# Favourite Audio Plugins For Strings



## Mark Stothard (Jul 11, 2021)

Hi everyone,

I’m really struggling to get my strings (cinematic studio strings and spitfire symphonic strings) to really stand out but also sit well within the mix.

can you please share what your favourite audio plugins are for strings?

If you listen from 1:30, you’ll know what I mean. Currently there are no plugins on the strings.



Thanks
Mark


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## Scalms (Jul 11, 2021)

I like to put an air EQ brightener on my strings. numerous ones out there can do the job, but my favs are Maag4, SiE-Q, and the best of them is Kush Audio Clariphonic


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## Henu (Jul 11, 2021)

Decapitator! It's amazing on strings.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 12, 2021)

Thanks very much guys, I’ll check them out.


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## doctoremmet (Jul 12, 2021)

And Kazrog True Iron.
(Reverbs: Seventh Heaven, MTurboReverb, Relab TC6000)


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## labornvain (Jul 13, 2021)

Waves MV2


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## jcrosby (Jul 14, 2021)

It's a bit hard to make out what's what. The high Strings are super loud compared to the rest of the mix. The high strings overtake the mix and the low strings are somewhat lost in comparison. I'd think about balancing your strings before thinking about how to process them.... The strings also sound so loud toward the end that I'm pretty sure I can hear them triggering the limiter, and overall the track seems mastered a bit too loud.

I'd bring the percussion up a couple dB, the rest of the music down a dB or two, and work on balancing the strings against the rest of the music. Also seems like you could use some mix bus compression, possibly some percussion bus compression, but at the same time it's kind of hard to tell for sure when something's mastered this loud but the balances are off.

While the styles are quite different in the tracks below, these are considered mastered pretty loud for hybrid music in general. Pay attention to the level of the strings when the whole orchestra is in. They _glue_ _into_ the mix, not stick out... And, despite the genres being different notice how dense these mixes are; and yet the percussion still drives these mixes quite aggressively...

Again... I realize you're not necessarily going for epic/trailer/etc with this track, but the 'best practices' mix-wise are still the same overall...


(1:47 onward)


(2:25 onward especially. While the topline is hybird you should still think of the synth/orch combo as functioning like an orchestral string section.)


(1:10 onward)


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## Chris Harper (Jul 14, 2021)

+1 for Kazrog True Iron and I usually use either Softube Tape or Hornet Tape on subtle settings on each channel. I do typically use a multiband on the basses if it is a section patch, with just a single band of compression over just the lows. But EQ is 90% of the battle. The basses and celli get a notch in the EQ around the fundamental frequencies for the violas and violins. If the violins are bright and harsh, I’ll cut them a bit in the presence range around 2-4kHz. Then I will typically add a high shelf boost up at 10kHz.

I’m listening on my phone, so it’s hard to hear everything, but it sounds like you may have some things jumbling up in the mids around 600-900 maybe. I’ll have to listen again on better speakers. The overtones from the lower instruments have a tendency of masking the violins. Try looking at the main frequency on the violins and see if you can cut the lower strings a little bit in that range to let the character of the violin cut through. Once you clean up the frequencies that are cluttered, you can push all the strings a little louder without sounding like they are sticking out too much. If you have too much frequency overlap, you get frequencies that jump out too quickly and you can’t push them as far to the front. Usually cutting 1-2dB in the right places makes all the difference.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 14, 2021)

jcrosby said:


> It's a bit hard to make out what's what. The high Strings are super loud compared to the rest of the mix. The high strings overtake the mix and the low strings are somewhat lost in comparison. I'd think about balancing your strings before thinking about how to process them.... The strings also sound so loud toward the end that I'm pretty sure I can hear them triggering the limiter, and overall the track seems mastered a bit too loud.
> 
> I'd bring the percussion up a couple dB, the rest of the music down a dB or two, and work on balancing the strings against the rest of the music. Also seems like you could use some mix bus compression, possibly some percussion bus compression, but at the same time it's kind of hard to tell for sure when something's mastered this loud but the balances are off.
> 
> ...



