Posts Tagged ‘Vaughan Jones string arranger’
Wednesday, 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
Posted in Recording Projects | Comments Off
Saturday, 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
Posted in String Arranging | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Very often we are asked by clients to book a recording studio ourselves (or to recommend one) and although the cost of hiring a recording studio can vary enormously, we always try to keep within a sensible budget to maintain cost effective recordings. It is sometimes hard to accurately estimate how long it can take to record strings in a studio as things may run very smoothly with the recording being finished surprisingly quickly, or hiccups can arise which slow things down. With session musicians and studio engineers usually paid on an hourly rate, it’s important to make every minute in the studio productive. From the players point of view, any professional will make sure they turn up a little early, with their instrument ready to play and any tricky parts to the music already prepared. A studio can organise things beforehand too - with chairs set out, microphones in place and everything set up ready to record straight away.
But what are some of the factors which (in our experience) can improve the efficiency of studio work?
Firstly, it’s absolutely essential that any string parts which are to be recorded are composed or arranged and agreed with the client beforehand, ideally when other instruments and vocals are already in place so that strings can be written to enhance the rest of the track. Turning up at the studio and being asked to improvise or collaborate is likely to waste time whilst players agree on how and what to play, and it’s always a risk that the client might not like the results, having envisaged it sounding entirely different. A properly prepared score can save literally hours of time in the studio.
Likewise, if strings are to be added to a track with other instruments and vocals already recorded, it’s important that no ‘last minute changes’ are made to this after the string arrangement has been done - because the score the string arranger has prepared may well differ meaning the string parts don’t line up with the rest of the track. This can cause confusion and delay as the players try and work out how the score needs to be amended before recording can resume.
A string arranger can make the score very detailed with bowings, articulations, dynamics and other subtleties written in so that players can simply go in and play the music right at first reading. Sadly this is not always the case and can be a major bugbear of session musicians. Even in the case of top film and television soundtrack recordings if an orchestrator or arranger has not been very detailed in their scoring, much time can be wasted in the studio.
So when seeking a quotation or estimate for session musicians, so much can depend on the quality of preparation done beforehand and this is the responsibility of the client as well as the orchestrator / arranger. Poorly written parts can take literally double the time to record and although many bands or songwriters think that money can be saved by doing it themselves, it can often be a false economy.
Tags: adding strings to a pop track, cost of hiring a recording studio, Cost of hiring session musicians, cost of hiring strings for a track, efficient studio time, hire a string arranger, Hire a string orchestra, hire a violinist, hire an orchestrator, notating for strings, professional musicians, Recording strings, Recording studios, Scoring for strings, session musicians, string arranger, string section, string session players, Vaughan Jones string arranger, writing music for strings, writing string arrangements
Posted in Recording Projects | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
I remember a colleague of mine saying that rock and pop arrangements for strings fell flat and didn’t seem to work, yet arrangements of other styles were often successful. I think the reason she said this was that many published arrangements fail to take into account the intricacies of the percussion (or drum kit), rhythms and regularity of accents which often fall on the second and fourth beats. Once these are taken out of an arrangement, the song does frequently sound dull and lifeless.
This doesn’t just apply to re-creating pop and rock covers for string quartet or string orchestra, but in any string arrangement where percussion is going to be absent or less prominent. Some bands or songwriters might want to experiment with recording a track that has no conventional percussion section, but replacing the rhythmic pulse with effects created on stringed instruments or an orchestra. In this way, the sound could be acoustic with very little electronic input, yet still retain all of the energy and impact of a standard rock and pop track. So what are the techniques a string arranger might use when orchestrating a self sustaining rock track?
There are four markings that can be added to notes to convey differences in length and emphasis.
Firstly, if dots are added (underneath or over the note heads), this would give a very short and spiky staccato feel to the music. Alternatively, the addition of lines to the notes give them a brushed sound with a greater length. I often write both a line and a dot to denote somewhere between the two, where the notes are separated but are a little bit longer than a staccato dot. This can be ideal for imitating rhythm guitars where essentially the note is plucked so is not fully legato.
Another marking which can replace the rhythmic drive of a drum kit are the accent (<) which can punctuate a note and if added to the second and fourth beats give the music it’s regular emphasis as a drum beat would. The final notation could be an ’sfz’ which is an abbreviation of the word sforzando. This is a way of marking in a stronger accent and means a sudden loudness - I sometimes notate this with an accent to produce a much more violent, raw note which again when added regularly can give a really strong drive, particularly in a string orchestra.
In terms of instruments, these accents and rhythmic effects can be added to any of them but generally to give the feeling of the interplay between bass guitar and drums, would be used to best effect in the double bass and ‘cello sections (or the ‘cellos and violas in the absence of double basses).
Tags: accents in string notation, arranging rock for strings, cello arranging, how to write string arrangements, orchestral rock, rhythm into a string section, Scoring for strings, sforzando, string arrangements, string arranger, string orchestra for rock music, strings for rock track, Vaughan Jones string arranger
Posted in String Arranging | No Comments »
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Occasionally we receive enquiries from people who would like strings written or arranged for their track but on listening to the track, it sounds very full already without strings: in short, adding strings can just be one more thing that makes a song too ‘busy’ and risks overloading the listener with too much going on.
