January 31st, 2012
String players often discuss the need for ‘bow markings’ or simply ‘bowings’, but what are they and why do they matter?
The basic premise is that the bow travels in two directions (down and up) and whereas a versatile player should be able to play all but the most challenging passages of music starting with either direction, often one direction leads to greater ease and comfort than another. As intricate passages of music often involve many changes of string (bowing from one string to another) the direction of the bowing takes on a greater significance as it will lead to a clockwise or anti-clockwise movement of the arm (whether that be emanating from the elbow or shoulder). Generally, if a rapid bow stroke starts on the lower string and leads to the upper string, then a clockwise movement is more effortless (although there are many instances where the opposite can create a desired effect!). In this instance, a down bow on the lower string followed by an up bow on the upper string could allow the player to perform the passage smoothly. This is just the beginning, as the array of different musical contexts where an appropriate bowing can help create the desired effect are almost limitless.
Bows are also weighted in favour of the bottom part (the ‘heel’) with a much lighter upper part (leading to the ‘tip’). This means that the proportion of weight isn’t evenly distributed (which is why the point of balance on a bow is approximately a third of the way up the bow from the ‘heel’). Again, an accomplished player shouldn’t need to crescendo down to the ‘heel’ or diminuendo up to the ‘tip’ but acheive the opposite with ease. Nevertheless, there are many examples where this knowledge can be put to good use.
In a more ‘legato’ context, all of the members of the string section are capable of acheiving a seamless, singing line where the changes of bow become invisible and the sound takes on a glowing, expressive quality - like an endlessly spun sound. This is where we can close our eyes and forget that the bow exists at all (an aspiration of most string players!). Whereas the composer’s intentions are always paramount, if more bow strokes are needed to play a certain passage, they can remain invisible if placed at natural ‘breathing points’ along the way.
If you are a composer, arranger or orchestrator and are unsure of the role of bow markings in a composition, the best advice would be to spend an hour in the company of a professional player who could explain bowings in different contexts. Or you could take a leaf out of the great Baroque masters’ book: simply leave your score blank and leave it up to the string players to bow it to their satisfaction!
Tags: Bow notation, Bowed instruments, Bowing and fingering, Orchestrator Vaughan Jones, string arranger, String Arranging, String notation, String orchestration, Vaughan Jones violinist, Violin bowings
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November 8th, 2011
Last week, four of us travelled down to a recording studio called ‘The Chiller’ in Thursley, Surrey to record 10 pieces for an indepdendent composer. Each piece was scored for string quartet and generally lasted between 30 seconds and two minutes. As none of the pieces were technically difficult, we were able to record quite a lot of music in four hours. The composer attended the session and as we weren’t playing to a click track, he conducted us in at the beginning of each piece so that the tempo was exactly what he had in mind.
Although beforehand, the idea of overdubbing an extra layer of strings was discussed, the client decided that the sound was full enough with just a string quartet. One danger of recording two layers of a string quartet can be that by having two string players in unison on any one part, the sound can end up thin with vibrato clashing. With an overdub of four players being neither a string quartet (with the beautiful sonority of individual instruments) nor a larger section, this often doesn’t sound satisfactory. In the event, the sonority of a quartet gave the sound that the client was looking for and it suited the character of his music.
We’ve observed several times that recording one player per part (as in a quartet) can have a stronger sound with more impact because the individuality of the musician comes to the fore and the sound is more soloistic.
Tags: Hire a string quartet to record, hiring string players, overdubbing strings, Recording a string quartet, Recording strings for library samples, Recording violins, Sonority of a string quartet, string section, string session players, studio strings, The Chiller Recording Studio
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November 4th, 2011
Last week we were asked to record a string quartet onto a pop song for a producer in Hong Kong. As a deadline was involved and a couple of our regular studios were either fully booked or unavailable, we contacted a local recording facility called Black Frog Studios in Thame.
