How to Make Midi Strings Sound Real

Learn how to make MIDI strings sound real in Ableton Live 12 using Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra VST strings. This tutorial covers essential techniques for creating realistic string sounds. Enjoy this sound design guide!
CHAPTERS
00:00 - The Understanding
02:33 - The Problem & Solutions
04:33 - The Important Part
09:13 - Fine Tuning
11:01 - The Power Of Reverb
15:07 - To Summarise
GET Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra FREE VERSION 👇
www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-sym...
GET Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra PAID VERSION👇
www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-sym...
GET Nuance Midi Controller👇
nuancescontroller.fr/
BEAT BREAKDOWNS & CHANNEL SUPPORT
Patreon: / whoisalexelliott
PURCHASE MUSIC ON BAND CAMP
whoisalexelliott.bandcamp.com...
LETS CONNECT ON SOCIALS
📸: alexemusic...
#MusicProduction #AbletonLive #MIDIStrings #SoundDesign #MusicTutorial #AbletonLive12 #SpitfireAudio #VSTStrings #RealisticStrings #BBCCSymphonyOrchestra #whoislalexelliott

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Apologies I was editing this one LATE at night and completely missed the misspelling of "important" lol

[@nckcn4923]

Splitting up the chord midi to reflect a real orchestra is so simple yet so genius, good shit bro

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

🙌🙌 glad it’s helpful bro!

[@Producelikeapro]

Such a great video! Excellent info Alex!

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Thankyou Uncle Warren 💯

[@Dre-uk8wc]

Coming from a keyboardist/mallet player i never thought about it this way i usually think about sections playing chords instead of spreading the chords throughout the entire ensemble

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

I use to think the same way also! But this has been quite a helpful approach for me 👌

[@BugsBunnyFly]

Nice awesome straight forward video. Very underrated. Thanks

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

This makes me happy 👌

[@XVIIIPRO]

took me straight back to my orchestration classes at uni with a modern production & practical twist, brilliant video

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Thankyou for the compliment bro. and it’s awesome to know that I’m reminding you of an actual education institution 🙌😅💯

[@XVIIIPRO]

@@WhoIsAlexElliott i mean definitely!! that’s where i learned this and applied it for myself, so it’s refreshing to see that it’s not just a weird concept i stole from my orchestration modules & applied to beatmaking & production, glad to see myself thinking similarly to other professionals like yourself

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

🙌

[@alexbrowningOBG]

WHAT A BAD BOY.....!!!! BIG YOU UP EVERYTIME

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

😅🙌🙌

[@mostafafarid9832]

Just got here by coincidence.. am really glad watching and following you … I like the way you illustrate with deep comprehension… Good job man ✌🏻👌🏻 I got into music writing and production for a short while and hope your tips would boost the pace little bit Cheers 🍻

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Welcome aboard! And happy to have you as a subscriber

[@nobbymorph]

You sir are a pretty clever cookie, thank you. Subscribed!

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Lovely to have you as part of the community

[@paulinskipukprogressive4903]

I really like your calm and clear way of showing us this process

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

I’m glad it was able to connect with you ❤️🙏

[@RogerioValgode]

Wow, great video! It resumes all steps to get the sound, thank you so much for sharing. Love the way you explain it. These 15 minutes get us 80% of the realism os the strings. 🔥 The next layer I'll add would be a "solo expressive violin" and a "solo expressive cello" on top of the mix, just to fool the listener to think he's listening a section of players. To me this give me that "10%" extra to the sound/realism.

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

I’m glad it’s helpful. 🙌. And adding a solo instrument is a fantastic trick to get the texture and more realism. I love to do this with bohemian cello and bohemian violin but I didn’t add that into the video as I didn’t want people to think it was only achievable if you spend LOTS OF MONEY 😅😅😅. Good Solo string libraries are 💰 💰 💰

[@LucaArtusaMusic]

Very inspiring,thanks😊

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

My pleasure 😊

[@invaderzeke]

i don't use ableton but i can definitely use some of these ideas here in my own way... thank you 🙏🏽

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Awesome!

[@ianleone]

goat channel, thanks bro

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Ahhh huge compliment. Thankyou

[@Mrnw10]

Thank you Alex for the knowledge! I've been making dodgy strings for years! Finally i have a solution to beef them up! #NewSubscriber

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Ah I’m glad it helped! 🙌

[@Child9Music]

Good tutorial, expression is underrated.

