Getting Soft, Buzzy Strings out of Reason 3

[ulrichburke]

Dear Anyone.

 

I'm a wannabe New Age composer - think piano, flute, strings, SOFT sounds, cringe now, you rockers, and get it over with!

 

How do you, technically, get soft, buzzy strings? Like Richard Clayderman, or Kitaro when he's using synths and not a real orchestra, or the background, droney soft strings you hear on film soundtracks? The Reason strings all sound harsh and acidic and I was wondering if anyone knew what to do to soften them up.

 

Please, I'm new to all this so if you have the time to detail the steps, or if there's a tutorial anywheres point me in that direction? Can do nice, bright flutes and pianos, but soft'n'buzzy seems much more difficult!!

 

Yours hopefully

 

Christopher Burke (ulrichburke on site).

[nerol1st]

Reverb the heck out of them.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Christopher, I'm glad you asked here too, because although I got your email, I'm not a regular Reason user, and am not very familiar with the string sounds in it. Hopefully some Reason users will reply...

 

IMO, you should probably start with a basic sample / patch / sound that is as close to the end result you're looking for as you can get. There's a ton of different string sounds out there, and a ton of ways of generating them (different brands / models of not only hardware synths and samplers, but tons of string sample libraries, synthetic / synth strings, layering two or more of these, etc.), and because it's hard to know the exact sound you're hearing in your head or looking for, it's hard to know where to even begin as far as suggestions... and again, I'm not familiar with the string sounds in Reason, so I have no idea if any are even close to what you're looking for...

If they're not, you may need another source - a new synth, some new samples, etc.

 

Sorry I couldn't be of more help right off the bat.

 

 

Can you give us some audio examples of the types of string sounds you're looking for? Maybe a YouTube clip or audio example? It might help us to steer you in the right direction...

[Ed A.]

 

Dear Anyone. I'm a wannabe New Age composer - think piano, flute, strings, SOFT sounds, cringe now, you rockers, and get it over with! How do you, technically, get soft, buzzy strings? Like Richard Clayderman, or Kitaro when he's using synths and not a real orchestra, or the background, droney soft strings you hear on film soundtracks? The Reason strings all sound harsh and acidic and I was wondering if anyone knew what to do to soften them up.

 

 

That could be the problem, you're using real string instrument samples in Reason instead of synth string pads. I know it's not usable in Reason, but maybe you should consider a DAW like Logic, with this instead:

 

http://www.gforcesoftware.com/ins_vsm_demos.php

[UstadKhanAli]

I don't use Reason at all, so I can't help you there.

 

For string pads, depending on what I'm going for, I use a Roland JX3P or MKS-70 (essentially, two JX8Ps in a box) for analog synth strings. I also like the strings that Kurzweil has had, and use the Kurzweil MicroPiano for string sounds. They have some beautiful legato patches that make beautiful, soft, droney strings. I'll use these either in tandem or together.

 

This is a lot heavier, and not very New Agey, but I can get this sort of depth and warmth out of the combination that I just described (sorry, it's less than a minute - strings kick in when the vocals come in, doubling them in the first part before going to a more chordal part):

http://www.elevenshadows.com/mp3/Shegar.mp3

 

I know that the keyboards that I gave are not soft synths, and are also sort of old, but that's what I use to achieve this sound. I'm sure there are some great newer synths or soft synths that can achieve this as well, but since I already own this really cool older stuff, I just keep using it!!