How To Turn a Piano Sketch Into a Full String Arrangement 

Femi Fakoya Glad I can help!

Thanks Ally!

metaepitome My pleasure!

Curtis Schweitzer Thanks Curtis! For me it’s a matter of putting down the fundamentals first and listening to what’s missing. Indeed, some more passing tones would’ve made it even nicer :)

Lonely Sea Productions Yes, great idea! Thanks :)

You're welcome!

Glad it was helpful!

You’re welcome!

Marcus Manderson Thanks Marcus!

@@ChristopherSiu No problem. You, my friend, have a new subscriber. LOL....

Appreciate it!

Enda Gallery Thanks! Mod affects dynamics and expression.

@@ChristopherSiu What's a Mod Wheel and where is it located??

@@friscobeats2846 yeh i would have loved to have had this in the tutorial since it's quite important. here goes half an hour of googling!

Hi Harsha, yes that would be correct when you're working with non-divisi libraries. If Violins 1 is 16 players, then playing 2 notes together would technically mean 16 players are playing 1 note, and 16 players playing the other. I typically don't worry about this too much, because even if there's a chord with an extra voice (6 voices for example), I can just bring in another instance of the violins to complete that. I'm not a stickler for absolute realism, as long as the overall product sounds good to my ear. However, divisi libraries are the workaround, so for example in Afflatus Strings, their auto-divisi works so that when you play 2 notes, the engine divides it up so that 8 players are playing 1 note each, instead of 16. Super smart!

Christopher Siu alright Thanku😄

ridgero I have an iMac. 🖥

@@ChristopherSiu thanks for the quick answer. I am curious what specs you have, because you have such big projects.

Caleb Swift Thanks Caleb :)

Thanks man!

Thank you! Cheers!

You're very welcome!

David Kudell Music Hey David, thank you! Yes I do this sometimes for extra definition. Functions as a first chair if you will. :)

You're so welcome Rae! :)

Hey Austin, great question. I think it's simply 2 different approaches. The pros to working in notation first is that you have a visual of your voicings and you can play them back anytime, although the synthesized sounds may not be the best (but that really doesn't matter). I simply prefer working in the DAW first because it's a lot quicker for me, and as I orchestrate in Logic it inspires me to try out some other voicing possibilities I may not have thought of if I started in Sibelius. The downside is that you don't actually see the voicings laid out unless you highlight everything in the piano roll, but even that can look quite messy. Both approaches work; it's just a matter of preference personally. Hope that makes sense!

Logic has a very good Score Editor too (for a DAW). I often select the piano sketch, like the one Christopher did, and then open up the score editor and unlink the editor window so no matter what string track I choose, the sheet music from my piano part stays visible

John Mears yeah that's a handy tip thanks for sharing!

R K Mithun Chakravarthy Great idea!

Joe Peters Thanks Joe!

MEETYHTAN Thanks for watching!

Oliver Kember Thanks for watching Oliver!

You're welcome! Unfortunately I don't think I have the MIDI file for this project anymore, sorry!

vaiman7777 Many Thanks!