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

It’s so underrated and Thankyou ❤️🙌

[@i_castiel]

Just the video i was looking for

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

I’m glad it found you ❤️🙌

[@largebottomproductions]

Glad you came up in my algorithm. This was an excellent, excellent, excellent tutorial. I am working on my string game in my productions and this was spot on. Truly appreciate the video.

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

This makes me glad. I’m happy it’s connecting with people and helpful ❤️. Just trying to pass on the knowledge I’ve acquired 🙌

[@abbadonproductioninc]

My boi back at it again!! loving this! sorry for not keeping up for the past couple of weeks, been doing life a bit. I've seen your content from time to time and it's been really great. I love the studio tour by the way and the video about mental health. I love the production stuff man it's incredible

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

No problem at all bro. Life comes first. Thanks for dropping the encouraging comment nonetheless and hope all is well now?

[@ProdbyKsean]

Gems 💎 , THanks for the video

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

No problem ❤️

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

I been using the same old Reason Strings for over a decade but wow those stings you go sound way better, and the good thing about midi is I can swap out those older stings with new better ones like these. Im literally commenting less then 1 minute into the video, You hooked Me in.

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Haha I’ll wait for you to finish 😂🙌

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Im 6 minuts in and I do most of what your saying, and was something I learned to do well, back in 2008 and I would definitely say My stings in My music is a highlight I love puting piano with Strings. Reason has many ways to do strings however I still find some of there oldest presets work well for Me, but Spitfires audio definitely sounds great, does it sound better? Not sure, new don't aways equal better, plus the older more primitive strings sounds better in Hiphop and RnB in My opinion.

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

@@HOLLASOUNDSspitfire have some of the best sounding strings out there! I really do believe this

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Well the library here is the BBC and there Strings always sound epic on there TV shows.

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

@@HOLLASOUNDS 🙌🙌🙌

[@shineliketko]

Welcome to Ableton! Fellow producer that started in Logic and switched over to Ableton 🙏

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

😂😂😂💯🙌

[@stilltrippin6100]

Sheeeshh … thanks for sharing ✌🏽

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Glad it was helpful 🙌

[@WinItReigns]

Do you play guitar? Ive caught a few of your videos. Good stuff. Ill subscribe😊

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

I don’t play guitar. I play Piano but guitar is on the list 🙌🙌. And Thankyou. Glad to have you in the community

[@josealejandrogarciarojas1115]

Great video and clear explanation of the frequency spectrum and instrument range! Never thought about riding the MIDI CTRL automation manually hahah. Btw, a little tip: you can use the Draw mode (B, Shift+B) to make more organic and faster automations. Holding Alt will deactivate the grid. Also, you can insert default automation shapes such as sine, triangle, square and a bunch more using the right click menu

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

OMD no way. How do I do that. That would save me so much time! 🙌

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Oh and Thankyou for the kind words ❤️

[@arthurmavheneka2302]

Hie Alex, I am building my home studio and my colours are just like yours. Can you do a music studio tour or if not may I have the studio pictures. I will definitely show you mine after the build using yours as an inspiration. Thank you

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

I’ll add a studio tour to the list 🙌

[@arthurmavheneka2302]

@@WhoIsAlexElliott thank you so much

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

@@arthurmavheneka2302no problem

[@tuneboxmusic]

Can you say what the cc1 11 on your table? Thanks

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate for me?

[@tuneboxmusic]

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Sure, you have a box with 3 modulation wheels on the table, it has a wood view

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Oh link in the bio. It’s the nuance midi controller 👌👌

[@trapbeatproducer]

IT IS BECAUSE YOU ARE AN ISRAELITE!!! We make the music. That's all you had to say 🙏😔. It is in us... black man deya! Also which DAW is that my brother? If you wanna join Bricksdamane's producer community I'm moderator on there. He produced for Drake, Gunner, Lil Baby, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne etc aye I can see you feeling the strings 😅💪🩵 Stay blessed man

[@WhoIsAlexElliott]

Yeah I was REALLY feeling the strings. I just can’t help it. I cry everytime I hear them live 🥲🥲. Thanks for stopping by and the community sounds interesting, what platform is it on?