Although in many cases, strings can be written around melodies and other instrumentation to fill in, enhance, support or even add new counter melodies there are some songs that just won’t benefit from strings at all and if the string arranger has sound musical judgement, he or she may advise a client not to use their services at all.
So what type of song may not need strings at all? Any track which is already heavily laden with guitar and percussion, vocals, keyboard and bass will need to have ‘room’ in it for strings - either as an instrumental break, or in a verse / chorus where things are quieter and the strings can come through. Strings can also be used to add a ’sheen’ of simple chords over the top of other instruments if there is already a lot going on. When a track sounds complete with a full range of notes already covered there may not be any benefit at all from including yet another group of instruments (a string section) and the song can begin to feel cluttered or over the top.
Problems can arise when a band or songwriter have already produced a song then decide afterwards that they’d like to include strings as well on top of everything else. If the piece is written knowing that the strings will be coming in at some point, space can be left for them (a bit like designing the layout of a room and leaving space for a sofa rather than cramming it in somewhere as an afterthought!).
Tags: adding string parts to a pop track, adding strings to a song, arranging string parts, leaving space for strings, music production, musical judgement, programming synth strings, string arrangement, string arranger, String Arranging, synth strings, Vaughan Jones string arranger
Posted in String Arranging | No Comments »
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Earlier this year, I completed a string arrangement for a client who commented that he liked the way that every ‘verse’ of the strings had changes and variations in it. He said that many string arrangements he’d heard had made use of ‘cut and paste’ with the same string parts returning in an identical way later in the track. This struck me as quite odd as it hadn’t occurred to me to ‘cut and paste’ anything in a composition or arrangement - when you have a 3 or 4 minute pop song, the whole thing grows naturally and will benefit greatly from variety in all of the writing, a theme can develop with variation and add real interest to the track, even if it’s low down in the mix. Changes between sections can be subtle but ideally need to keep some continuity (rather than introducing a brand new melody every time).
In classical music, a composer would usually take the opportunity when a melody returns later in a piece, to transform it with different use of instrumentation but retaining the clear melody or theme which had occurred earlier on. The idea of a later section being ‘cut and pasted’ has an anti-climactic feel for the listener - if this technique is used too often, the music becomes predictable and unmemorable.
With modern music writing software, there can be a tendency to simply highlight a given area and with the click of a mouse, repeat it later on in an unchanged form. Although that might seem like an easy option, it may not be using the full potential of the strings which could have enhanced the track far more with a little creativity.
Tags: adding strings to a pop track, creative string parts, cutting and pasting music, music notation, Orchestrating for strings, string arranger, String Arranging, Vaughan Jones string arranger, writing for strings
Posted in String Arranging | No Comments »
Monday, July 26th, 2010
This weekend was quite full with two separate recording sessions of a contrasting nature. In the first, I had been given the brief of arranging and notating some string parts for a dance track and on Sunday we went into the studio to record these. The track itself had a strong and catchy riff and some very contemporary sounding vocals, all superbly mixed and produced, so my job was to add strings which would be complimentary and supportive, without in any way detracting from what was already in the mix. All together there were 10 parts to be added for various stringed instruments and as such, the range of writing covered overall about four octaves (although not simultaneously!). Sometimes, the strings lay beneath the track adding a rich body of sound and expanded near the end of the track, allowing the music to naturally open out and reach a climax with a catchy hook in the strings - this adds a completely different dimension to a track which is hard to achieve by electronic means.
Tags: adding string parts to dance music, real strings on a track, recording sessions, session string players, String Arranging, strings for dance music, Vaughan Jones string arranger, violin parts for a track
Posted in Recording Projects | No Comments »
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Although some clients who require string parts arranging for their tracks just give the string arranger ‘free rein’ to compose the parts in their own way and send the file over for approval or amendments, there are many people who already have some idea of how they’d like the strings to sound and have started to put together some strings for their track using Logic or other software. When this happens, I am usually sent the finished track with some ‘guide strings’ in and asked to notate these ready for studio recording (a relatively simple job), or to make them sound more natural by adding some movement or spacing the chords to allow the strings to sound fuller and more rich. When synth strings have been played in on a keyboard, it’s always a challenge to give them the characteristic feel of a real string orchestra because fingers going down on a keyboard cannot move in the same way as fingers naturally move up and down a stringed instrument. There are also clients who simply send the basic chord progression that they’d like and ask me to create something more elaborate with the strings, rather like producing an elegant frame for a painting - simply embellishing the existing ideas with the finishing touches. An example of this could be a track where the strings have all been programmed in the mid range on sampled synths and listening to the balance of the track overall, the range of the strings could be expanded. Extending the range can give the whole track a feeling of a ‘lift’ and lend it a sense of climax that it couldn’t have achieved with synthesised strings in the middle register. It’s also a matter of taking into account where the range of existing instruments and vocal lines are, then putting the strings in the ‘gaps’, weaving harmonies around what is already there.
Tags: getting the most out of live strings, notating for strings, notating from a midi, notating string parts, Orchestrating for strings, professionally arranged strings, programming synth strings, string arrangements, string arranger, transcribing synth strings to real instruments, Vaughan Jones string arranger
Posted in String Arranging | No Comments »
