New soundtrackish mood piece

[greentea23]

Hi all,

First piece for the year. A little more contemplative than usual. Enjoy, and feel free to give feedback for improvement. Main issue I have is making the strings sound bigger... not so satisfied with this still.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10095304

Cheers

 

[greentea23]

Haha, actually, after I posted this, I changed the strings portion so I don't have such an issue anymore.

Thanks for listening anyway.

 

[Cheez]

Nice as always Corrine.

The trick to make strings larger are 2 words: violas and cellos.

 

[greentea23]

Thanks for the tip, Cheez! I tried adding violas but the sound came out weird. I've just added a cello bass now.

I will have to experiment further with the violas when I have time.

Cheers

 

[Cheez]

Just to check, you are using GPO if I recall correctly, right? Make sure that the voicings of your string parts are placed wide enough. Apply harmony. Violas shouldn't sound weird. It's one of the warmest string instruments.

 

[greentea23]

Hi Cheez,

I'm using EWQL Gold. I have been using only the default settings so far...

Think I'll need to pick up a book on harmonising.... any recommendations?

Have a nice weekend.

 

[Cheez]

Harmony is Grade 6 theory onwards. There are a few books you can pick up from music shops. One thing is to check out the free online courses for orchestration and strings writing. I believe Garritan might have it. I have the Writing for Strings by Alexander University materials. I'm not sure if they are still selling their materials (pdf format). There are various resources you can search for.

Hard not to get the "large strings" sound from EWQLSO.