Ive explored countless string VSTs/kontakt libraries, some of them were excellent for the modern/cinematic sound but I'm yet to find one with the oldschool sound similar to the intro of the bossanova song I'm linking below.

would love to hear your recommendations on libraries and/or mixing plugins

 

I love that late 50s lush string section sound, too! Now I could be wrong, but I think it has more to do with arrangement and execution than with any particular form of 'tonal shaping' (recording, mixing, instrument sourcing or VST of choice) What I mean is: if you were in that studio at that particular time and you wrote a different style of arrangement, for a different number of strings, or if the musicians were directed to play it 'less romantically', you would not get that sound. In fact, I think this kind of reasoning is true for many 'how to get that sound' questions, which are more about lost technique than some magic sauce like a special type of violin, analog mojo and the like.

 

Shiori Oishi was on the money, this is an arrangement thing: DIVISI
That's how they pull off those chords so silkily, also a fair bit of portamento adds to the effect. Best string library to do that with is Spitfire Chamber Strings.
There's a ton of info on this out there, but probably the most accessible is Adam B̶e̶l̶l̶'̶s̶ Ball's YT video on the topic, something to the effect of 'My Computer is a 1950's Radio'.

 

Last edited: Apr 21, 2024

I appreciate the insights from both of you. the Alex Ball video looks insane..shows how high the skill ceiling can go on some elements using a VST

beautiful !!

 

@Semarus Did you meant Alex Ball?

 

Just amazing. Thanks for the recommendation! By the way, I've been trying to find out what song this is for quite a while now:

 

Related: https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-make-you-strings-more-realistic/

 

A Small library "PastToFuture Old movie strings" has some of that vibe

 

Might just be this one
https://pasttofuturereverbs.gumroad.com/l/ujgvy

 

LASS. Use the solo and 3rd chair articulations layered so you have a small, dry section and process with eq and reverb in a vintage style.

 

I just listened to it again. Just to round off my previous answer more techically:

• this is a very big section, probably over 24 violins (for comparison: you can have good disco stabs and falls with 14 violins or less);
• you probably have a concertmaster/primo/spalla allowed to use expression liberally --- it's amazing how one free player over a bed of strings can change the character of the whole section;
• no celli nor double bass; if there are violas, they're either playing high register or being EQ'ed thin;
• as it has been mentioned, divisi here is key: the whole arrangement depends on at least two violin groups. For instance, listen out for the thin tail connection at 0:15... that is the arrangement telling section A to sustain and other sections to stop;
• I said 'at least two' because I'm focusing on the texture, but from a harmonic standpoint, we hear polychords all over the place, and you would probably arrange for four or five groups, even for organization (a big component of arranging). So, you could downplay or play up specific chord tones according to artistic decision with ease;
• Divisi is also useful for expression, as you can e.g. tell the basses (or whoever is playin the lowest parts) to play more softly, pick strings with less rosin for lower registers, tell mids to play with less dynamics etc. Since this is an audio board: a multiband processing of sorts!
• they're playing "con amore" or something similar, so there is a lot of vibrato and slow dynamic ramps, especially on attacks, but also much variation for tails and transitions... in such cases, vibrato usually follows volume (in MIDI programming terms: the vibrato depth ramp grows along the MSB expression ramp);
• since you asked about libraries/programming: you want the sound of each individual string to be different from one another, but not in all parameters: in real life, dynamics are easier to get right than time (or we're more accustomed to listening to greater time variations than dynamics, or both), so vibrato rate could vary more than vibrato depth, especially in a pop context;
• last, but not least, I have been increasingly impressed with NAM for getting a 'more real than real' guitar sound. I used to think that arranging/performing was 90% of getting a 'realistic' sound, and texture/effect would account for 10% at most... Not after NAM! I don't know if there is anything like that for acoustic instruments (AFAIK, the special thing about NAM is the way they nailed the amp simulation processing, as the cabinet part is just usual IR technology). So there could be something out there to beef up all this programming hard work!

This is based just on my own experience and studies. Sorry OP if you already knew all of this, but I thought it could be useful for others!