Hi jcrosby,

thanks so much for taking the time to share the reference tracks and for the great tips and advice on the mix and master. I’ll get to work on what you sugges.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 14, 2021)

Chris Harper said:


> +1 for Kazrog True Iron and I usually use either Softube Tape or Hornet Tape on subtle settings on each channel. I do typically use a multiband on the basses if it is a section patch, with just a single band of compression over just the lows. But EQ is 90% of the battle. The basses and celli get a notch in the EQ around the fundamental frequencies for the violas and violins. If the violins are bright and harsh, I’ll cut them a bit in the presence range around 2-4kHz. Then I will typically add a high shelf boost up at 10kHz.
> 
> I’m listening on my phone, so it’s hard to hear everything, but it sounds like you may have some things jumbling up in the mids around 600-900 maybe. I’ll have to listen again on better speakers. The overtones from the lower instruments have a tendency of masking the violins. Try looking at the main frequency on the violins and see if you can cut the lower strings a little bit in that range to let the character of the violin cut through. Once you clean up the frequencies that are cluttered, you can push all the strings a little louder without sounding like they are sticking out too much. If you have too much frequency overlap, you get frequencies that jump out too quickly and you can’t push them as far to the front. Usually cutting 1-2dB in the right places makes all the difference.


Hi Chris,

thanks very much for this. I never really EQ any of my orchestral instruments, maybe this is why they don’t sit well in the mix. I will read more about this and do it from now on.


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## SlHarder (Jul 14, 2021)

Mark Stothard said:


> I never really EQ any of my orchestral instruments, maybe this is why they don’t sit well in the mix. I will read more about this and do it from now on.


Here is a vid from @ChrisSiuMusic that details his approach to "pre-eq". All 5 parts of this series were very helpful to me as I started orchestral mixing. ("Live" used here means train-of-thought vid, not live music.)





Also learning about gain staging was helpful early on to me. (Search youtube for vid that uses your flavor of daw.) But this series contains a lot info you can apply no matter your daw.



If you adopt gain staging, after you've done it by hand to learn the process, Hornet Vu Meter is an inexpensive plugin that takes the drudgery out of the process.


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## Chris Harper (Jul 14, 2021)

Mark Stothard said:


> Hi Chris,
> 
> thanks very much for this. I never really EQ any of my orchestral instruments, maybe this is why they don’t sit well in the mix. I will read more about this and do it from now on.



My pleasure. With EQ, a little can go a long way, but I think most people tend to under EQ in the orchestral sample composer world. In other genres, over EQing is more common among beginner engineers in my experience.

Here is another good video that may be helpful:


I just listened on my monitors and pulled that part of the song into the DAW and I think there’s some clutter around 300-400 and especially around 800-900 where a bunch of stuff is overlapping. Try making some modest cuts on a couple of things in that range. I can’t tell if it is flute or horns or just the viola but something underneath is particularly strong at 800-900 and is masking the violins. I also boosted a couple of dB with a wide band around 2100Hz and that made the strings bloom a little bit, so that may be worth trying. It also sounds pretty heavily compressed or limited to my ear, which may very well be what you’re going for, but the compression may be smashing everything together a little bit. More compression often means getting a bit more aggressive with the EQ since it pulls all the frequencies up. It’s really common to have a nice mixdown and then it falls apart when it hits the limiter hard. Very nice piece! The beginning was slamming on my monitors. Huge sound! It won’t take much to get it sorted out.

One thing I have found to be very helpful is practicing with the HearEQ app on my phone. You can use any song on your phone, so I like to load my own compositions as well as a few different professional recordings. It will randomly boost and cut different frequency bands and you try to identify which band and whether it was boosted or cut. After a while it gets much easier to hear the problems. The bonus is that sometimes it makes an adjustment that immediately improves my music. Then I have to decide if I want to go dig up the project and redo the master. 

When I EQ something, I also practice by guessing what adjustment is needed before I touch the plugin. Then I make a mental note of if I was right or wrong. I find that being intentional instead of haphazardly sweeping across the frequency spectrum is very good practice.

