You might also see this called “Arco” or “Arco Strings” – which means, “play with bow.” This is probably the most common, well-understood articulation as it is easy to imagine the string section playing a single note with their bows and then holding it (sustain). Within this Long category, you might find variations of Long articulations, and/or see different names used such as “arco,” “legato,” “portamento,” “tremolo.” Regardless of the term used, and I will go into more detail about the sound of each below, the main point I’m making is that a Long string articulation means that the note is held verses stopping the sustain from ringing out as in a “short”. Long strings, like the name implies, is when the note is held ( longer) – this is usually referred to a sustained note. So, I will identify these articulations separately here. There could be a separate category of Effects and/or Decorative styles, which, might also be “long” or “short” in duration, but, for the purpose of producing orchestral music in this context, these “special” articulations are often used more for effects and to add color, texture and more realism to the sound. When you select an articulation, you are loading up a new set of samples that are recorded for that selected articulation.īefore we dive into the description and sound of each articulation, at a high level, I think it helps first to understand that most articulations fall into just a couple categories: Long and Short being the two main ones to be familiar with. To start, lets first look at what I’m talking about by viewing the string articulations offered by Cinematic Studio Strings (see photo below.) Note the names of each articulation choices: Sustain, Staccato, Tremolo, Harmonica, etc. You might find libraries that include some of these, as well as additional ones. As with the other lessons in this Intro series, Wet vs Dry, and Ensembles vs Sections, this lesson is for people who are new to using orchestral sample libraries, and is focused on the String family of the orchestra however, these concepts apply to other instrument families as well. So, for this lesson, I’m going to try to cover the main articulations that I see shared across most libraries. To complicate this topic further, it seems like each creator of orchestral sample libraries includes different articulations and can use different names for them. Only in rare cases would a player use a single articulation for an entire piece of music! If you’re not a trained string player, you’ll want to spend time studying each articulation and knowing how and when to use them as this will make your final compositions more dynamic as well as sound more realistic as you’ll be “playing” the instruments closer to how a real instrumentalist would play it. Understanding how to use articulations is one of the most important aspects of producing orchestral music. Initially had a difficult time appreciating the importance of the various articulations and the unique sounds that these instruments can produce. While I did study classical music theory in school, I was mostly a percussion, guitar and piano player and I have never played any of the other instruments of the orchestra (violin, cello, etc).
![kontakt string library articulations kontakt string library articulations](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nR5FSTvnmYQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
![kontakt string library articulations kontakt string library articulations](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KEpR_js5GC8/maxresdefault.jpg)
It’s time for Intro to Orchestral Sample Libraries, Part III: String Articulations. When I first started learning about Orchestral Sample Libraries, I kept hearing about these things called “articulations” and, while I had a general idea of what they were, I found myself always stumbling over the meaning of each this often made it difficult for me to know the best way to use them.