Situated in an industrial unit, the studio had plenty of space to accomodate many musicians. As the parts were already very well written for stringed instruments and the producer had sent over a detailed click track alongside the mp3 of the song, recording was a very smooth and easy procedure (despite a few challenging passages in the first violin part).
Steve the engineer sent the completed track over the following morning via a file upload site and the client was very happy with the end result. It was only 5 days from the client’s initial enquiry to him receiving the finished recording, so it was vital to get studio availability as soon as possible and we’re really pleased to add Black Frog to our list of efficient and reasonably priced studios that we’d recommend.
Tags: adding string parts to a pop song, Black Frog Studios, Buckinghamshire recording studio, hire a string section, hire as string quartet, Oxfordshire recording studio, Recording a string quartet, Recording engineer, Recording strings, Recording Studios in Thame, session musicians, Steve Lockwood Engineer, Thame recording studios
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August 26th, 2011
On Sunday I got together once again with composer Leigh Haggerwood to record some violin and viola parts for some of his new music. Last year, we had worked with Leigh on his Florin Street Band project and it was great to catch up with him.
As this time the brief was purely to supply some solo vioiln and viola lines, I was the only musician present and therefore we were able to record at Leigh’s own studio. As usual, the melodies were memorable with terrific string parts which blended skilfully with the other instrumental parts in the track. I’m looking forward to hearing the finished result!
Photograph courtesy of Leigh Haggerwood
Tags: Florin Street Band, Leigh Haggerwood Composer, Recording solo strings, Scoring for strings, session viola, session violinist, Solo violin parts, string arranger, Upper strings, Vaughan Jones Violin, Viola part for track
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August 18th, 2011
A few months ago I blogged about composers/producers who are inexperienced with working with real stringed instruments and therefore aim and make them sound more like the sampled strings they work with routinely.
This same issue occurred again recently when a client received files of his music that had been recorded by many solo instruments. Each one had been recorded with a close microphone and sent as a separate stem in a dry and unaltered state, ready for him to re-mix and master on top of some sampled strings at his end. The recorded sound was of a high quality (as was the playing) yet on receiving them he noticed ‘clicks and pops’ and ‘hissing’ on some of the files. The recording engineer sent him some advice on receiving files and also re-checked the files at the studio. They sounded perfect, yet the client still complained of the same problem.
Eventually (after much scratching of heads) it dawned on us that what he was picking up on was the sound of our fingers touching the strings when producing the notes (’pops’) as well as the sound of our bow hair on strings (’hissing’).
The first remedy in production would be to merge all the various stems together to create one integrated string sound. This can take skill and a good ear to achieve a sound like a real orchestra but eventually with everything balanced and panned, the end result would be a rich and powerful sound. Secondly, reverb will help to give the sound some distance. When we listen to an orchestra in a concert hall we don’t sit one foot away from one of the violinists. At this the perspective you would hear every ounce of surface noise (bowing and fingering) that the player would naturally make.
With an audience sitting between ten feet and a hundred feet away, the close details vanish and what is heard is a smooth, clean sound with the 50 or so members of the orchestra merging into one integrated section. That is what the careful application of discrete reverb will achieve. On top of that, some equalising of various registers (even individual stems) and a touch of compression will help to make the overall sound even more balanced. So listening to each single stem with the aural equivalent of a microscope achieves very little towards an end result. Certainly listening to live recorded strings and wondering why they have human noises which aren’t present in sampled strings is of no benefit.
The conclusion to this is that people playing real instruments make real sounds - whether it be the breathing of a saxophonist, the keys on a clarinet or the surface sound of bow hair against string of a cello. Listening closely to any recording of some of the greatest chamber music ensembles reveals all kinds of human sounds which can seem slightly ‘imperfect’ when compared to air brushed, auto-tuned commercial pop tracks and heavily produced synthesised strings. Most classical music producers would leave these noises in because they all subtly add to the ‘live’ feeling of the recorded performance, rather than an overly manicured recording which might be more ‘perfect’ yet leaves the listener cold. It’s a tricky balance to attain - skilled post production mastering can work wonders and enhance live instrument recording, but excessively doctoring the sound (to bring it into line with the clean samples that the modern ear has become accustomed to) can lead to the blandness and uniformity of samples!
