How do I make Vsti Strings sound real?

Hey Community,

I got EWQL now but still the strings do not sound that real as I would like them to sound .. Eespecially at fast legato melody lines.. Are there any tricks? it still sounds too electric and static somehow ..

Buy L.A. Scoring Strings. Just kidding. It depends a lot on the mix. The right kind of reverb, the panning and eq. And a lot can be achieved with good orchestration. But to be honest up until now nothing can beat a real string section.

I don’t know how it sounds, but there are some things you can do, e.g. enhance stereo, add a little chorus, reverb or/and vibrato, cut some middle frequencies (around 1100 – 1400 Hz).

If you meant that legato doesn’t make a smooth transition into sustained, try with portamento, glide or other pitch bend options …

The two most important things, IMO , are good playing technique and mixing practices. You need to use the mod wheel to control expression/velocity crossfading and (preferably) key switches to control articulation. Not 100% sure how East West lets you do these things – I’m assuming you purchased the standard orchestral library, not HOLLYWOOD strings or anything?

East-West stuff comes pre-mixed to a degree, but you can still customize it.

Oh yes!

After the production of “Armada” – a track that hopefully will be accepted the next days, I totally can understand the effort for creating a symphonic and orchestral track. Maybe you can give me some tips after listening to it? Its the quite different to my other stuff here on AJ and almost everybody said there is a big improvement by comparison to my old stuff.

Thanks for the tips and tutorials by the way – I was reading them with fascination. Great to see what technology can make possible.

Regards, Crian

Please be careful, some might see this as advertising your track on forum, which is not well viewed by moderators. They made a “item discussion” topic and we created a Facebook closed group where we can discuss such things more freely

Oh okay sorry, I didn’t know that – I don’t see people on the AJ forum as potential buyers just as like-minded people with the same aim like me

Hi Crian. I was going to suggest you check out George Strevoz’s amazing tuts on Audiotuts, but Mihai’s already given you the links. George is pretty amazing at making EastWest sound realistic.