]

If you have a sampler you can get a good sound but it's a matter of hunting down a good string multi-sample.

[Almiro]

For realistic strings, I really like the Korg trinity.

[littledog]

Tips for getting good synth string sounds:

•If possible, have one real violin playing doubling the highest voice in the string line. For even more added realism add a cello and/or viola too. Sometimes if there's just an acoustic bass player hanging around, I'll just have them grab their bow and play along. The sound of even one real string blended in with the synths immediately doubles the realism to the ear. It's the resin thing!

•Layer some different string patches to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses of individual sounds. A patch with a great attack, for instance, can be layered with a patch with a great sustain. It often is beneficial to use two different manufacturers as source material (I often use Kurzweil and Roland). This trick, by the way, also works really well to get really good reverbs (layering two diffferent manufacturers).

•If you have really good solo string samples or sounds and know how to arrange, you can try recording your strings the old fashioned way: write out parts for 1st & 2nd violin, viola, cello, and bass and then record them one stereo track at a time.

Good luck!

[EleKtriKaz]

Thanks for the help everyone...at this point I'm looking to use samples. I'm not in the market for an actual unit right now. Who makes good string samples? Are they used as like VST plugins, or are they samples for programs like ACID and Fruity Loops?

[charger]

Many sample manufacturers make sets of string samples. You can often use them in VSTi samplers in FruityLoops (e.g Halion, Kontakt, and others). Fruity also supports soundfonts, and you can download a lot of decent string sample soundfonts. But the cream of the crop has to be the GigaSampler libraries that are out there. Giga just supports so many cool features, and a welll-programmed set of samples for Giga can be indistinguishable from the real thing. It's going to cost you, and it's going to take time, and I don't have the money or patience to go that route.

But check these samples out, and the mp3 demos, and tell me you're not impressed:
http://www.sonicimplants.com/Strings/index.asp