What you NEED to know about strings - Ranges and registers of the string section

In this week’s episode, Alex lays the foundation for arranging strings by showing you their ranges and registers. Plus, he has written a melody for the very first Virtual Orchestration competition: VOStringsComp23 !
Turn Alex’s theme into an amazing string arrangement and get the chance to win the Berlin Orchestra created with Berklee.
Head over to
www.orchestraltools.com/compe...
to find the materials and the terms and conditions of this competition.
Deadline is July 5th 2023!
Virtual Orchestration is a collaboration between Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA) and Orchestral Tools (Berlin, Germany).
▬▬ Table of content ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Assets used in the video :
SFX :
The following sounds provided by: mixkit.co/
Air Whoosh
__________________________________________________
Additional Music:
Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46 (Grieg, Edvard)
Performed by: Czech National Symphony Orchestra (orchestra)
Publisher Info. Palo Alto: Musopen, 2012.
Copyright Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
imslp.org/wiki/Peer_Gynt_Suit...)
Video creation credits:
Script / video concept 📜 : Alex Lamy, Eduard Flemmer
Camera 🎥 and Editing ✂️ : Fabián Barba Hallal
Motion graphics 🎨 : Michael Logar

[@alexlamymusic]

Just wanted to drop a comment to say that myself and the Virtual Orchestration team finished going through nearly 150 competition entries today, and there are so many great arrangements. I’ve heard my melody for over 5 hours and somehow it hasn’t driven me crazy, so thank you all for that! 😅 We’re really looking forward to choosing the winner and will be sharing the news with you very soon! 😎

[@Gaby-Lopez]

It must be interesting to listen to the same melody for so many hours in a row !!! kidding, I listened to many, and many comments praising them, it is a good exercise to listen to them and at least I learn a lot from each one of them because they take me to places where I would not have thought, I honestly say it

[@mrsakitumi]

@alexlamymusic that's a lot of repetitions of your melody to go through ;). just dbl checking if I hashtagged #VOStringsComp23 correctly in my entry? Somehow when I click the hashtag I don't see my entry, but when I do a regular search for VOStringsComp23 it shows up. I did add more than 3 hashtags in my description. anyway, all the best with your judging and all the best to everyone who submitted. thanks for this channel. *edit changed to only 3 hashtags in my description

[@mayhem_ritualist]

I just uploaded my entry for the competition! It was a really nice experience and it's really interesting to see what others have done with the melody. :)

[@kappabravomusic2101]

Apart from the competition part. I've learned more about string section in these 11 minutes, than in 10 years...😮😮😮

[@Gaby-Lopez]

#VOStringsComp23 I was able to arrive on time!! haha, I leave the link like this with the hashtag so we can listen so good luck everyone

[@shubus]

It's always a good day when Alex drops a video into my feed and there are interesting things to learn. It's pretty easy to discern these registers with sample libraries and blending them is very interesting especially with so many choices!

[@Gaby-Lopez]

Yes!! I'm in

[@AndromedaX8]

Thank you for another awesome lesson! That sounds like a really fun challenge!

[@spuddyferret]

Challenge accepted, Alex! Who else is going to join the competition?

[@DennisCaunce]

I have too - it's the only chance I have of owning that library!

[@AJSoundbites]

​@@DennisCaunceI want to but after 6 hours of working on an idea it sounds shit then the circle of manic depression starts of felling useless.

[@DennisCaunce]

@@AJSoundbites yeah, my old friend depression pays me regular visits also…

[@nmcreative956]

​@@AJSoundbitesHans Zimmer feels like that sometimes as well so keep at it

[@AlexisPerezIndal]

I am, definitely 😊 fun challenge even if it’s not for the prize (which would be awesome though). Let’s gooooooo

[@omartinmusic]

It’s done, good luck to everyone :)

[@undisclosedmusic4969]

I fucking love the yellow shirt

[@nizamulmulukhussain6025]

Thank you so much Sir!

[@nizamulmulukhussain6025]

What about the funtion of Violin 1 and 2? Do you have explaination on this?

[@yaroslav_kniazev]

Hello, guys. Thank you so much! Awesome lessons! Good luck to all!

[@ashokflash]

great

[@gurumajuindonesia]

fabulous! Thanks for the lesson Alex

[@KennethGonzalez]

Alex, this is a fabulous video! Great job 😁

[@harczymarczy]

"Sul G/D/A/E" is sometimes written as "Sul Sol/Re/La/Mi" because absolute solmization is used in Italy. However, instrument names like "Clarinetti in A/Bb" is also pretty commonly used, despite of being incorrect (instead of "Clarinetti in La/Sib")

[@davidasher22]

This is super cool!

