The Christian Howes String Recording team is featured prominently in 5 Alarm Music’s “Cinemasounds 4” music library! 5 Alarm Music is an independent production music library for film, television, radio, and commercials offering unparalleled music expertise.
Mixing Live and Sampled Strings
Composer Aram Mandossian talks about mixing our live strings with sampled strings to create a full string sound.
“Christian’s team recorded 18 strings remotely and I mixed in sampled strings to achieve a huge sound.” “With spacial plugins/reverbs/eq/pannings, I got an incredibly big lush and roomy sound out of just your close mic’ed 18 strings. I think the process we used on this album should be a prototype for acheiving an amazing no-compromise string sound with smaller resources.”
Mixing live strings with sampled strings is one method for creating a full and warm string sound on a limited budget. The size and accuracy of sampled strings combined with the warmth of live strings work together to create a full sound, and a producer has flexibility in post to work with the pros and cons of both.
Still need convincing? Here’s the mix without live strings from the track “Gates Won’t Hold”:
From the same track, a mix with only our live strings.
Finally here’s the full mix of the track with both live and sampled strings.
Cinemasounds 4 can be purchased at 5alarmmusic.com. Special thanks to Aram Mandossian.