@SlHarder recommended a great Hornet plugin, and I will recommend another one. MultiFreqs is nice because it allows you to put the frequency spectra of several tracks in the same window. It’s helpful to identify overlapping frequencies quickly. And it’s dirt cheap right now.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 15, 2021)

SlHarder said:


> Here is a vid from @ChrisSiuMusic that details his approach to "pre-eq". All 5 parts of this series were very helpful to me as I started orchestral mixing. ("Live" used here means train-of-thought vid, not live music.)
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks very much SIHarder, that video from ChrisSiuMusic is fantastic and just what I needed. I realise now that by not EQing my instruments, it is creating a lot of buildup. I’m away on Holiday until Saturday, but can’t wait to try this. Thanks for the gain staging video too. I’ve done this for my template and set all my instruments to -18db, but somehow, they manage to creep back up to around 0db (due to me pushing them back up) when I’m mixing. Thanks for the Hornet plugin tip, I’ll definitely check this out.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 15, 2021)

Chris Harper said:


> My pleasure. With EQ, a little can go a long way, but I think most people tend to under EQ in the orchestral sample composer world. In other genres, over EQing is more common among beginner engineers in my experience.
> 
> Here is another good video that may be helpful:
> 
> ...



Hi Chris,

thanks very much again. That video was really superb too, thanks for sharing it. I’ve just purchased the hornet vu meter and the multifreqs for less than £10 as there is a 50% off sale at the moment. These look perfect for what I need. I will check out the hearEQ app too as that looks really great. Regarding the clutter, there are a couple of synths underneath that is probably causing this.

there is a limiter and multiband compressor along with a few other plugins on the mix bus currently, i’m going to strip it right back and start again with the advice you guys have given.

thanks so much again.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 17, 2021)

Hi everyone,

I’ve managed to remaster the track using the tips and a few of the plugins suggested here. I feel it sounds much better now. Thanks again for your help and advice with this.


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## vitocorleone123 (Jul 17, 2021)

I’d try HG2MS, Kelvin, and maybe VSM4. Things that saturate and shape the tone. Saturn2, as well.


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## Beat Kaufmann (Jul 17, 2021)

Hello Mark
_Two things I would like to add here on the subject of "effects for strings". My two tips take a bit of a different approach than you're imagining. But they are worth trying: _

A) Many library makers go to great lengths to make their instruments sound as natural as possible. So if you are not quite sure, the best way to start is to leave the strings in their original sound until you have all the rest of the instruments in the mix. If the strings are not asserting themselves enough, it tends to be better to have them a bit more powerful in the mix using a compressor or maximizer for example. Unfortunately, many amateur mixers soon reach for the EQ and that brings us to the 2nd point...

B1) In many mixes with samples the strings are mixed (sometimes way...) too bright compared to reality. As mentioned above, the mixers turn up the treble. The string sound then asserts itself, but then the instruments behind the strings (woodwinds, brass, choir) can no longer assert themselves well. So the mixes build up in the direction of "too bright" and "harsh"... with the result that you have to EQ the main output channel to remove the "harshness"... BTW: Your strings actually sound a bit harsh to me as well...

How to solve the conflict best? 
First of all, I would search for a few references of real orchestras that correspond to your music style and orchestra size. Then pay special attention to the string sound and try to copy it.

As some examples:
Listen to the sound of the strings: https://youtu.be/C_wZ9ZBeRAo (Example 1) / https://youtu.be/-NqaupGcCpw?t=45 (Example 2) ... Especially the cinematic string sound is often much darker than the one of a baroque orchestra.
https://youtu.be/-NqaupGcCpw?t=169 (Example 3) : Here you can hear how extremely quiet everything else (winds) in the orchestra plays when the strings are especially important... You shoud copy "this fact" into your mixes.

Of course, it sometimes makes sense to let the strings sound a little brighter in certain passages. You can do that of course. But 3 bars later, the change may no longer apply. In concrete terms, this means that you should always automate such sound changes. 
B2) If you automate sound changes in principle (for all instruments), then you can make other instruments "darker" in sound, when the strings should appear clearly...

