Posts Tagged ‘studio strings’
Friday, June 18th, 2010
Earlier this week, we received a phone call from a music production company who specialise in writing music for television advertisements and films. Having recorded the piece with synthesised strings, they were looking to replace the majority of them with live musicians so we were booked to go in today to record at Air Edel studios in London.
Various drafts of the advert were recorded so that the client and advertisement director could liaise and choose the most suitable version. All in all there were 8 different versions, varying in length between 30 and 40 seconds.
Having received the call on the Monday, I had to book the other players, exchange contracts, do a little bit of notation of parts (so that when we walked into the studio we could make best use of every minute), so that we were all ready to go this morning. In fixing session musicians, a lot of work can be exactly like this - of a ‘last minute’ nature, so the ability to deal swiftly with enquiries, work on the score and in booking players is vitally important. As we have a pool of strong players, we can always confidently book musicians that we know and trust, assured that they are not only reliable, but that their playing is of a high quality which will shine in a recording.
We look forward to hearing and seeing the final advert when it’s aired on television within the next few weeks.
Tags: Air Edel Studios, hire a string section, hiring string players, last minute musicians, Music for television advert, Scoring for strings, session musicians, session string players, studio strings
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Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Really, I don’t like the term ‘up and down bow’ very much because the motion of a bow is very fluid and when played artfully, gives a seamless, warm, glowing sound - nothing to do with ‘up’ or ‘down’ which sounds very rigid. My violin teacher (Kato Havas) says that all a bow going ‘up and down’ does is iron the music flat, so to get to the essence of the music the player should try and achieve a naturalness of phrasing which transcends the bow.
Nevertheless, there are instances when composers or string arrangers purposefully write a certain bow direction to attain a musical effect. For example, Stravinsky wrote several down bows (travelling in a downward motion repeatedly, lifted from the string in between notes) in a row to create an aggressive, percussive effect. An example of ‘up bows’ is in Paganini’s 24th Caprice where he alternates left hand pizzicatos (a future blog entry!) with ‘up bows’ played near the tip of the bow - the effect is of a whipping, pecking sound that goes well when alternated with the pizzicato.
Symbols are added to a score to indicate when there is a particular ‘up or down’ direction to the bowing. In 18th and 19th century music, this was often left to the discretion of the individual player but increasingly in the 20th century composers began to specify up and down bow markings more, frequently seeking the advice of professional string players on how best to ‘bow’ the piece.
In a live orchestral performance, bowings are marked into the parts in advance to enable each section to play with synchronised bows travelling in the same direction together - although Leopold Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra were famous in using ‘free bowing’ which the conductor felt achieved a more glossy sound, even though it didn’t look as impressively uniform.This leads onto the phrase ’staggered bowing’. This is where longer notes which would require more than one bow direction to keep sustained are bowed in such a way that members of a string section change in different places, this gives a smooth and continuous effect so that the change in bowing is inaudible.
Tags: Arranging for strings, bow direction, bow markings, bowings, composing for strings, down bows, Live strings, orchestration, session strings, staggered bowing, String Arranging, string composing, String orchestra, string section, studio strings, up bows, use of the bow, violin bow
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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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Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
The ability to play a pianissimo on a stringed instrument might sound straightforward but it is an area that many amateur and student players can struggle with. I remember when I was at the Royal College of Music doing an orchestral technique masterclass with highly experienced Rodney Friend and he said that to create a real pianissimo as part of a big string section requires the ability to play infinitely more softly than you would ever be required to play in a chamber ensemble or as a soloist. It is a sound that is barely audible with only a few hairs of the bow in contact with the string, like the smallest whisper - but when 16 players are doing this simultaneously, the effect can be breathtaking.
In a studio, one must not be put off by the fact that the microphone picks up so much surface noise as the sensitivity of modern microphones can quite literally pick up the sound of the rosin against the string (as well as players breathing). Whether a full string section sound is gained by the accurate use of overdubbing or whether there are many players involved, the end result should be a blending of many players’ pianissimo creating a velvety sheen. Inexperienced session musicians can often make the mistake of individually playing a pianissimo that would be perfect if they were playing on their own, but with many people playing this way the result can be too loud and full for the desired effect.
Tags: capturing soft string sound, pianissimo, quiet string sound, recording a string orchestra, session musicians, soft strings, strings in the recording studio, studio strings
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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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Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Yesterday we were asked to add some single viola and cello parts to a track by the acoustic band ‘Shy June’ (Stuart Denney and Gareth Edler) who are currently recording new material after releasing ‘Drive’ earlier this year.
Although the viola is a beautiful instrument, it is not always the obvious first choice (people more commonly think of adding a violin), so it was a real pleasure to be able to bring the rich, mellow qualities of a viola to this track (and also the soulful sound of Julia’s cello).
We wish Stuart and Gareth every success with their forthcoming release!
Tags: adding a cello to a track, Adding string parts, qualities of the viola, session string players, Shy June, studio musicians, studio strings, viola
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Saturday, August 29th, 2009
The word ‘Glissando’ comes from a French verb ‘to slide’ and applies to any passage where one note slides rapidly up or down to another. On the piano this is done by drawing the finger quickly up or down the keys and the technique is often used in music written for harp, trombone or any of the string family.
On a stringed instrument, this glissando effect can be achieved by simply sliding from one note to another on the same finger on the same string - it can be used to give a slightly ‘folky’ feel (swooping up to a note as in bluegrass or Celtic fiddle music) or could be used more slowly to add tension or suspense to an arrangement. A common use of glissando is in horror films or psychological dramas when anticipation of something sinister is being built up. One well known pop song which utilised glissando effectively in the strings was ‘Day in the Life’ by the Beatles and it features quite widely in quite a few tracks by ELO.
Although Portamento seems quite similar to glissando in the fact that it’s a gliding from one note to another, it is different in the fact that it doesn’t tend to connect the two notes with the slide but is more of a gentle sliding at one end of the interval or the other. For example, a violinist could go from say, a D to the same note an octave higher, with the portamento providing a shorter slide at the beginning of the interval, before landing accurately on the higher D - or it could leave the first note, then land a little bit early and swoop up to the upper D. This gives an expressive slide but without the two notes being completely connected. In its’ best use, writing in portamento can add real character and feeling to a phrase, making it full of character and adding interest / life to the strings.
Including both glissando and portamento in a string arrangement can work well for solo instrumentation or a full string section, adding either one skilfully can liven up strings and add excitement or expression.
Tags: Arranging for strings, expressive strings, Glissando, Portamento, session musicians, Sliding Strings, string arrangements, string arranger, studio strings, Violin technique
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