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Best way to use Action Strings for double stroked string passages

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks & Talk' started by Mike Worth, Jul 7, 2017.

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  1. #1 Mike Worth, Jul 7, 2017
    Hi, all!

    This is for everyone, but Mike, if you could weigh in, I would be super grateful.

    I really loved your double-stroke violin passages in the action cues on Independents Day. It's something I want to have available in my compositions, and mockups. I know that you used Action Strings to get that feel, and I was wondering how you approach programming/playing/writing them. The way I'm thinking, it's one of three ways.

    1. You play each note in (so, 1/2, 1/2, etc) to a click, and then quantize strongly to make it as tight to the grid/click as possible.

    2. You play each note in to click, but at a slower tempo, and let the performance be as tight as possible, then speed up the tempo.

    3. You play the first note of each double stroke, and then either use a MIDI echo function, or load a specific double-stroke patch in Action strings, so that when you play the first note, Action strings plays two notes.

    4. Something more voo-doo'y that I haven't thought of. :)

    Can you shed some light on that technique, Mike? Thank you in advance!

    Another Mike
     
    Samuel Diaz likes this.
  2. #2 TD Gary, Jul 12, 2017
    My piano background tells me to play it in at a more manageable tempo, then speed up the result. It's hardly ideal, but I have a strong belief that anything even close to a real performance saves time and sounds better compared to fussing with a mouse for MIDI editing.
     
    T.j. Prinssen likes this.
  3. #3 Torsten Kamps, Jul 18, 2017
     
  4. #4 Samuel Le Tonquèze, Jul 21, 2017
    @Torsten Kamps, thanks for this video. But I believe that the violinists have their fingers burned!
     
  5. #5 Noam Levy, Jul 21, 2017
    Hi Mike!

    CSS has a measured trem articulation that works very nicely.



    More generally, when I'm mocking up strings I like to write things in, quantize very strongly, and THEN apply the "4121 rule". When strings play fast notes (staccato, slurred, doesn't matter) we group the notes in a hierarchy. So if there's a passage of sixteenths, I will start by flattening them all out to the same velocity:

    aaaa bbbb cccc dddd

    Then I'll raise the velocity of the eighth note pairs:

    AaAa BbBb CcCc DdDd

    Then I'll add a little bit extra to the velocity of the notes that land on the quarter note beats:

    AaAa BbBb CcCc DdDd

    Hence "4121".

    And maybe even add another layer of hierarchy at the half note or whole note level, it depends.

    This hierarchy is preserved even when there is an overall crescendo or decrescendo in the music.
     
    Runar Lundvall, Lawson Madlener, Luke Johnson and 1 other person like this.
  6. #6 Mike Worth, Jul 22, 2017
    Thank you all for your responses, I appreciate your time and expertise in posting!

    The thing I am wondering specifically about for Action Strings, is, do they have a built in double-stroke articulation that can be used for those passages? I didn't find one, and I tried to fake it by playing the 16th note art, and moving the note every 1/8 note, didn't sound good.

    So my question was, does Mike do any Voo-Doo with Action Strings to get the double stroke sound, or is it the standard "play every 16th note" and adjust Midi volume?

    Thank you all for your thoughts and advice!

    Mike
     
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