-----------------------------------------

So, yes effects like Tube-, Tape-, Transformer- simulations can be helpers but also maximizers, vintage warmers and what they are all called.

All the best and a lot of success
Beat


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## Minko (Jul 18, 2021)

My answer is just mix wise, not sounding real wise:
I use Fabfilter EQ with dynamic settings to temper some unwanted frequencies. For the rest, I cut out what is not needed. So I make room for them so to speak. Also, some saturation distortion works well to let them cut through if needed. 
I also had my publisher tell me to add a more direct sounding library to some of my string passages so they would cut through more. This also helped a lot and I've been using that trick more often.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 18, 2021)

Beat Kaufmann said:


> Hello Mark
> _Two things I would like to add here on the subject of "effects for strings". My two tips take a bit of a different approach than you're imagining. But they are worth trying: _
> 
> A) Many library makers go to great lengths to make their instruments sound as natural as possible. So if you are not quite sure, the best way to start is to leave the strings in their original sound until you have all the rest of the instruments in the mix. If the strings are not asserting themselves enough, it tends to be better to have them a bit more powerful in the mix using a compressor or maximizer for example. Unfortunately, many amateur mixers soon reach for the EQ and that brings us to the 2nd point...
> ...


Hi Beat,

Thank you very much for this. Keeping the strings (and all orchestral Samples) as is was always my train of thought, but going through the videos shared on here made me realise I needed to process and E.Q them a bit to clear them up a bit and make them stand out.

Thanks for sharing the examples too. I don’t know why, but when listening to music like this in the past, I always felt like the strings were controlling everything, I now know this is not the case.

I understand my strings still sound harsh, there is still a lot of work to do, but I feel I’m making some progress with the tips and advice shared here?

The strings come in from 1:14

here is the previous version:



here is the latest:


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 18, 2021)

Minko said:


> My answer is just mix wise, not sounding real wise:
> I use Fabfilter EQ with dynamic settings to temper some unwanted frequencies. For the rest, I cut out what is not needed. So I make room for them so to speak. Also, some saturation distortion works well to let them cut through if needed.
> I also had my publisher tell me to add a more direct sounding library to some of my string passages so they would cut through more. This also helped a lot and I've been using that trick more often.


Hi Minko,

Thanks for the advice, regarding using dynamic EQ, i was watching one of Joël Dollié’s videos on YouTube yesterday and thought I’ve got to try that. I will give this a go today.


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## vitocorleone123 (Jul 29, 2021)

Mark Stothard said:


> Hi Minko,
> 
> Thanks for the advice, regarding using dynamic EQ, i was watching one of Joël Dollié’s videos on YouTube yesterday and thought I’ve got to try that. I will give this a go today.


Don't compress for the sake of compressing, though (just in case). The more you compress, the less dynamic the signal. I'd do some modest subtractive EQ and then try HG2MS or Saturn2 to tame some frequencies, and then sprinkle in some compression as needed for starters.... but I'm not a professional, nor do I play one on TV.

*dynamic EQ = compression


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## CT (Jul 29, 2021)

I love putting Nothing on my strings, what a great plugin! It gives them such a transparent, warm, natural, wide, sparkling, deep, thick, rich analog sound.


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## olvra (Jul 29, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> *dynamic EQ = compression


**dynamic EQ ≅ compression


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## SlHarder (Jul 29, 2021)

I bought HoRNet MultiFreqs recently. You can compare the spectrum of specific tracks you select. Seems to make mixing the "problem children" instruments easier. Fwiw.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 29, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Don't compress for the sake of compressing, though (just in case). The more you compress, the less dynamic the signal. I'd do some modest subtractive EQ and then try HG2MS or Saturn2 to tame some frequencies, and then sprinkle in some compression as needed for starters.... but I'm not a professional, nor do I play one on TV.
> 
> *dynamic EQ = compression


Thanks a lot for the advice, I’ve not thought about it like this before.


