# Mocking up ostinato (strings)



## Axe (Dec 30, 2010)

Hey guys, i´ve tried to mock-up this strings (study purpose)

The music is Call of the Champions - John Williams






This is the beginning of the strings accompaniment on the first theme

I´m using LASS but i´m have some difficulty to mock up, i´ve tried the legato patch and non legato patch and i don´t like te results.

When you guys want to use this background type, what do you guys use?


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## Guy Bacos (Dec 30, 2010)

A picture is worth 1000 words, an mp3 is also worth 1000 words. Post what you did.


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## Frederick Russ (Dec 30, 2010)

On the actual cut (from American Journey - 2002 Olympic Winter Games) the ostinato figures you're referring to sound more like staccatos played very lightly. Its expressive what they're doing but very subtle. Lass is able to do this. Its a lot of work however but you can tweak the velocities of each note to keep them at approximately a 70 as an initial maximum velocity and going as low as 39 on some of the notes. You may have to lower this even more since you have 4 string groups playing the pattern simultaneously. Another consideration is that the start times of each note may also need to be adjusted to keep them more fluid and less stiff. I hope this helps and good luck.


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## sbkp (Dec 30, 2010)

Guy Bacos @ Thu Dec 30 said:


> A picture is worth 1000 words, an mp3 is also worth 1000 words. Post what you did.



Is a picture of an MP3 worth 1,000,000 words?


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## Guy Bacos (Dec 30, 2010)

sbkp @ Thu Dec 30 said:


> Guy Bacos @ Thu Dec 30 said:
> 
> 
> > A picture is worth 1000 words, an mp3 is also worth 1000 words. Post what you did.
> ...



?


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## sbkp (Dec 30, 2010)

Sorry... Math humor :D


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## José Herring (Dec 30, 2010)

Frederick Russ @ Thu Dec 30 said:


> On the actual cut (from American Journey - 2002 Olympic Winter Games) the ostinato figures you're referring to sound more like staccatos played very lightly. Its expressive what they're doing but very subtle. Lass is able to do this. Its a lot of work however but you can tweak the velocities of each note to keep them at approximately a 70 as an initial maximum velocity and going as low as 39 on some of the notes. You may have to lower this even more since you have 4 string groups playing the pattern simultaneously. Another consideration is that the start times of each note may also need to be adjusted to keep them more fluid and less stiff. I hope this helps and good luck.



I want to applaud Frederick for actually answering the question! Jeez, people.

I think Fredericks advice is spot on. Probably a little more sophisticated than what I would do. I would just sequence the line with a sus or legato patch and then layer in a light round robin stacc patch on the first and thrid note of the group. That way you'd get the sense of a little attack and the rr would act as bowing noise.


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## Guy Bacos (Dec 30, 2010)

josejherring @ Thu Dec 30 said:


> I want to applaud Frederick for actually answering the question! Jeez, people.



I'm not sure what you are referring to Jose, but until I paid attention to this thread, nobody was saying anything, and for me, I prefer to hear things.


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## Guy Bacos (Dec 31, 2010)

sbkp @ Thu Dec 30 said:


> Sorry... Math humor :D


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## Axe (Jan 2, 2011)

Thank you guys for replying!!

Frederick Russ and josejherring


I´ll try that! And i´ll post the mp3 (wait Guy hehehe, you´ll listen)


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## Axe (Jan 2, 2011)

Well, i just got the cinematic strings and tried this ostinatos.

Cinematic strings

http://www.mediafire.com/?cv2ltshegvh2dq9


Lass - non leg

http://www.mediafire.com/?quq3j791un3q3ai

The Cinematic strings don´t have the "machine" sound. To take out the machine sound on lass i´ve tried, besides the velocity, using de modwheel as well. It´s realy hard to get a nice sound!! But, cinematic strings has better sound, in my opinion. Actually, none of them are good, but i like the sound of cinematic strings in this case!

Mr. Bacos, since you a great user of VSL, on ostinato like this which articulation would you use??


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## johan25 (Jan 2, 2011)

I have never heard LASS sound so BAD, not meant to offend you AXE.

