String Quartet Cue

[eliforshort]

I put together a version of Mozart's String Quartet #5 in F Major (on my SoundCloud page) for this listing:

PUBLIC DOMAIN and/or ORIGINAL, CLASSICAL STRING QUARTET INSTRUMENTAL PIECES are needed for a NON-Exclusive placement by a Hollywood Music Supervisor for a fancy restaurant scene in a very popular series! He's hunting for mood-setting Instrumental pieces in the general stylistic wheelhouse of Beethoven, Pachelbel, Rachmaninov, etc., etc., etc. Please review the following pieces to get yourself in the ballpark of the hoity toity sound he needs:

"String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18" by Beethoven

"Canon and Gigue in D Major" by Johann Pachelbel

"String Quartet No. 1, Romance" by Sergei Rachmaninov

Give them authentic sounding pieces that are either real instruments, or sound indistinguishable from a real string quartet. Any material that sounds stiff or "synthy" won't work well for this pitch. This track will be used as source music, so be sure your piece creates an atmosphere of elegance and sophistication. Instrumentals that are at least two-minutes long are recommended, and you'd be smart to avoid pieces that are overly busy so they don't distract from the scene's dialogue.

What do you think about this arrangement for this cue? Do the string sound "indistinguishable"? Not too busy? Any mix suggestions? Thanks!

-Elias

[remmet]

When I click on the links, it takes me to my own Taxi page.

R

[eliforshort]

Oops! Check my SoundCloud link!

EDIT: Ok figured it out, either one should work.

[Len911]

Perhaps it's the reverb, but it sounds larger than a quartet to me.

[remmet]

Elias -- I'm curious, were you using samples of solo instruments? The strings, especially the violins, sound like full sections rather than single instruments. You did a nice job of programming the performance, but as you undoubtedly know, creating a recording that sounds indistinguishable from the real thing is almost impossible, or at the very least, extremely difficult. But since you took the challenge, one thing I'd suggest, in addition to using solo instrumental samples if you weren't already, is to lower the amount and the level of reverb in the mix. It sounds a bit cavernous, more appropriate for a full symphonic sound. Were you using EastWest samples? They tend to be heavy on the large hall ambience, especially if you're using the surround mics.

I would also take a look at the articulations you're using, and make sure that when a passage has notes that need to move quickly, you use shorter articulations that speak more quickly. It wouldn't be unusual to use 2, 3, or more articulations in a single phrase.

For a comparison to the real thing (or as close as you'll get on YouTube), I found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ZXUntGApg

Notice how light and crisp the strings sound in many places, and the hall sound is much less pronounced, not to mention all the human stylistic elements that excellent musicians playing real instruments employ. That's the bar to aim for, and honestly speaking, I don't know how realistic a goal it is with current technology. But kudos to you for being willing to give it a shot. Good luck with it.

Richard

[2lane]

Nice to meet you Elias.
Len and Richard are two that know this kinda stuff good, so listen to them. Richard went into much detail also, and he's very skillful, so there you go.
I agree that the playing is very well done!

Just want to add that I listened to most of your songs.....you're a real talent man! So you're the back-up singer in your band?
Your lead singer must be real good then, cause you're very good also
Your song "The Sun" is fantastic! Very beautiful and well done. "How do you tell the Sun you love her, when all she does is leave you in the dark"........such a good hook!
I hope anyone who peeps your thread, takes the time to listen to it and others
You should be a shoe-in for a lot of the singer/songwriter listings.

Again, nice to meet you and have a great new year
Oh, and congrats on your forwards

Cheers,
Steve

[Fullertime]

Elias,

It was great to hear your piece man and kudos for taking this on! When I saw :authentic string quartet" I bailed:) lol!!!

As i listened to your piece I agree with the other posters. Your arrangement and performance is great! Really really!! My only two cents would be to I nudge out the reverb a bit so it sounds "closer" like a real string quartet.

One other thought, a few of the fast runs were a little mushy at the front end but you can adjust those easily with the release envelope as well or switch to a faster articulation as mentioned previously.

I also checked out your website... you are really talented man and you seem like a really cool dude! Glad to know you are in the taxi community! PS- I love your web header photo with the child looking at you... is that your son? That picture was priceless man!!! Your songs are great. Keep us posted on your Quartet!

Blessings
Fuller

[Len911]

Because it's a pd piece, you might find it easier to use an XMLfile, and tweak accordingly.

http://www.musicxml.com/music-in-musicxml/

that's a good resource for music xml
http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page

is a good link for classical xml files.

if your daw doesn't import xml, you can use a free app like musescore, included in the links, and save as a midi file, then import to your daw for some more tweaking.

they're not a substitution for articulations, but for example, there is a trill, with a non-trill articulation, the midi data will capture the pitch bend value of the trill and apply it, if you use a trill articulation, you would need to delete the pitchbend midi controller values in the midi.

if you took the time,lol, you could actually build a "midi phrase library" of various articulations, and midi controller values from the performances that you might find useful later, if that makes sense.

You can to a small degree edit the audio sample with a pitch-shift, time-stretcher plugin like variaudio in cubase or melodyne, etc.
a new one, ircam ts, last day for $99, mac only with windows in a few weeks
http://www.plugivery.com/products/p1680-TS/

[eliforshort]

Wow, thank you so much for the quick responses, everyone! Great to "meet" you all!

I'm very new to this orchestral stuff, obviously. I think the main problem is that I'm starting with Cinematic Strings, which are not solo instruments. Anyone use CS2 and know how to make them smaller? I'm going to definitely clean up the reverb, and use the Close mic settings as opposed to the Mix setting on all instruments, see how big of a difference that makes. I knew this was going to be a tough little project, but I'm determined!

I actually started with a MIDI file, so all of the tweaking I've done has been trying to adjust the articulations, then mixing, which are both of the trickiest parts. I'll take a look into cleaning up a few of the quick passages, those are the toughest to get with some pretty precise key switching. I'll keep working, post a new mix hopefully in the next couple of days.

PS, thank you for the kind words about the rest of my music! Steve, I am the lead singer! (and the back-up singer, and the guitarist, and the pianist, and the bassist... everything but drums!) Fuller, not my son, no. A nice young boy who happened to make me a bunch of money while I was busking at the Farmer's Market one day. He just stood there with his hand on my guitar for 2-3 songs.

-Elias

[eliforshort]

Ok, I did a quick adjustment. Not so much on the articulations, but I sucked out all of the reverb from Cinematic Strings, then changed the room reverb to a smaller space.

I think it sounds a lot cleaner, for sure. But my finger is now on the trigger of buying Spitfire Audio's Solo Strings. They are just over $300, but might be very useful for this kind of work. They still sound a bit big to be just a quartet, but much better than before, in my opinion.

-Elias