Recording Projects
Friday, May 7th, 2010
Congratulations this week to the Granite Shore who have just sent us the final mix of two songs which we have provided strings for. As these two songs ‘Flood of Fortune‘ and ‘Highway Code‘ are to be released on an independent label ‘Occultation‘, our brief was to arrange and record strings to a high standard yet keep within a budget. The strings on Flood of Fortune were written for a large scale string orchestra whereas Highway Code is more simply scored for string quartet.
Both tracks are to be released on vinyl and should be available from June onwards, but preview clips can already be heard on the Granite Shore website. It’s always very satisfying to hear a final mix back (as we only really get to hear the string parts at the end of a recording session!), and we wish the band all the best of luck!
Tags: Flood of Fortune, Granite Shore, Highway Code, Occultation, Orchestrating for strings, Scoring for strings, String orchestra for song, Strings for a track, writing for string section, Writing for stringed instruments
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Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Yesterday I had an interesting job - a recording session at USP content studios for solo violin. The piece is to be used in a radio advertisement for a forthcoming novel. My brief was to compose a few bars of lovely ‘fairytale’ type music which would then become horribly discordant and eventually finish with a harsh screeching sound with the bow dragged across the violin!
The text of the radio commercial describes how the main character’s relationship, job and life in general go horribly wrong - and this is where my playing had to go horribly wrong as well! What was interesting to myself, the engineer, the client and the scriptwriter was how difficult it is to play badly when you’ve spent over 30 years trying to make the violin sound beautiful. After practicing various ways and means of producing a truly appalling sound, I can honestly say that I’ve now got rather good at it although hopefully it won’t creep into other aspects of my playing!
Tags: composing music for radio, Fairytale music, Music for radio commercials, Playing the violin badly, Radio commercial, Screeching violin, Session musician, Session violin, USP content studios, Violinist for advert, Violinist for advertisements
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Monday, April 12th, 2010
Last week, four of us entered the studio to record thirteen pieces written for String Quartet by the composer Ash Madni. The disc is to be released under the name ‘the Monzi Quartet’ and the players were myself and Judith Templeman on violins, with Adrian Smith on viola and Tony Woollard on ‘cello.
The pieces seemed to settle into three groups - the first were five movements entitled ‘Mystic Thoughts’, the second were three movements called ‘Sounds from the Bazaar’. Both of these were inspired by the composers Indian heritage and upbringing in Dubai. The third group were five miscellaneous pieces with titles such as ‘Human Enigma’ and ‘Confusion’.
The music was highly active in nature with a virtuosic quality that kept us all on our toes throughout the two full days of recording which took place at MBJ studios with the expert help of engineer Ben Jones (who we frequently work with). All the pieces employ many percussive pizzicato effects with trills and glissandi as well as a modal feel in places.
We wish Ash every success with the release of this disc and look forward to working with him again in the future.
Tags: Adrian Smith Viola, Ash Madni, Ash Madni Classical Composer, Composer Ash Madni, Judith Templeman Violin, MBJ studios, Monzi Quartet, Monzi String Quartet, Mystic Thoughts, Sounds from the Bazaar, Tony Woollard Cello, Vaughan Jones Violin, World Music for String Quartet
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
The literal definition of the Italian word ‘Rubato’ is ‘robbed time’, which doesn’t seem to be a particularly attractive way of describing something that adds such emotional meaning to a piece of music. In essence, it is where music is slowed down or speeded up to create an expressive effect. When done with artistry and musical sensitivity, rubato can subtly ebb and flow but without distorting the rhythmic pulse. What is taken away is always added back, rubato would never slow a pulse down and then not regain it later on, it is in a sense elastic.
In the studio, the only way of effectively playing rubato in an ensemble is through playing ‘live’, where all the musicians are actively listening to each other and making minute adjustments as they play. It would not be possible to achieve a natural ‘pulling up’ or quickening with a click track. A click track is frequently used in recording situations, especially where string parts are to be added over existing instruments or vocals - it takes the form of a metronome beat heard only in the headphones of the session musicians who are working on the track. A click can be speeded or slowed to suit the beat of the music players are working on and can even accelerate or slow down, but this rarely sounds very natural.
