# Spitfire Albion One / mock libraries and string sections



## thorrid (Apr 28, 2022)

Hi,

Please belive me that I wanted to google this question, but I have no idea how to say it with a good phrase. If you can point me to an already existing term or videos, please don't hold it back 

So my question is: Albion One has a Strings patch. Now they (Spitfire) wrote they recorded it with so many people. If I play a chord with my right hand like you do on a piano, does it mean I just tripled the number of the violin players? It's unclear how to play this library, e.g. if I play a low note, that's bass, but then bass with celli, but if I play a higher note, that's celli with violas, so how could I play in a way that I don't double/triple people in the orchestra?

The woodwinds and brass are separated for high / low, so I can restrain myself to play 1 line on those, but with these strings I am unsure how to deal with in a way that I could conjure up a beliveable sound. I guess I am supposed to play chords a lot of notes apart, like an orchestra plays. Should I worry about this? I am a beginner, this is a hobby starting out. Or should I look for a library with the 5 string sections (violin 1, 2, viola, cello, bass)?


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## sundrowned (Apr 28, 2022)

thorrid said:


> If I play a chord with my right hand like you do on a piano, does it mean I just tripled the number of the violin players?


Technically yes



thorrid said:


> Should I worry about this?


No. 

People layer all sorts of stuff on top of each other. In certain situations it might not be a good idea, maybe if you're after a small chamber sound, but generally it doesn't really matter if you multiply string instruments that much. The caveat always being, if it sounds good, it's good.


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## TomislavEP (Apr 28, 2022)

The technique that I use often when working with the Albion series is to use the strings-based sounds found in the Stephenson Steam Band section when using dense voicings, in a conjunction with normal strings sections doing main, counter, and bass lines. Also, the smaller-sized sections found in Loegria and the softer-sounding strings in Tundra typically sound better when used in such a manner than the ones in the first Albion. But I wouldn't worry too much. As @sundrowned wrote above: if it sounds good, it's good.


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## thorrid (Apr 28, 2022)

Thanks for the help and the tips! I will try to worry less about this issue.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 28, 2022)

Agree: do not worry. That said: eventually if you want to compose more in line with actual orchestrations, you will need a string library that offers violins, vln2, viola, cello and bass sections. Once you do that for a while, someone will tell you: but a real 14 violin section will actually play divisi. And then you’ll need another library 

Sorry for the hyperbole. I do agree with the above comments, but what you wrote initially about the restrictions of an ensemble patch is also true. That’s why something like VSL Dimension Strings exists I guess.

Anyway: the most important thing remains: Albion is a great library and one can make beautiful music with it. Focus on that and you’ll be fine!


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 28, 2022)

[Caveat: I am not an orchestral composer. These reflections are based on what I have learned from others, from studying acoustics (a tiny, little bit!), and from experimenting myself.]

Something worth bearing in mind is that combining samples does not sound the same as combining the playing from those samples in the same room.

Playing three samples, each of ten players in a room does not sound the same as playing one sample of thirty players in that same room.

You won't get the same resonances, the same number of bodies, the same volume of sound, the same reverberations feeding back.

So, playing multiple samples is a very different matter.

The most important thing about having all of the separate sections and divisi is not, first and foremost, that it sounds better. It is that it enables you to compose for precisely the groupings of numbers and instruments that you want to compose for. This is especially important if you are composing something that will later be played by a real orchestra, or if you are learning and/or enjoying the exercise of the skills to do that.

The great value of ensemble sections is that they give you a realistic sound of what it sounds like to have musicians playing in the same space together. The great downside, is that it limits your scope for detailed orchestration.

If you compose bearing in mind the limits of the samples you have available to you, and what they, and the programming of the library, enables you to make sound really good... if you do that, you'll be doing great!!


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