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Customized CSS + CSSS Violins (For flow and cohesion)

Lionel Schmitt

Senior Member
I'm having a lot of fun using Cinematic Studio Solo Strings to enhance Cinematic Studio Strings.
At the moment I'm focusing on Violins.

Basically, I take a Solo Violin patch from CSSS. 3 times. But to avoid phasing 2 of them get detuned - one 2 semitones up, then another 2 semitones down. And then I transpose the up or down to have them play the same note. CSSS also has a second violin so... same process on that one! :D

Same principle as in this video** (which exposes me as a horrible narrator haha), but on different tracks in my DAW, to have more control over the mix.
And it's then layered with a full violins patch from CSS.
**

A lot of EQing too...

I highly encourage everyone to play around this kinda thing... maybe also use different solo strings libraries...

Some examples of my Violins layering. Celli are there too, but they are somewhat basic ATM.
There is a lot of mixing that still needs to be done, but I love the flow and cohesiveness!

(excuse the piano and cellos voicing... just testing and an idea ;) )


 
I'm having a lot of fun using Cinematic Studio Solo Strings to enhance Cinematic Studio Strings.
At the moment I'm focusing on Violins.

Basically, I take a Solo Violin patch from CSSS. 3 times. But to avoid phasing 2 of them get detuned - one 2 semitones up, then another 2 semitones down. And then I transpose the up or down to have them play the same note. CSSS also has a second violin so... same process on that one! :D

Same principle as in this video** (which exposes me as a horrible narrator haha), but on different tracks in my DAW, to have more control over the mix.
And it's then layered with a full violins patch from CSS.
**

A lot of EQing too...

I highly encourage everyone to play around this kinda thing... maybe also use different solo strings libraries...

Some examples of my Violins layering. Celli are there too, but they are somewhat basic ATM.
There is a lot of mixing that still needs to be done, but I love the flow and cohesiveness!

(excuse the piano and cellos voicing... just testing and an idea ;) )



Sounds great!

I'm wondering--how many solo violins to layer on the ensemble? How did you arrive at 3 violins? (were 3 better than 2? Are 4 no better than 3?)

You have the advantage of using CSSS with CSS, so the ambiance matches perfectly, but have you tried a combination of CSSS with another solo violin? (which would automatically avoid the phasing issue, but maybe not match up to the ambiance as well.)
 
Sounds great!

I'm wondering--how many solo violins to layer on the ensemble? How did you arrive at 3 violins? (were 3 better than 2? Are 4 no better than 3?)

You have the advantage of using CSSS with CSS, so the ambiance matches perfectly, but have you tried a combination of CSSS with another solo violin? (which would automatically avoid the phasing issue, but maybe not match up to the ambiance as well.)
Thanks! :)
I also have the free violin from Performance Samples and EastWest Hollywood Solo Violin (via Composer Cloud) which I'm not a big fan of.
I'll plan to try some laying with these too. But the legato in CSSS is just so good... that's why I sticked with these.

It's also 5 violins. I also used the second violin, one time natural and another detuned patch.
There isn't really any thought behind that. I'm still experimenting, so I'll also try how it sounds like with 6 or 4...
Also keep in mind that for most examples I also layered in the full violin 1 patch from CSS. So basically we would have 15 - 20 violins I think.
 
Thanks! :)
I also have the free violin from Performance Samples and EastWest Hollywood Solo Violin (via Composer Cloud) which I'm not a big fan of.
I'll plan to try some laying with these too. But the legato in CSSS is just so good... that's why I sticked with these.

It's also 5 violins. I also used the second violin, one time natural and another detuned patch.
There isn't really any thought behind that. I'm still experimenting, so I'll also try how it sounds like with 6 or 4...
Also keep in mind that for most examples I also layered in the full violin 1 patch from CSS. So basically we would have 15 - 20 violins I think.
Cool. Let me know what you find.

