i've been craving for years in order to add some real instruments sounds to my production pallette, and strings and orchestra sounds are mystery that i still didnt solve finding a one . Many of the libraries I stumbled upon seem to be good for cinematic/film and dramtic sound , but I have a tough time trying to fit them more in a soul music context, they sound too clean to my ear, many of them have only slow attack/ weird porta/glide and hardly ever have hit/short stab presets which i need .
some time ago i got projectsam swing looking for a brass lib and its one of the only libraries that had this vintage soul sound which im talking about . if you know any other string/brass/orchestra libraries in this taste, let me know ;) thanks for helping

 

search: mellotron

 

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/straight-ahead-jazz-horns/

Putting a bit of Kazrog True Iron on reverbs.

 

Last edited: Jul 31, 2021

https://www.bigfishaudio.com/detail.html?1&24&1:115:::1615:::::::A115&G1615::518391

 

I don't think OP is referring to Mellotron sounds. In fact, the Mellotron was not widely used in Soul music. Many soul records of the late 1960s to mid-1970s era featured real strings, sometimes string quartets, sometimes entire orchestral string sections. The Philly sound of Gamble & Huff (I think they worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra frequently for string overdubs) in particular.

In my opinion though you don't need any particular "Soul strings" library. Any well recorded, neutral sounding orchestral or chamber library (not any "cinematic" or "epic" nonsense) will do, the rest is a matter of mixing. Try to recreate the recording path that the string would have gone through in a 1973 recording. Also, strings were typically heavily panned to one side. Use an IR of a medium sized rehearsal room for the reverb sound (don't use any algo reverb!!!!). Use a lowpass and highpass to narrow down the frequency spectrum a bit (12db lowpass at 11k for a start), 1970s recordings were not that high resolution as modern digital 96k recordings. Also use tape emulation to add that "sound like recorded to reel-to-reel 3d depth".

 

Mellotron is great and it's probably my favorite instrument ever done, i own a few mellotron libs. if only libraries nowadays had such a focus like mellotron had on their samples on cassettes, a world would be a perfect place to be lmao. but i want to find something with more dynamic playing/accents and stabs/staccatos etc.

I've been d̶o̶w̶n̶l̶o̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ it for a few days now, hope ill love it lmao

Haven't heard of this one, seems really good - cheers mate

 

Very nice insight man, I'm trying to get into old ways of mixing as much as I can so this really helps out . Just recently i realised how important choice of bittrate resolution is in case of achieving a dirtier mix i love .

 

When I think of 70s strings I think of the Philly & the Motown sound (Chamber sections double tracked). 80s strings are more cinematic IMO & started to use full size orchestral sections for the big Pop/R&B hits by mid-late 80s.... For the Disco stabs, falls/runs you can get away with 8Dio Studio strings. The best overall libraries tend to come from VSL for things I believe you're looking for... Keep in mind the best mockup creators tend to blend multiple articulations together - from other libraries even - to fill out the timbre.