# Realistic String Swells (Hans Zimmer Time/Day One)



## Chris Hurst (Aug 25, 2016)

Hi everyone.

I'm working on trying to create realistic sounding string swells with samples, but so far am not happy with the results I'm getting. Some examples are HZ's Time and Day One (from about 1.50 minutes in). I just love the way these strings swell.

Have various samples - Spitfire, LASS full, Hollywood Strings, Adagietto etc, so plenty of good sounding strings. I was just wondering if anyone had a 'Eureka' moment when trying to achieve the same thing, that they might be willing to share, or am I just hearing real strings and have to accept that crossfading samples will never get there!

Cheers!


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## givemenoughrope (Aug 25, 2016)

I'd say Adagietto (maybe Adagio although Adagietto is more uniform). One think you could try it to blend just a tiny bit of LASS A (and/or B) or Sable behind it. Try to blur the image just a hair. If you are focusing on perfection from one library it will likely come up short. 

Also, some of 8dio actually does hv crossfades (I forget if that applies to the dyn patches in Adagietto.) If you mess around under the hood you can isolate which layer you want.


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## Chris Hurst (Aug 25, 2016)

Thanks for that. I've tried layering Adagietto's dynamic bowings as they do sound good. Haven't thought about going under the hood though...


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## givemenoughrope (Aug 25, 2016)

I maybe am remembering that wrong and they may well be one layer on the dyn patches.

I would also say maybe forgo realism for musicality/expression. Snapshots can only be so real.


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## Ryan (Aug 25, 2016)

LASS would work just fine. I did a remake of time in 2011 using only lass. 



Ryan.


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## Chris Hurst (Aug 25, 2016)

Cheers for that Ryan. I think I need to practice with LASS some more and massage the CC's a bit!


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## Ryan (Aug 25, 2016)

Chris Hurst said:


> Cheers for that Ryan. I think I need to practice with LASS some more and massage the CC's a bit!


Do it


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## Lawson. (Aug 26, 2016)

Most string libraries can do it, but you're probably going to need to use more extreme CC data than what you'd think is necessary. Just grab your controller and record the dynamics in live. Do what sounds right!


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## Chris Hurst (Aug 26, 2016)

Thanks. I think it's just a bit more practice with the CC's to achieve a bit smoother swell.

I've been playing with LASS a bit more and that is actually really playable, so think I'm getting the hang of it a bit more.

I was just wondering if there was more going on with layering really, but apparently not!


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## Mr Mindcrime (Aug 30, 2016)

Ryan said:


> LASS would work just fine. I did a remake of time in 2011 using only lass.
> 
> 
> 
> Ryan.



Ryan, you did a great job with that!!!


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## Ryan (Aug 31, 2016)

Mr Mindcrime said:


> Ryan, you did a great job with that!!!



Thanks Mindcrime!


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## NoamL (Sep 1, 2016)

LASS definitely has the widest range of dynamic expression (and probably also volume?) of all the modern string libraries so that would be my go-to for this kind of effect. For other libraries, try riding expression and CC1 together (but not copy pasting CC data tho).


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