"So it GOS"

The purpose of this document is to explain the purpose of the song "So it GOS", the "Hollywood Strings" Performance File, and to explain some of the methodology of creating this song found here:

So It GOS

Gary Garritan's demo web page and GOS site:

http://www.garritan.com/mp3.html               http://www.garritan.com/home.html

First, this song is homage to Gary Garritan and the support he has given me. Thank you Gary.

One of my goals was to showcase the Garritan Orchestral Strings (GOS) by using all of the articulations I could from the library, which lends a fairly interesting schizophrenic feeling to "So it GOS". While near impossible to use all the articulations available, I did manage to use something from nearly every "food group" of articulations, such as sustains, grand sustains, marcato and so on. I will hit those articulations I missed in other projects. Also, I did not use some of the more complex instruments such as the alternating bowing: I tried to stay with the bread and butter instruments to show what was possible from my point of view.

HOLLYWOOD STRINGS

Another goal of mine was to recreate the "Hollywood Strings" sounds using the basic SUS instruments and the EQ in GigaStudio. In reality, the Grand Sustains already do a wonderful job of recreating "Hollywood Strings", but the basic SUS instruments have far less bow action than the GS, and are more austere. So the idea here is to compliment the Grand Sustains instruments with the more pure sounds of the SUS instruments while preserving the "Hollywood Strings" sound. For that task I ripped many Hollywood movie CD’s of the best examples I could find and then tried to match up their sound with GOS using the GigaStudio EQ only. In this endeavor I think I have mostly succeeded. An additional aid was the NS forum suggestions of Simon Ravn as a starting point for my investigations.

The issue here is distance. The "Hollywood Strings" sound is basically the sound of string sections recorded from a distance (with the attendant room ambiance) which insures there is a roll-off of high frequencies of the strings (and whatever the sound engineer did to EQ the sound as well). GOS SUS instruments are fairly close-miked which guarantees a full spectrum of the instruments sound. While this may be good in many cases, for the "Hollywood Strings" effect, some of this high end must be altered. Actually, in the case of the 1st and 2nd SUS violins, the lower approximate 1 ½ octaves sound good unaltered (because they are already in the lower frequency range), but as you go higher up the scale the sound becomes "colder" and austere. Unfortunately, I cannot scale the EQ to only operate on a selected end of the scale, so my solution has some effect on the entire instrument. My guideline is that if you are using the 1st and 2nd SUS violins only in the lower two octaves, you may not have to use any EQ. If you are playing in the upper ranges, then my EQ solution may work for you if you wish to have the "Hollywood Strings" sound.

The results of my investigations is the following "Hollywood Strings" Performance File for GigaStudio. At the moment, I cannot provide a working performance file. It seems that instead of programming the database code to cross-reference the gigs used with  the gigs location and therefore make performance files easily interchangeable, they seemed to have hardcoded the gig locations, making it impossible or difficult for performance files from one system to be used on another. Unfortunate. SO, you will have to roll your own with the below information. Another drawback is that each of the control positions do NOT have a numeric readout, so precise instructions are not possible, and only these approximate instructions are possible:

Creating the "Hollywood Strings" Performance File for GigaStudio

Save all your work below as "Hollywood Strings"

1) All channels use "(3) Hall 1 (small)" in the second slot.

2) Link Port 1 and 2.

3) All EQs go into the FIRST slot.

4) Group instruments as below:

Midi Channel*       Port 1                         Port 2                         EQ Used    What's this?

1                           VLA SusV                      Vla Warm SusV               EQ1             Viola

2                           1st Vln Warm Sordino   1st Violin Sordino              EQ2            Sordino

3                           1st Vln SusV                  1st Vln Warm Sordino      EQ3            1st Violins

4                           2nd Violin SusV             2nd Violin Warm SusV     EQ4            2nd Violins

5                           Cellos Sus Rich**          Cellos SusV                     EQ5             Cello

6                           Basses SusV                  (Double this at your own risk)         EQ6             Basses

*You can put these instrument and EQ groupings into any midi channel you desire, just keep things together.

Adjust the warm settings to taste as well.

**CELLO: DSP Mixer, Left Channel Pan => Set to Middle

5) Create the following EQs and save them. Another GigaStudio Problem is that it may save your EQ names as garbage. It is best to group your instruments as above, then create the EQs one by one and set them to the proper instrument group. Save often.

The EQ Setup:

EQ         Name (Your choice)            Effect    L          M         H    Handle

EQ1        "GOS VLA All Around"                 127          0             -6             0          750

EQ2         "GOS VIO EQ3 RS"                     127          -2            -7             -3         750

EQ3         "GOS VIO EQ2"                           127          -2            -9             -6         600

EQ4         "GOS VIO EQ1"                           127          -2            -8             -2         650

EQ5         "GOS Cello EQ1"                          127          2             1              0          200

EQ6         "GOS Basses EQ1"                       127          3             0              -1         300

EQ7***  "GOS VIO All Around"                  127          -1.5         -8             2          750

EQ8***  "GOS EQ1"                                     127          -2            -10          -2         700

EQ9***  "GOS VIO EQ3"                             127         -2             -10          -6         675

***EQs 7, 8 and 9 are optional and for your use to experiment with.

SAVE YOUR WORK as "Hollywood Strings"!!!

Some thoughts on using the "Hollywood Strings" Performance File:

  1. The GigaStudio EQ tends to narrow the stereo field of the instruments, so you may want to compensate when mixing and mastering.
  2. GOS resists panning, so it is best to pan using the GigaStudio DSP mixer.
  3. This Performance File will eat vast amounts of CPU power and memory. The ports are linked and most instruments are doubled, so you can reduce the CPU load by un-doubling the instruments or removing reverb. Make a "lite" version of the Performance file for getting your music written, then do single track recording with a heavy version of my "Hollywood Strings" Performance file.
  4. Cello, Viola and Bass can get by without my EQ, but the EQ is there as an option. The focus is on 1st and 2nd SUS Violins.
  5. Similar (perhaps better) results can be obtained by using parametric EQ plug-ins on recorded tracks.
  6. Most of these instruments use the reverb setting for Small Hall. Like the SAMs instruments, I like my instruments to have a starting point of some room ambiance, over which I use more master processing.
  7. Experiment with the "Hollywood Strings" Performance File.

"So it GOS" and the "Hollywood Strings" Performance File

The first half of "So it GOS" uses the "Hollywood Strings" Performance File, while the second half of the song uses the Grand Sustains (looped). I did it this way to provide contrast.

There were no phrases used (unless you count trills, rolls, tremolo and other such things), very little brass, and all the strings used were from GOS. The libraries used for all non-string instruments were from Advanced Orchestra, Roland Percussion, the Prosonus Orchestral Collection, G-Town Percussion, SAMs instruments and other assorted incidental instruments from various other libraries.

I will not list all of the GOS instruments used here in "So it GOS" (unless there is a lot of begging and pleading), but the major strings used for the "Hollywood Strings" are in the performance file. (If not, I WILL have to list it out.) If there are any questions, I can answer them at the Garritan Orchestral Strings part of the Northern Sounds forum found here:

http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=18

Have fun with this material!

Doyle W. Donehoo

Composer and Sound Designer
Radar Music