Tags: Arranging for strings, Bow noise on violin, Close mic strings, hiring a string section, Post production of live strings, programming sampled strings, Recording an orchestra, recording live strings, Recording studio live strings, String orchestra recording, String surface noise, Using sampled strings, Violin fingerings
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May 9th, 2011
Last Monday we spent the entire day recording the music by Gareth Dicks, a composer of musicals who is producing an album of his own work. The recording session took place at Fit Dog Studios which is located in the picturesque village of Gayton in Northamptonshire.
Fit Dog is run by the husband and wife team of Chris and Louise Furner (Chris being the engineer on the premesis). The live room has a fresh, airy feel with plenty of natural light which is a helpful characteristic when recording for several hours in a day.
Gareth’s music was scored for different combinations of violins, violas and cello (sometimes as solo instruments and sometimes as a small string ensemble). After a full day of recording the strings we eventually left as the wind section were arriving to add flute, bassoon and french horn parts. We hope to return to Fit Dog in the near future and wish Gareth well with his work.
Tags: Fit dog studios, Gareth Peter Dicks, northamptonshire recording studios, Recording strings, String recording, strings for an independent release
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April 18th, 2011
About a year ago I wrote a blog entry called ‘Bring on the Viola‘ which discussed the merits of this sometimes overlooked and under-appreciated instrument of the string family. I thought it worth adding another blog entry as in the intervening year, we have worked with a number of clients who seem unaware of the existence of the viola!
If a songwriter has written some string parts and found that three of them are in the register of the violin and the fourth down in the cello register, then it may be worth transferring one of the violin lines to the viola to create a more natural and full sounding string section.
So why do people forget this important instrument? I don’t know… but we get plenty of enquiries from people requesting violin and cello parts to be added to a track, yet omitting the viola. As an analogy, this would be like a rock band having a lead guitar and a bass player, but no rhythm guitar to fill out the middle register.
Although only five notes lower than the violin, the viola has a completely different sound. It is more rounded and mellower, making it the perfect instrument to blend with both cello and violin and it can be brought forward in a song as a solo instrument in it’s own right. A violin is more frequently chosen to perform solos in an instrumental break, but there are certain tracks where the viola would be much more at home and give the song a softer edge.
Tags: Arranging for strings, Orchestrating for strings, qualities of the viola, session string players, session viola, string arranger, violin and cello parts, violin instrumental break, writing for strings
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April 13th, 2011
Much of the recording work we do involves the use of a ‘Click Track’. A click track is an audible metronome which is fed into a set of headphones and enables a musician to play with complete rhythmical accuracy.Generally a click track will be played in addition to the other instruments which are already recorded, so the session musicians can hear both the click and other parts of the music, since a combination of both gives the best of both worlds.
A lot of singers, songwriters and producers tend to record and build a track around a specific metronome marking so that all of the instruments tally and play perfectly in sync together. A click track also enables instruments to be recorded separately, so drums could be recorded on a different day, in a different studio or even a different country to the guitars, vocals, strings and other instruments on a track. It is also a valuable tool for engineers and producers to be able to communicate with musicians and quickly identify any mistakes or areas which need to be re-recorded. By knowing how many beats are in a bar and setting the click to that time signature, an engineer can liaise with musicians freely using bar numbers, even if they don’t read musical notation.
Sometimes tracks are not recorded to a click and this can give the music a real sense of freedom. If musicians are overlayering other instruments which are already recorded in a track, this requires a strong attention to detail and a good knowledge of the piece to ensure split second accuracy. If a session musician receives a track which has rhythmical inaccuracy inherent in what has already been recorded, it may be necessary to record without a click track or the end result might have strings which are absolutely perfectly in time but don’t sync up with the vocals and guitar (which aren’t). This is also true with music which changes tempo regularly or has pauses and changes of time signature.
