One of the unique features of Garritan Personal Orchestra is the ability to build sections and ensembles, any way you want, from individual expressive instruments. Personal Orchestra is the first and only library to offer individual players rather than predetermined sections. If you want solos, duos, quartets, chamber groups, full symphony orchestra, divisi parts or separate lines - you have them. You can create numerous combinations with these instruments and each instrument has its own character and idiosyncrasies, with a lot of variation, vibrancy and expressive potential. And the instruments can interact with each other, similar to the way real players interact with one another. When you have many individual instruments playing together, and each line is musical and expressive, you'll soon discover that this is the best way to orchestrate.

What follows is a tutorial showing how to build your own string sections with individual violins, violas, cellos and double basses.

String Ensemble Building Tutorial

I have found that building your own string sections with Garritan Personal Orchestra can produce some more intimate and more realistic sounding string sections than with the ensemble patches. The key element of this approach lies in the ability to weave each individual's volume, intonation and start times--which creates a more realistic line. When you use the somewhat more convenient ensembles, the same note at the same volume will always sound the same. By using individual "players" this same note can change with the weaving of volume (mod wheel data and intonation data for each player) fluctuations so that the note has the possibility of never sounding exactly the same. This cannot as of yet be done with ensembles. You might change the tone color by using mod wheel data, but the reality is that the sample will always sound the same. Granted, the ensembles are great and function well, but if you want a more intimate-sounding string section with more possibilities per note, I would suggest trying out building sections. This tutorial is aimed at just that.

Currently in GPO the choice of solo strings is a bit smaller than the ensembles; however, with care and effort they can sound just as good (if not better) in my opinion. Divisions can be done to a more realistic level. With the ensembles if you divide a 12 player 1st violin section once, you suddenly have 24 players. If you again divide the second violins, violas, and cellos simultaneously you have, well do the math, an incredibly large string orchestra. So how do we go about building the ensembles? Well in the end its going to be personal preference when playing around with this, but for this demonstration I will show how to go about it if you have never tried before.

First we need something to work with. Here is the score for Edvard Grieg's "Aase's Death" we'll be working with.

Aase's Death Score

Its very straighforward harmonically and is very simplistic in string writing. Next we need a starter midi file.

Aase's Death MIDI File

Now, let’s go ahead and load this into your sequencer or notation program. I use Sonar but most sequencers and notation programs have the same functions when handling MIDI data/channels. Initially, we’re not going to do any editing or load any GPO sounds. We will simply start splitting the tracks enough for what we need. Select channel 1 which should be Violin 1 and select from your sequencer the option to either copy it or clone. In this case from looking at the score were just going to clone it once for now.

Now if your sequencer has a staff option I found this easiest to do some quick eliminations of divisi that is on a single track. Open both your original Violin track and your cloned track into staff view if possible. In this case we have one section from the score using divisi. So while in staff view(can also do this in piano roll but I like to look at the notes often) lets get rid of some things. In this case from the score we have octaves in the first violins from bar 17 to 24. So were going to go to that section either in piano roll or staff(preferably staff mode) and eliminate from the original Violin track the bottom notes and from the cloned track the Top notes.

Now, it should look like this. Unfortunately, Sonar's staff mode does not create the proper accidentals or show the exact written note. For instance, if you insert a dotted quarter note, it will show up as a half note. For the moment, disregard any notation abnormalities.

Now, with that done, we want to go ahead and look at Violin 2 and do the same procedure. If there is only a single note division like the 1st violins, go ahead and only clone it once. Lucky for us the divisi happens at the same time for all instruments of this piece--except for the basses. After doing the same procedure as described for the first violins you should have this on your staff (or "piano roll"):

The same procedure can be applied to the Viola track since it once again divides only once and in the same spot. So go ahead and copy/clone that track and do the same. The cello track , however, divides at the same bar into three, so were going to clone/copy this track three times.

Once that’s done, eliminate from the original the middle and bottom. Eliminate from the first clone/copy the top and bottom. Eliminate from the second clone the top and middle.

   Now it should look like this:

  The basses were just going to clone once and I'll explain later. This is what we should have so far:

Now we're ready to clone even more. Since we're given a total of 12 solo violins, I'm going to make the split between first and second 7/5. Surprisingly, even though smaller, it has a wonderful sound. But we'll get to that later.

We're going to clone Violin 1 and its "clone". Since we're choosing seven, we're going to clone the original (remember the first clone and the original have been altered for divisi) till we have 4 tracks of the original (including the original). Then we're going to clone the "first" clone that we altered to play the lower notes during the divisi until we have 3 tracks of that.