When music is of a metronomic nature (such as rock or pop music), then a click track can be highly effective and when used well, will not be betrayed in the end result. Recordings can sound perfectly natural where a click track has been used and often can have a tightness and accuracy that could only be achieved with a lot of rehearsing. Of course, if multiple overdubs are used then a click track is an essential tool and will cut down the studio time needed.
In more sophisticated music which is ever changing, the use of a click track can be more of a hindrance than a help and in that situation, musicians opt to use their ensemble skills and the end result will hopefully be far more natural.
Tags: Arranging for strings, Click Track, composing for strings, Live strings, Orchestrating for strings, Robbed time, Rubato, session musicians, session string players, string arranger, String Arranging, String orchestra, studio musicians, studio strings, Writing for stringed instruments
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Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Occasionally we are approached by clients who are self financing a project or who are on a very restricted budget, yet are unhappy using samples and still would like to add real strings to their track. Often, it is a private project with a tight budget, which (without going overseas and potentially risking the quality of player) would make hiring a full string section and large enough recording studio out of the question. With modern technology, several options are open - either using a high quality sample string sound as a base and layering a few real players on top (to give a more realistic and convincing effect than samples alone), or hiring a handful of very good players who are able to overdub themselves accurately - subtly varying the bowing, level of vibrato and microphone positioning on each take to try and sound like different people.
Although we always recommend that when the budget is not an issue, as many players are used as possible to capture a natural sound - surprisingly overdubbing can work well as an alternative to synthesized strings - although requires great concentration and an attentive engineer to sound convincing. This week, we were asked to overdub to create the sound of 64 string players - which is more the scale of string section found in a large symphony orchestra. Because each section was divided into two separate harmonies (or lines of music), we had all in all 8 layers for each line of music. The parts were recorded to be one element of a track which had plenty of other instruments and effects going on, so the overall sound was more convincing than adding synthesized strings, yet didn’t break the bank.
Tags: adding real strings to a track, overdubbing strings, strings on a budget
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Sunday, December 13th, 2009
On Sunday the 6th December, we were booked as a string quartet comprising two violins, a viola and cello to record at the ‘Engine Room’ (part of the group of Miloko Studios in London). We were required to add simple string parts to seven tracks for an independent band - as these weren’t string arrangements that we had been asked to write, we simply had to turn up and play the music given to us on the day. The bands style favoured irregular time signatures which kept us on our toes with large sections being done in a single take to capture a live feeling of spontaneity. The end product certainly enhanced the sound with the tracks gaining richness and depth as a result of including live strings. In a couple of tracks, the producer discussed the possibility of using the tracks laid down by the four session musicians to add a top layer to existing sampled strings - this technique is becoming increasingly popular where there are many different sounds in the mix and can certainly help the strings to sound more convincing than only using samples.
Tags: Adding string parts, chords for strings, Live strings, Miloko Studios, sampled strings, session string players, session strings, string accompaniment, studio musicians, studio strings, The Engine Room studios
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Some of the work that Stringsection does involves providing strings for composers or bands financing their own projects on a limited budget. People believe in a track enough to invest in live strings (rather than samples), but simply cannot afford to hire a full sized string orchestra without going overseas and potentially compromising on quality. Occasionally, in order to keep things within budget, or because only a few of us can fit into a smaller studio, we have overlayered the same players in order to create the impression of more musicians.
