George, that was brilliant. I've struggled with Logic strings and LABS strings for a while. This has opened up a whole new sound world. Thanks for that. Cheers.
I'm really happy that it is working for you! That is my goal - to help maximize fellow creator's workflows and achieve sonic excellence. I will be doing some more videos on other aspects of improving Logic sounds - more orchestral and others too. Stay tuned! Thanks for commenting!!
Real Orchestras will have 40-50 string players, so if you want to duplicate that sound you need to combine a lot of different string sounds to get the BIG, FULL ORCHESTAL STRING SOUND! It sounds great. Thanks for showing us how to do it!
Indeed - that is my theory of using multiple samples. Heck, I even use some of the OLD Roland samples from the 90's - they add a grit that I find works alongside the more expensive libraries like Symphobia or Spitfire. Thanks for commenting!
This is amazing and extremely helpful! I was searching for 3rd party strings because I do not like the Logic Strings when I came across this video. You are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!
Not overboard at all. Very cool. I do a lot of writing for music libraries and the one thing that they want is realistic sounding strings. I think you’ve achieved that George. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
GRANDIOSO ... thx so much ... just what I need. Now I got an idea, how to REALLY use some of Logics stock sounds ... Great and thank you ! I would highly appreciate a similar HOW TO clip regarding brass ensemble ... if you don't mind ;-))
Thank George..... This opens up a whole world for me.... I was never happy with the stock sounds and thought about purchasing additional plugins but never did. I will leverage everything you shared with this video.... Thank you very much
make several string ensemble and work with to tweak them and pan give a rich string ensemble thanks for tips. i use valhalla super massiv a lot in my logic x 10.4.8 love that reverb.
Thanks for keeping me up to speed! Yeah, my favorite reverb is Altiverb XL - I've had it for several decades - in my opinion, there is no better IR reverb - but it is costly! My favories tend to shift now and then though...lol. Appreciate your comment!
Hi George, thank you for this cool way of creating realistic string-sounds ! I almost immediately copied your way to handle in my Logic-daw, very inspiring. Somewhere at the end of your tutorial you say that you lead al the 9 string-instruments through your 'synth-bus'. I don't know how to achieve that, actually I don't understand how to route it in that way. After that comes your next advice to put it all together in a 'summing-track'. That I understand a lot better. My question : Do the 'synth-bus' and the 'summing-track'-procedure in the end have the same result ? At the 'summing-track' you can ad compression, eq, sample-delay etc...as well. If I select the 'summing-track' I can play al the nine tracks on my keyboard-controller. I don't understand the difference. Maybe some other viewers can help me explaining it. Thanx in advance ! Cheers from the Amsterdam, Holland.
Thanks for reaching out. Great question. A summing track creates its own bus (or actually aux) which yes, functions like a bus. I do not use summing stacks to be honest and that is because I have a specific AutoLoad that organizes all of my tracks, busses, aux's in various different windows. (See my AutoLoad 7 part series). The AutoLoad is based on my T.A.B.S. concept (See the 2 part T.A.B.S. series) - If you look at those two series, this will all make a lot more sense. When I want to play multiple instruments together, I just select them all and play them, I don't stack them. I like the more classic tried and true way of using busses and auxes and making a CLEAN session that is always the same format - much like if you were using a console, and gear in a studio. This provides the most consistent workflow and most closely emulates the true record-making studio environment. Watch those series and get back to me if you still have further questions. Thanks so much for reaching out!! Let me know how it goes!
I do this too , but my secret weapon is that i’m a violinist/violist/cellist haha😊 so i then add about 5 or 6 overdubs of each instrument , mix it in with the libraries and the realism is exponential ! (why don’t i only use the real instruments ? couple reasons: time saving ; and single tracking single instruments 50 times does not necessarily work so well. A real orchestra has stereo mics capturing the whole ensemble. If you individually track 50 string instruments it’s not so easy to achieve the coherence … there’s also the issue of too much sonic build up from proximity or room sound - multiply that by 50 and it gets unwieldy. So blending in a few real track with the libraries can really do the trick! )
Agree, agree, agree! I have a violin and had a cello - I am much better at cello than violin but that is great that you sweeten your tracks with actual real performances! It makes all the difference in the world. And yes, having recorded strings and horns in the past, individual mics are more or less useless, it's like trying to record a choir one vocal at a time.... Overall anytime you can use a real instrument to sweeten midi, that will add a sonic timbre that will make the track truly sound pro. That is why I always insist on real bass guitar - nothing better than the true low end and sonic intricacies of a real bass! As far as my violin playing, I reserve that for my horror tracks 😂 - Thanks for commenting!!
To be honest, I need to play with the articulations a bit more. I currently use strings from Symphobia, Spitfire and some custom made strings I obtained from a major film composer and those cover 98% of my string needs. I will look at them and possibly do a part 2 though! Good idea! Thanks for commenting.
Very simple: Open Logic Library, Select the track stack, in the footer of the Library area, you'll see a SAVE button. Just name save that stack and you can pull it up in the Library anytime you want. If you don't like stacks (like me) you can still save it that way and then you bring it into a new session, just right-click the track and flatten it. If you're using my T.A.B.S. format and want to delete that AUX it brings in, you can do that easily in the Environment. Hope this helps!! Thanks for reaching out!
I followed your instructions to a “T” and got fantastic results. Once tweaked is saving them as a template for future use the best method or is there a better way.
I was hearing someone talk about not panning the instruments since they are virtually already set in the stereo field replicating where they would be in the orchestra. They explained how these instruments were already mapped out - So they were saying that panning the sound reduces half of that stereo image of the sound which could lead it to sound very odd. What are your thoughts on this? I noticed you were panning the strings and instruments left and right. Isn’t it already a stereo sound? Does that affect how natural the sound truly is?
That just entirely depends on the sample library. But in Logic, you have the option to choose the strings to be mono when you load that software instrument (you have three choices: mono, stereo, and multi-output). Even if you chose stereo when panning, it doesn't do anything bad - I do that all the time. Remember, these are individual sections that are panned straight in the center - these are not a full separately panned orchestra. The bigger point here was that you were using multiple different samples of strings to blend with each other, some might be more harsh, some darker, some lower quality, and that idea is like a regular group of musicians who all have different instruments, and in that you are creating a more realistic sound. What that person was likely talking about is if you are using one patch or one sample performance. Anyway, hopes this clarifies things. Thanks for reaching out!!
@@GGabrielMusic oh ok! So just to make sure I understand, the logic “sampler” orchestra instruments are just stereo instruments yet still centered? So I could pan the stereo sounds of all of them accordingly? In that case would you recommend balance pan knob, stereo pan, or binaural?
