Making Realistic MIDI Strings

Making Realistic MIDI Strings in Ableton Live

Get more mileage out of your string sample libraries with these simple production techniques used by the pros.

Have you ever wondered how to get your MIDI violin, viola, cello, and bass samples to sound less robotic and, well, cheesy?

Whatever genre you call your own, there's a good chance you've struggled to get a more expressive performance from your MIDI string samples. A lot of producers blame the lifeless sound of their parts on their libraries. While good parts and libraries definitely help, with the right adjustments, you can actually make just about any MIDI string sample sound much more human and get a lot more mileage out of the samples you already have.

In this free course, we'll look at seldomly utilized MIDI controls in Ableton Live that can make a drastic difference in the expressiveness of your string sounds. By the end, you'll be armed with some really useful tips and tricks to create better, more human-sounding MIDI string parts.

John Hull

Engineer + Producer

One half audio nerd, one half guitarist, and one half fisherman... John Hull sometimes talks about synthesizers in his sleep. He enjoys long walks on the beach (as long as fishing is involved) and creating videos and songs.

Course Outline

  1. Section 1

    Introduction

  • Welcome

    • What You'll Need

    • Music

  1. Section 2

    Expression

  • Express Yourself

    • Continue Expressing Yourself

    • What the Pros Do: Daryl Pinsdorf

  1. Section 3

    Velocity

  • Velocity

    • Velocity Grooves

    • Randomizing

    • Full Velocity Ahead

    • What the Pros Do: Bryan Senti

  1. Section 4

    Timing

  • Timing

    • Timing Exercise

    • What the Pros Do: Ian Temple

  1. Section 5

    Conclusion

  • Final Challenge

    • What's Next?

MORE INFORMATION

Who is this course for?

Artists in any genre who program violin, viola, cello, and bass parts directly into their DAW using a MIDI controller, but struggle to make those parts to sound more natural and realistic.

What are the requirements?

All you need is a copy of Ableton Live, a MIDI controller, and a string sample you'd like to use. You can download a free trial of Ableton here.

How long does it take?

You can take the course and edit your string parts to make them more expressive in about an hour.

What will I get out of it?

By the end of this course, you'll have the tools you need to make your MIDI strings sound almost as good as if you recorded actual humans performing!