This same procedure we will now do with violin 2. We have 5, so the clone ratio is going to be 3 of the original and 2 of the first clone, for a total of five.

Again the same procedure with the violas, but this time we only need to clone the original and its first copy, making a total of four tracks.

The cellos are going to be simple. For this demo, I'm only going to use 6. Take your three tracks of Cello and only clone each once. This will make a total of six.

Now we should be looking at something similar to this.

It's time to start loading your Solo instruments. There will be a total of four players. For the sake of simplicity, we're going to load from top to bottom all the individual solo strings starting with player 1. Start with Gagli ens1 , 2, 3, solo gagli, etc. and work your way down till you have all violins into player 1 and 2. As a matter of personal preference, I like to mix it up a bit with the different types of Violins but this method will be the fastest for a quick build. It’s good to have a seating chart or something to reference if you are not sure if you plan to do a bit of panning. I tend to experiment and try to get a spatial placement where everything is not exact. This takes a little time but is often worth the effort.

Keep doing this in track order from Violins 1 down to the basses. We should eventually have four Kontakt players. 8 Violins on the first player, 4 on the second player, 4 violas on the second player, 6 cellos on the third player, 2 basses on the third player, and finally 2 basses on the fourth. It should look like this per instance.

We are ready to start assigning instruments. Again let’s start from top to bottom. Assign Track 1 Violin 1 to Lontakt player 1, channel 1. Do this with each cloned violin 1 until you reach channel 7. Now, assign Violin II channel 8 to Kontakt player 1, channel 8. Now, the remaining five we start with Kontakt player 2 and assign the remaining Violins II to channel 1 through 4, in order. Assign each Viola starting with the first to Kontakt player 2, channel 5 until we get to the last viola in channel 8. Now, on to the cellos. In player three, start with the first cello on channel 1 and work your way through all 6 till they are assigned each to their respective channels.

With the basses, we are going to go ahead and split them in two with one channel controlling two individuals. If you don’t know how to assign two instruments to one channel, here is how it’s done: In the Kontakt player, there is a little MIDI icon that tells you the channel. If you click on it, a dropdown list will be displayed and you can assign that instrument to play simultaneously with another. In this case, we are assigning the first 2 basses to channel seven in player 3. Similarly, in player 4 we will assign the last two basses to channel one of that player.

We’re ready to make some music! Just to be sure, double-check each track with its respected player and make sure everything is assigned where it should be. I ran across a problem a few times when assigning so many things at once and mistakenly had the wrong channels assigned. This can get ugly because what happens is when you start writing your MIDI data, it follows whatever track it is assigned. If it is wrongly assigned, you will know it! The sure method of telling if something is misplaced is if it sounds like a horrible attempt at tremolo, this being especially prominent when you wrote data separately for tracks accidentally assigned to the same channel. So, spending a little time double-checking is a good idea. A fail-safe method is to play each for a second using the mod wheel, etc., and if it sounds like more then one solo you probably have a channel conflict.

At this point, let’s not worry about all things lining up perfectly. We’re going to start with drawing your data. Since this is a soft piece, almost all the way through, it’s good to set your velocity levels low for each. You can always change them later when you get to the part FF where the accent is indicated. I’m sure most sequencers have a similar display and when velocity is selected it looks something like this. The higher the lines the harder the attack and we don’t want that for now. There is most likely a draw tool in most sequencers that let you draw the lines out

Let’s begin to draw our data. Select all Violin 1 channels and you can either try by hand with your keyboard(which is generally harder and less precise) or you can do it in the piano roll. I prefer the piano roll because of the precision. You just simply can’t get trying by hand, not to mention the frustration it can sometime cause. This whole thing as a matter of fact can be done one track at a time "live", but in this were going to humanize things with our sequencer. Surprisingly enough, these things come with a lot of tools to make things sound realistic. Let’s get back to selecting our Violin one channels.

The highlighted ones in light blue are the tracks that are going to show up when you select a different screen like the piano roll or staff view. (At least in Sonar, it’s done this way.) So let’s go ahead and pull up our piano roll. Now, you should see your instruments: 7 First Violins. The blocks above the divider indicate the notes. Each Violin is color-coded (at least in Sonar), so this makes drawing controllers easier. The sequencer actually starts at Bar 2, (For reasons unknown to me, if I start something on bar one in the sequencer there is always a slight noise sound.)