I've been experimenting with layering in solo violins to my main library, 8dio Agitato and Adagio. I found that the included 8dio solo violin layers in the easiest to match, but the solo violin in Adagio is pretty limited. My best layer so far is with Josh Bell. I tried adding my VLS SE solo violin to that, but it didn't seem to add much. I recently tried the free violin from Performance Samples, and that seems to work well as a layer. Now, I'm wondering if it's better to get another solo violin to layer in (Emotional looks good...), or maybe try your trick with detuning the same violin.
 
8violins with CSSS. That was my submission using Saxer's 7 to the members violins shootout contest by Gary. I prefer this over any ensemble library I have, even over CSS!:)

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/csss-8vlns-designed-ensemble-alone-mp3.16255/][/AUDIOPLUS]

[AUDIOPLUS=https://www.vi-control.net/community/attachments/csss-8vlns-designed-ensemble-alone-mp3.16255/][/AUDIOPLUS]
 

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  • CSSS-8Vlns designed ensemble-Alone.mp3
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8violins with CSSS. That was my submission using Saxer's 7 to the members violins shootout contest by Gary. I prefer this over any ensemble library I have, even over CSS!:)

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/csss-8vlns-designed-ensemble-alone-mp3.16255/][/AUDIOPLUS]
Very nice. Do you play each violin separately?

Sometimes, I use the humanize function in Logic to try to get the performances to not match perfectly.

How did you arrive at 8 violins?
 
8violins with CSSS. That was my submission using Saxer's 7 to the members violins shootout contest by Gary. I prefer this over any ensemble library I have, even over CSS!:)

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/csss-8vlns-designed-ensemble-alone-mp3.16255/][/AUDIOPLUS]

Sounds really good. Is there any approach showcasing how you did that?
 
Last edited:
HYG...definetly not perfect but good as starting point
Screenshot_20181109-103251.jpg
Edit: last two panning should be 57L and 52L. sorry for the typo


I don't believe that saying "no No nO NO..." is any different from simply saying "no" ;)

Edit:worth mentioning that I only use the close mic
Thanks for sharing :)
 
HYG...definetly not perfect but good as starting point
Screenshot_20181109-103251.jpg
Edit: last two panning should be 57L and 52L. sorry for the typo


I don't believe that saying "no No nO NO..." is any different from simply saying "no" ;)

Edit:worth mentioning that I only use the close mic
Thank you. Can’t wait to get back in studio and try this. Have tried similar things with SCS and have layered CSSS with CSS all to good effect. Never even thought to give this a shot.
 
Really nice tutorial ! and are you kidding you're a really good narrator. The first melody played in your video made me think of the song Take my true love by The Limeliters (which is featured in Breaking Bad)
 
8violins with CSSS. That was my submission using Saxer's 7 to the members violins shootout contest by Gary. I prefer this over any ensemble library I have, even over CSS!:)

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/csss-8vlns-designed-ensemble-alone-mp3.16255/][/AUDIOPLUS]

[AUDIOPLUS=https://www.vi-control.net/community/attachments/csss-8vlns-designed-ensemble-alone-mp3.16255/][/AUDIOPLUS]

How did you get the rocking motion at 40 seconds so even with CSSS? I've tried moving midi notes but it's different every time due to the RR's. I end up bouncing to audio and neatening them up that way./...
 
Can anyone point me into how to do the "tuning trick" with CSSS? Because this lib is locked and I can't apply the re-tuning script in the editor, or am I missing something?

Cheers
 
Can anyone point me into how to do the "tuning trick" with CSSS? Because this lib is locked and I can't apply the re-tuning script in the editor, or am I missing something?

Cheers

Set Tune to +/- whatever you like in the main Kontakt GUI.

On the Left Hand Side of the CSSS Gui there is a small settings icon. You should find "Midi Transpose" there to offset the Tune you set in step 1. Cheers and thanks for all the great content!
 
Gotcha, thank you, missed the settings icon on the Gui
Set Tune to +/- whatever you like in the main Kontakt GUI.

On the Left Hand Side of the CSSS Gui there is a small settings icon. You should find "Midi Transpose" there to offset the Tune you set in step 1. Cheers and thanks for all the great content!
 
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