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## Mark Stothard (Jul 29, 2021)

SlHarder said:


> I bought HoRNet MultiFreqs recently. You can compare the spectrum of specific tracks you select. Seems to make mixing the "problem children" instruments easier. Fwiw.


Thank you, yes, I’ve purchased this too, great tool.


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## Drumdude2112 (Aug 7, 2021)

Sausage Fattener Plugin - Dada Life


Here is our first plugin - the Sausage Fattener! People always ask us how we get our greasy sound…here is the answer. Hook up this fat bastard to your



www.dadalife.com


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## derschoenekarsten (Oct 21, 2021)

To quote the always great Gregory Scott: "when nothing has priority, nothing has clarity". Fader/volume automation is one of the most powerful "EQ" tools out there.

In the example OP posted, I feel like the issue isn't brightness, but rather a lot of sounds competing for attention in the low-mid- and mid-range, especially on headphones. This instinctively makes me focus on those ranges and thereby indirectly pushes the highs back.

A few things I'd try if this was my mix:

- Lower/automate volume on all tracks except the strings (or at least the drums and brass), and then bring up the strings a tiny bit (talking about 0.1-1.0 dB steps here)
- Trying to shelve off some high freq content from the brass to create more space for the strings; also trying to remove/shape the transient of the main drum sound. Shit's so high and pointy... 
- The section starting at ≈1:30 sounds to me like it wants to deliver this big epic push after things slowed down in the section before; however, the image of both sections sounds pretty much identical; I feel like pushing the strings to the side a little could work wonders here (and/or play a bit more with panning to emphasize that nice interplay between strings and brass)

_Lovely piece by the way, absolutely love that epic finale!_


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## Living Fossil (Oct 21, 2021)

Mark Stothard said:


> If you listen from 1:30, you’ll know what I mean. Currently there are no plugins on the strings.


Old thread, however:

The problem here is that in order to get a fuller sound you should duplicate the Violin line an octave lower in the Violas. Will keep the focus on the higher octave but make it sound fuller with more body.

(If you duplicate the line with Celli, the weight will shift an octave lower, i.e. in the register of the Celli)


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## Mark Stothard (Oct 21, 2021)

derschoenekarsten said:


> To quote the always great Gregory Scott: "when nothing has priority, nothing has clarity". Fader/volume automation is one of the most powerful "EQ" tools out there.
> 
> In the example OP posted, I feel like the issue isn't brightness, but rather a lot of sounds competing for attention in the low-mid- and mid-range, especially on headphones. This instinctively makes me focus on those ranges and thereby indirectly pushes the highs back.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much for the great advice, taking some of the high’s from the brass, sounds exactly what I need to do. The drum sound has been bugging me for quite some time so I will try that too. I will also try pushing the strings to the side. Thanks again.


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## Mark Stothard (Oct 21, 2021)

Living Fossil said:


> Old thread, however:
> 
> The problem here is that in order to get a fuller sound you should duplicate the Violin line an octave lower in the Violas. Will keep the focus on the higher octave but make it sound fuller with more body.
> 
> (If you duplicate the line with Celli, the weight will shift an octave lower, i.e. in the register of the Celli)


Thanks you also for the great advice, I will try this too. Much appreciated.


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## muziksculp (Oct 28, 2021)

Tape Saturation to add warmth 

https://epicomposer.com/adding-analog-warmth-sampled-strings-tape-simulation/


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## Alchemedia (Oct 28, 2021)

muziksculp said:


> Tape Saturation to add warmth
> 
> https://epicomposer.com/adding-analog-warmth-sampled-strings-tape-simulation/


Softube Tape is particularly great with Studio One.


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## muziksculp (Oct 28, 2021)

Alchemedia said:


> Softube Tape is particularly great with Studio One.


Yes it is. Especially when using the MixFX : Tape Multi Track feature in the Mix Console


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## Alchemedia (Oct 28, 2021)

muziksculp said:


> Yes it is. Especially when using the MixFX : Tape Multi Track feature in the Mix Console


Precisely! Surprised there aren't more MixFX plugs available from other devs by now.


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