I feel like I'm missing something obvious. (stupid?)
Everythime i try to create strings or horns, all libraries have this slow build up, if you want sustain.
There are excellent staccatos and what have you, but never the combination.

Often (take disco as an example) you want a fast attack, and then sustain.
Same for horns.
How do you guys do this?

 

Well, in my experience most libraries do have fast attack legato articulations- sometimes it's linked to velocity. But an old trick is to layer a staccato attack over your legato. It has to be done carefully though. For disco strings usually what you're looking for is an arco or detache articulation.

 

Little Trick: Set the Attack time to zero and add a Transient Shaper to boost Attacks.

 

This may seem obvious but it actually depends on what libraries you are working with, in fact, if you look for the PDFs of the libraries, they explain the attack and sustain time, beyond that, the use of layers as already recommended will always be a good option, even more so when accompanied by a transient designer, accompanied by leveling the velocity of each instrument, remember that if you do a layering of two instruments that have x amount of instruments sounding together, it may sound unrealistic or not sound like what you are looking for, the same thing happens if they are two instruments and you join them, they may not fit and sound as you want, so it depends a lot on each library, in addition to the fact that each one has a different character and they all have different times. As already recommended, the transient designer is a good help, the gate is a good help and above all automation and also keep in mind that many times we work with midi when composing and we forget the freedoms and advantages that a waveform grants.

 

its a case of layering different articulations some with staccos & legatoooos
Depends on what vsts you are using. Or maybe morphing the 2 together

 

Last edited: Oct 27, 2024

Also, I don’t know what genre you’re working with. I read something about disco as an example, and following that example, or at least what I think, is that you need some libraries like Performance Samples, Caspian, Pacific Strings or Cinematic Studio Series Brass and Cinematic Studio Strings 2 or the New One. Also, of course, Temuto is not the same as Staccato and Spiccato and Staccatissimo. What I think you want to achieve is something like John Williams in Indiana Jones or Star Wars. If that’s the case, first of all, you’ll get interpretations that are more real than life itself. But one way to get there is to use Staccatissimo in conjunction with Temuto. Another option would be to edit the library and adjust the attack, sustain and release times for each note to your personal taste (this is the tedious part, but it’s done only once, although it depends on each project, because as soon as you want to give another way of sounding to another song, you have to go and adjust everything again).

 

Maybe check out 8Dio Intimate Studio Strings. They made some presets specifically for disco.

Or their Soundpaint library Disco Strings UDS™ Legato VST:

 

Last edited: Oct 27, 2024

I could swear I tested out some Performance Samples kontakt libs that can do that easily. Not 100% sure though

 

you have a few different ways to experiment with, and maybe get the result you want. Starting sample selection is the sure thing, and then layering on the transient, You can also try to add more density with compression, saturation, and eq. If you can't replace or layer the sample, I would probably add a transient shaper/designer first, of the effects you can try to make it work. You will definitely be able to get the tail portion of each hit right with hold/release sustain parameters. You could even try something like a multiband clipper. You wouldn't be so much shaping the transient, but you could raise the starting volume of the sample. If this sounds like trial and error, that's because it is.

 

Oh wow, thank you so much for the answers, all great!
I have a bunch of libraries, been trying everything it feels like.
But of course i need to read all the pdf:s. Honestly it hadnt really occured to me, maybe because i wasnt sure if it was at all possilbe.
I will also make some layers, that seems like the quickest way to get playable instruments at least for sketching.
Then i could finish off with transient designing if i need to
Thanks alot guys!

 

 

Last edited: Oct 28, 2024