Often a click track can be used to save time in a studio. A string orchestra or quartet may record a piece which requires no further overlayering and due to lack of studio time may decide to use a click to ensure rhythmical accuracy. The alternative of allowing more rhythmical freedom without the click could result in the music speeding up or slowing down fractionally or not being ‘tight’ enough. There is a danger here that the click may kill any sense of the ebb and flow of a piece of music and straightjacket musical freedom. So on the one hand it can create greater accuracy but this can sometimes be at the expense of feel and expression.
Tags: Click track in studio, hire a string section, online session musicians, recording string parts, Recording to a click track, session musicians, session strings, string arranger, string musicians, Studio orchestra, Vaughan Jones string arranger
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April 2nd, 2011
The Trill (also known as The Shake for some reason…) is a musical device which is common to most instruments as well as more accomplished vocalists. It is written as the letters ‘tr’ followed by a wiggly line directly above the note or notes to be trilled and is performed by rapidly alternating the written note with the note immediately above it in the musical scale. If the trill is to oscillate to a note foreign to the key signature, an accidental (sharp, flat or natural sign) would be notated above the note in question. Apart from this, trills are generally diatonic (meaning the interval between the two notes would be in accordance with the key of the piece) and therefore some trills are likely to be semitones and some full tones. If a composer or orchestrator requires a note to be trilled downwards (i.e. with the note below it), this would generally be written a note lower and start with a grace note above (e.g. if a composer wished to trill downwards between the notes C and B then he or she would write a grace note on the note C followed by a written B with the trill symbol directly above it).
For stringed instruments, trills almost always tend to be played slurred. This means that the fingers rapidly alternate notes as the bow continues it’s stroke. It is very rare for a trill to be bowed separately (i.e. the bow changing direction as each note changes). If this was ever required, generally the composer would have to write out the notes in full rather than applying the trill symbol.
Trills can be highly effective in pieces of music written for solo instruments as well as those composed for larger sections of stringed instruments and provide a graceful and often dream-like character to a passage. They are also associated strongly with the 17th and 18th centuries and therefore can often conjure up an antiquated and charming feel to a piece which will evoke associations with an older style.
Although to the listener it would appear that trills require an advanced level of co-ordination to play, in effect they are slightly more straightforward in that generally the upper finger does the trilling whilst the lower finger remains on the lower note. It is also possible to trill between an open string and a first finger.
If a composer or string arranger would like a player to trill between an interval greater than a tone and a half (e.g. a trill symbol could be applied to the note C and by the use of an accidental could enable a trill with a D#, giving a tone and a half), then like the separate bows, this would usually be notated in full. Depending on the speed of the piece, this could be written with demi semi quavers all slurred in the same bow.
Tags: 17th century music, 18th century violin style, classical music, composing for strings, Orchestration for strings, String Arranging, string section, the shake, trilling on violin, Trills, Vaughan Jones string arranger, Vaughan Jones Violin, Writing for stringed instruments
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March 21st, 2011
On Friday, five of us entered the studio to recording strings for the re-branding campaign of a large company. The music had been carefully scored for double basses, cellos, violas and violins and was already well notated, meaning that we could simply turn up and play without us doing any additional work on the parts or wasting any studio time. As such, the three hours of recording studio time were spent in an intensive fashion, with three tracks (ranging from 15 seconds to two minutes) being completed with several overlayers to thicken up the string sound. Although the composer and producer had envisaged our strings being added on top of some high quality sampled strings, it was a distinct possibility that if we managed to create a full enough sound using overdubbing in the studio, the live strings would suffice on their own. As live strings are always far more convincing and natural sounding than even the most expensive string samples, this was an option we were all aiming for.
The session went well and although there were a couple of tricky passages which were really challenging, by the time we were finished, the sound was really rich and full and the clients seemed to be very happy with the result. We look forward to working with them again on other projects in the future.
Tags: layering live strings over samples, live or synthesised strings, overdubbing strings, overlayering strings, programming sampled strings, Recording a string section, sampled strings
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