# "The Boat" using HZ Strings



## JohnG (Apr 24, 2018)

This recording uses only HZ Strings. No reverb, no EQ, no compression (beyond that to which Youtube subjects it).


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## D Halgren (Apr 24, 2018)

The bass is monsterous! Beautiful!


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## Jack Weaver (Apr 24, 2018)

Nice. Very low incidence of any apparent use of sampled instruments. 

.


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## Living Fossil (May 2, 2018)

Hi John,
very nice piece!
What distracts me (as with every HZ-strings demo i've heard so far), are the high strings, when involved in melodic lines (it becomes evident starting at around 1:29). I guess you could replace them with another library (e.g. SSS) to get a better result.


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## chimuelo (May 2, 2018)

Wow that’s very moving and personally don’t see a need for another string instrument.
I’ve been on the fence for a new String Instrument and this demo pretty much is what I was looking for.
Just curious about the Boat?
All I saw was trains, explosions, the Kaiser’s soldiers, etc.
Any more details...

Sounds fantastic JG.


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## Nesciochamp (May 2, 2018)

Enough has been said on HZS already. I was positively surprised by how good it sounds/you make it sound. 
I'm not too keen on these "string-smearing" scores, but I do think it shows the strengths of the library. Well done.


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## blougui (May 2, 2018)

John, I find it very mono :is it YT or a constraint because of other sounds in the final film ?
Thanx !
Beautiful work other than that.


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## JohnG (May 2, 2018)

blougui said:


> John, I find it very mono :is it YT or a constraint because of other sounds in the final film ?



Must be Youtube, I think. The vagaries of internet postings can be slightly frustrating but I don't know of a better choice except maybe Vimeo. I have found Soundcloud even more unpredictable than Youtube. 

So, to be clear, it's not the most super-wide mix I've ever done, but it's a long way from mono in the original.



chimuelo said:


> Just curious about the Boat?



Originally this was written for a movie, for a scene that is genuinely tragic and ghastly; an infant is deliberately thrown overboard from a ship to drown. Ugly, I know. But I also wrote it in the week after my father died, so there's that as well.

*Sound Comments*

I recognize that it's a bit smeary at times @Nesciochamp and I know what you mean by that, but I don't mind that sound sometimes. Besides, I had to choose between risking an overdose of the gallery mics to create more of a "big" sound or adding artificial reverb. Since the exercise I had in mind was to use HZ Strings "naked," I ruled out external reverb. Otherwise I'd probably lower the gallery mics, and add some reverb. Maybe that's overthinking but that's what you are hearing.

As far all the rest of the sound, without the constraint of insisting only on HZ Strings for this exercise, I would probably experiment with Performance Legato patches from Spitfire's Symphonic and / or Chamber strings on some of the high notes to see how that sounds. I would think it would help delineate some of the high notes. 

I actually have a live strings version of this piece from the movie; some might prefer the HZ strings version, some the live one. I can't post the live version without permission, however.

As far as how the HZ Strings respond and outline a melodic figure, I think it's worth remembering that this is basically a 1.0 version of the library. I have been very pleased with the updates to Spitfire's other libraries, particularly the tuning fixes and the magic Performance Legato. Based on past experience, it seems reasonable to me to expect that over time there will be further improvements to scripting and other bits of HZ Strings.


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## blougui (May 2, 2018)

thanx very much for all the details, John.


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## paularthur (May 2, 2018)

Dynamics build sounds great, that bass around 1.45!


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## rlw (May 2, 2018)

@JohnG, very beautifully done. Very moving.


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## Greg (May 2, 2018)

Awesome piece John, love the low end.


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## monsieurmickey (May 2, 2018)

Very good, the sound is beautiful


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## JohnG (May 2, 2018)

Thanks guys.


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## germancomponist (May 2, 2018)

A great composition, John! I am missing the closed mikes a little bit... .


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## dannymc (May 9, 2018)

in parts it reminded me of barbers adagio for strings. really beautiful John. thanks for posting. 

Danny


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