You're experimenting and that's always GOOD


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## Axe (Jan 2, 2011)

hehehehe not offended!! :D


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## Guy Bacos (Jan 2, 2011)

I hate to say it, but this is awful! This is why I asked to hear it before saying anything. There are a lot of things you can do to take the mechanical side away. Since I'm not familiar with the content of other libraries, I can't be too specific, but could give you an idea of the kind of things to look for. First thing is, aside from Frederick's good advice, when you have the exact same notes or figures, you want to avoid repeating the exact same sample, even if it's a slight difference, it will do, try to have each repeated note not sound exactly alike. Many ways of doing this. The other thing is, if I ask you, do you find this nice? I think you will say, no! That's because it's not melodic, even if a passage is fast or super fast, it still has to sound melodic, this entails a lot of subtle things though, it's hard to say what to do without having it in front of you, because sometimes it's very subtle, but will make a big difference. Another thing you should look for, is not to have it too exact the rhythm, it is very, very important that your rhythm has a sort of swing even within the tight rhythm it calls for, but again, it's very subtle. The rhythm has it's own melody as well which smoothen a lot the passage. I could go on and on, but like I said, it's difficult when it's not in front of you, and you also have to experience a LOT, with your OWN tools.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 2, 2011)

I hate sites that pop up an f-ing spam window in the background when you download something. It took me a while to figure out why the string file was talking about adding garlic to a dish.

My suggestion is not to use those sites to post files - it's unwitting antisocial behavior. (Not to get on you case, Axe, just saying.)


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## Guy Bacos (Jan 2, 2011)

ditto.


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## Axe (Jan 2, 2011)

Man, this is really difficult and hard to do!!


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## Guy Bacos (Jan 2, 2011)

Takes me a few minutes. (once you know what to do)

But this is the reason, I'm giving up giving advice. People want short, simple recipes with immediate results. For hundreds of years, people had to sweat to make good music at the end, now people expect to buy samples and everything will place itself automatically and sound like JW.


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## José Herring (Jan 2, 2011)

Guy Bacos @ Thu Dec 30 said:


> josejherring @ Thu Dec 30 said:
> 
> 
> > I want to applaud Frederick for actually answering the question! Jeez, people.
> ...



Sorry I didn't get to this sooner. I've been out of town. I wasn't referring to you. It just bothered me a little bit that the OP had a legitimate question and before anybody really answered the thread turned into a joke. I think it sends the wrong message.

I actually found your post very helpful as I too have struggled with ostinato passages which use to be kind of a staple in my writing before I started really using samples.

Axe, I haven't heard yet what was posted but I will listen later on tonight. Perhaps even try to do the example myself and going back and forth we may get somewhere.


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## Guy Bacos (Jan 2, 2011)

Your example is very difficult to reproduce with virtual sounds, so you have to expect that it won't be easy and will demand some work. You should maybe focus on simpler examples.


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## Alex W (Jan 2, 2011)

Axe, what version of CS are you using?


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## Axe (Jan 2, 2011)

> But this is the reason, I'm giving up giving advice. People want short, simple recipes with immediate results. For hundreds of years, people had to sweat to make good music at the end, now people expect to buy samples and everything will place itself automatically and sound like JW.




Sorry Bacos, i´m not trying to sound like JW. JW didn´t inveted this ostinato. I´m trying to programing this ostinato line in some case i can use on my music!




> Your example is very difficult to reproduce with virtual sounds, so you have to expect that it won't be easy and will demand some work. You should maybe focus on simpler examples.



I know that!! That´s why i came here to discuss this "situation". After all, the site says _Musicians Helping Musicians since 2004_


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## Guy Bacos (Jan 2, 2011)

Axe @ Sun Jan 02 said:


> > But this is the reason, I'm giving up giving advice. People want short, simple recipes with immediate results. For hundreds of years, people had to sweat to make good music at the end, now people expect to buy samples and everything will place itself automatically and sound like JW.




Sorry Bacos, i´m not trying to sound like JW. JW didn´t inveted this ostinato. I´m trying to programing this ostinato line in soò 	    º+ 	    î¸ 	    ïo 	   ¡%: 	   ¡%q 	   ¡)­ 	   ¡)Ò 	   ¡Ql 	   ¡Q  	   ¡a 	   ¡a/ 	   ¡eu 	   ¡f 	   ¡k” 	   ¡l3 	   ¡tð 	   ¡uO 	   ¡uk 	   ¡u‰ 	   ¡”Â 	   ¡•* 	   ¡­Ì 	   ¡® 	   ¡´W 	   ¡´¹ 	   ¡¾ 	   ¡¾' 	   ¡úÌ 	   ¡úÙ 	   ¢"Þ 	   ¢#ì 	   ¢s; 	   ¢sÃ 	   ¢uW 	   ¢um 	   ¢® 	   ¢¼ 	   £A› 	   £AÖ 	   £“ 	   £Þ 	   £¡Á 	   £¢ñ 	   £Ï 	   £Ïó 	   £Ô@ 	   £Ô^ 	   £Õv 	   £Õ¨ 	   £Ý/ 	   £Ý· 	   £éÔ 


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