[@houdinididiit]

Awesome. Thank you! 👏

[@benowa]

As always, thank you for this invaluable lesson! ☺️ And organizing a contest is a really good idea, I’ll definitely give it a try! 🙌 Oh, and - side note - I went to last night’s concert of Hans Zimmer in Paris and… I might have seen you Alex! 😂 I’m not sure though 🤔 Anyway, that was the best concert I’ve ever attended! Congrats on your participation in such a masterpiece!

[@alexlamymusic]

Haha, you may have! I pop up a couple of times, but the whole crew were on stage at the end as it was our last show of the tour! Glad you enjoyed the show!

[@benowa]

@@alexlamymusic Haha I see! I was pretty far away but I'm really glad I got to see you in person!

[@ExploratoriumTP]

Hi Alex ! Another great video ! I was wondering, for the competition, can we make some sound design on the strings or should they all be as "pure" as possible ? For example, imagine we're using all 4 of them "pure" and along them some sound effects, pads or anything else made from sound design on strings sample. In the end I think the question is : How true to an orchestral sound do we have to be ?

[@alexlamymusic]

I don’t want to limit you in any way, but I would say try to keep it fairly “acoustic”. That said, use whatever articulations you want, and as many as you want, and make the music you feel good making 👍🏻

[@ferdmusic8]

@@alexlamymusic Do trills count as an articulation in this case? They would introduce new notes, wouldn't they?

[@alexlamymusic]

@@ferdmusic8 You can introduce new notes - in fact, I hope you do!

[@ShivSagar010]

Thank You Very Much! 🙂🙏

[@elrohirshouldercheaptrick9452]

I'm not sure if my informations are correct but doesn't the double bass come from the viol family instead of the violine family? Like, that would explain the different tuning

[@alexlamymusic]

I think the origins are up for debate, but you’re probably right 👍🏻 They’re all one big family now though!

[@marcdarkin]

Just a question for clarification regarding the competition: do we need to keep the arrangement just for strings or we can add other orchestral parts too into a full mockup? Thanks.

[@alexlamymusic]

Just for strings on this one 👍🏻

[@lucasgust7720]

Why you call C3 to the C4 (middle C)?

[@DominicKumar06]

Can Cubase be also used for this project ?

[@kineticstishi]

Any DAW, or anything that can make music. even musescore and the likes

[@jackieboyer3177]

Middle C is C4 on a standard 8 Key Piano.....

[@marcotrosi]

how much of the original melody has to be in our "version" ?

[@alexlamymusic]

I should be able to recognise it. Most arrangements usually establish a theme at least once, but if you just want to use a fragment of it then I’m keen to hear what you come up with!

[@marcotrosi]

@@alexlamymusic Thanks for the quicks answer. I only wanted to check the rules to not get disqualified, I might only change one or two notes if at all.

[@tirosauls8654]

is only strings allowed?

[@alexlamymusic]

Yes, string orchestra only 👍🏻

[@tirosauls8654]

@@alexlamymusic Piano fall into string family too?

[@virtual.orchestration]

@tirosauls8654 For this competition : Strings are : Violins, Violas, Cellos and Double Basses.

[@nvdawahyaify]

Ok, I am very confused about something. Ive been a musician for 19 years and middle c was always c4. Why are you saying it is c3?

[@alexlamymusic]

We’re using the standard midi numbering. We’re nearly always saying ‘MIDI C3’ to be clear. This is what the defaults are in DAWs and virtual instrument libraries, and these resources are aimed at taking these concepts and improving your virtual orchestrations.

[@nvdawahyaify]

@@alexlamymusic thank you for the clarification.

[@TheAtheistworld]

Why he calls c3 as middle c?? Isn’t that c4?? Thnx

[@vlnvlaclogbaerhpno]

This is the second video of yours where I have seen that you erroneously call C3 ‘Middle C’ - Middle C is C4, not C3. You might want to fix this.

[@alexlamymusic]

It’s not an error. Middle C in standard midi is C3 by default. When you use virtual instruments, C3 is going to be what you see for middle C, and, as this is a channel about using virtual instruments, we’ve made our resources deliberately in this way. 👍🏻