Strings — Mastering Orchestral Composition with Spitfire Audio

The goal of sampled orchestration is to reproduce as accurately as possible the sound of a live orchestra, and that means writing parts that are accurate to what a live player would play, not just programming it well in your DAW.

For the next few chapters, we'll dig into each section of the orchestra, starting with strings, and work out exactly how each instrument works: the dynamics, legato, expression, different colours, and articulations.

How live strings work

Writing for the String Section

The string section of the orchestra is the largest, typically having between 40 to 50 players, making up nearly half the total musicians in the orchestra!

From an orchestrator/composer's point of view it is perhaps the most forgiving to write for, especially in regards to harmony. For one thing, having so many performers means you can split out parts without worrying about running out of players.

Polyphonic Techniques

Divisi: The splitting of one section (like 1st violins) into multiple lines.
Double stopping: Playing two adjacent strings simultaneously.

Strings won't take your breath away

String players also don't have to rely on their breath to play notes the way woodwind and brass players do (of course, string players need to breathe, but you know what we mean...). This means that their musical phrases can go on without the need to stop for much longer than the wind players.

Tip: It can still be worthwhile conceiving of your string melodies vocally – thinking about phrase lengths, pauses and spaces.

Is that a low violin, or a high cello?

The string section is the most homogenous, in that there is less variety in timbre than there is in other sections; an oboe has a drastically different character than a piccolo, or a contrabass clarinet, but the same cannot really be said for strings - there is some difference of course, but the primary difference is the range.

Note: Live players need rest! If a musician has to perform fast notes continuously without a single break, they simply won't be able to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout. Share complex parts across sections when possible.

While this is really only a consideration with live players, it should impact how you write for strings in your DAW if you're maximising realism.

Using Spitfire Audio Strings

In BBCSO Pro, you have everything from Core and additional leaders of each section. Regardless of which version you have, you have the same articulations available. SSO is similar, but you have a greater range of articulations and also has ensemble patches.

Here are the videos Guy references in the SSO tutorial above:

The Orchestral Woodwind Section: An Introduction (Philharmonia Orchestra)
A-Level Music | Composition | String Techniques With David Alberman

Orchestration Shorts: Chord Arranging

Enjoyed this lesson?

This is one chapter of Mastering Orchestral Composition with Spitfire Audio. The full course covers everything you need to know about writing, orchestrating, and programming for each section of the orchestra. We explore BBCSO and SSO in huge depth, but much of what we teach applies to any orchestral sample library.

We also cover film scoring and mixing, for those who want to specialise further.

Explore the full course