Embellishing a dance track

Yesterday we were booked to provide a large string section sound for a dance track being produced by someone studying recording technology in Oxford. As the rest of the track was just drums and vocals, it gave us plenty of scope to add some inventive strings, scored for violin, viola and cello parts – the final string arrangement ended up being scored for cello, viola, violin 2, violin 1 and an additional violin part which repeated the opening hook to help the cohesion of the track.  Because the track was in the key of F minor, (with four flats), tuning had to be really precise. The session ran smoothly and the final track sounded powerful and detailed – all that remains is for it to be mixed and mastered!