Although this might sound straightforward and the obvious answer to keeping costs down, it is actually a skillful process that only very good players are able to pull off convincingly. It is vital that the first string parts laid down are rhythmically perfect with 100% accurate tuning, as any slight discrepancies of timing or tuning can become exaggerated with a subsequent overdub. It’s often the case that this first layer takes the longest time to record and get right. If a handful of players are to successfully layer their sound a second or even third time, it can potentially end up sounding weird and slightly artificial - rather like a choir made up of the same few voices, without the variety of sounds produced by a large group. One way to overcome this is for the players to add a little variety to each take, without disturbing the rhythm or intonation. This can be done by varying the speed of vibrato, changing the weight of sound and even playing a passage on different strings (so that some notes on the lower region of the violins ‘E’ string for instance could be played higher up on the ‘A’ string). A good engineer will help enormously and can subtly change the position of the microphones between takes to avoid ‘phasing’. ‘Phasing’ is where the identical frequencies are replicated or fractionally overlap, causing the sound to become sort of ‘fizzy’. When overdubbing, if particular care isn’t taken to avoid this, what started out as a high quality group of string players can end up sounding more artificial than samples - which completely defeats the object of hiring live session musicians in the first place.
When overdubbing is done badly, it’s easy to tell straight away what’s gone on, especially in exposed passages. However if over-layering string parts is done with care and attention, the sound can be quite flawless- but success really depends on having excellent players, a sensitive producer and some very precise ears for detail.
Tags: over layering strings, overdubbing strings, recording strings in a small studio, session strings, string parts on a budget, studio musicians, studio strings
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
On Sunday, we recorded a wonderful suite of pieces by the talented composer Philip Henderson. Assembled in MBJ studios were myself on violin, one violist, a cellist and double bassist to record (with the use of accurate overdubbing), works written for the combination of 10 solo strings. One of the challenges of the day was to try and judge how much music we could record whilst maintaining the very highest level of playing which would do the pieces justice. On one hand, we needed to best utilise having four musicians together to cover the maximum amount of music (potentially 5 tracks, amounting to over 30 minutes of music), but it was vital to maintain an excellent quality of playing.
It was an enormous help to have the composer present as he could give us a very clear idea of how he wanted certain passages to sound and bring out the qualities he was looking for. With quite a lot of subtle shifts in tempo and phrasing and some quite tricky passages, we had all anticipated that the whole suite might even take a further day to complete - however it soon became clear that with the super efficient recording work by engineer Ben Jones, our motivation to get as much recorded as possible and crucially the input from Philip, all five tracks were able to be recorded.
We began by recording violin 5 with viola 2, cello 2 and double bass - and found that it took around 3 hours of recording before the double bass parts were complete. A further three hours and violin 4, viola 1 and cello 1 parts were complete. Then 3 more hours were needed to record the violins 3,2 and 1 parts for the first 3 movements of the work. The process consisted of building up from the bottom so that we could keep a tight rein on tuning as well as making the foundation for each track rhythmically perfect.
Any rhythmic untidiness will only become exaggerated with each overdub so there is a real skill in recording this way. We are all looking forward to hearing the end result as Philip Henderson has created some music of real scope which had quite a moving effect on all the musicians involved.
Tags: Ben Jones engineer, MBJ, new classical music for strings, overdubbing strings, Philip Henderson, recording chamber music, session double bass, session musicians, session string players, session violinist, String orchestra, string section, studio musicians, studio strings
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Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Yesterday we were booked to provide a large string 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 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!
Tags: Adding string parts, adding strings to a dance track, arranging for violin, Large string sound, Orchestrating for strings, SAE, session musicians, session string players, studio musicians, studio strings, writing for string orchestra, writing for string section
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Monday, September 28th, 2009
This week I was asked to arrange strings for a dance track where they had to be very prominent. The brief was to make them sound aggressive and fast right from the introduction. The existing track was structured around four chords: F minor, B flat major, D flat major and B flat minor so there was ample opportunity to add rhythmically vibrant chords which repeated in staccato quavers. The accents gave the strings a dynamic style which will be compatible with the rest of the track. The challenge was to build up subtly throughout the track without peaking too soon but to give cohesion to the verses and chorus by retaining similar material. A string ‘hook’ appeared from the outset which then re-emerged later in the song, along with a counter melody in octaves in the violins which gave the piece added interest. The whole song died away at the end, the client seems pleased with the score and it’s now ready to be recorded by live session musicians.
Tags: building tension, fast and aggressive strings, session musicians, String Arranging, string hook, strings for dance track, studio musicians
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