Anyway, you want to select the type of controller you want to use. In this instance, we want CC1 and then highlight your first Solo Violin (you can rename each track if this is confusing calling each one Violin 1). The Piano roll is probably one of your most important tools if you use a sequencer and it's a good thing to learn.

Let’s select the draw tool and begin with channel 1. Go ahead and draw a slight curve with CC1 (mod wheel) and taper off the final note in bar one with the CC1 drawing control. 

Let’s go head and do this for the rest of the first violins 1. Sometimes it’s good to solo the sections to get an overall feel. It’s also good to not draw the same volume curve for each. This will help create your humanization. Now, let’s have a listen just to the 1st Violins we created. If you are happy with the sound, all is good! Just as a reference, let’s look at this close-up of all 7 and notice that not one has the same curve of mod data. It’s hard to tell from the picture with so many instruments but its always good to make sure the rise and fall of each never quite lines up or stays at precisely the same volume. I’m not talking about huge fluctuations, but smallermore subtle ones. There are two with a sort of green color scheme, so it looks like the green is dominating the mod wheel, but it’s not..

Now, go ahead and start with the same bar and second Violins (or Violin II) as I have named them and repeat. Now that you have 12 instruments going you are going to have to decide on some balancing. Try to find a balance between the melody and the second Violins. You can solo just these two sections to get a better perspective. Once you have accomplished that, move on to the Violas, Cellos, and then the basses. I would suggest working bar-by-bar and never use the same volume curve twice no matter what a score says. Humans are imperfect and the chances of the same passage played twice being the same volume are very, very slim. With ensemble building, with solos and independent drawings , you greatly reduce the chances of having something sound exact than with ensembles.

Go ahead and draw your controllers now for the rest of the piece as you see fit (be sure to take note of the slur indications!). Change the tempo (and don’t forget the gradual slowing after the FF part!) I will provide a hint MIDI that goes through the first 19 or so bars, but we’ll get to that later. We need to do a few things before that. We need to humanize our parts a bit more.

I found one of the biggest helpers is to use time-shifting commands. This is probably named differently in other sequencers, but Sonar has what’s called a "CAL" that will place the notes randomly in ticks (small, small units in the measures sometimes not even noticeable in the staff) As an alternative, you could also do this manually with the "slide" function. I prefer to use the slide over the CAL because I want control over how much that I am going to move the notes around in time. This function of sliding the notes in ticks serves two purposes: First, it gives a "human feel" in that each individual you choose to do this to will start and stop at slightly different times depending on how much you tell it to displace. Second, it creates a pseudo-legato and often times you do not need to use the legato feature when using solos as your ensemble!

Anyway, in Sonar I use slide function on each track in ticks--ranging from about 0 to 20 and 0 to - 20 and sometimes higher. The track in blue-green below is the one highlighted and selected for moving. The second shows the options of what to move. I choose the ticks bubble and input a number. Then, we’ll have to listen back to it with its same group. In this case, I would be using the solo function for just the Violin 1 tracks. If it sounds the way I want with them playing all as one, I move on to the next instrument group. This is done with each track until I am satisfied with the whole. There are other ways to do this, but my personal preference is for manual sliding.

 Now lets take a look at an extreme zoom in after sliding things a bit. You will notice overlap, different start and end times ect. This created that "human imperfection" of timing.

That just about covers the process of building your string groups one player at a time. I have an example MP3 file that you can use as a reference that goes to about bar 20. Here it is:

Aase's Death MP3

Also, I created a reference MIDI, but this is in a primal form and only gives just a guideline in drawings up to about bar 19. In my example, I did a bit of adjusting in the actual players with volume and panning and drew a bit more in depth curves and tempo changes. It’s usually a good idea after you have created your ensembles to simply work with it and decide for yourself what you want the overall sound to be like, including such considerations as how slow or fast you want it and what solo instrument order you would rather use. You can also start with the scratch MIDI (above) and work at it one bar at a time. That’s the best way to learn. To take something from scratch, build it up to the 24 tracks of solos, and learn the editing as I described is probably your best learning tool for using the solo instruments as your string sections(or you might even attempt to play each part and use the mod wheel).

Here is the reference MIDI file. The tempo may be to slow for your taste (by all means feel free to change anything). Good luck and I hope this helps!

Aase's Death MIDI File

For More Information About the Ensemble Building Feature of Garritan Personal Orchestra - Go Here 

Thanks to Kevin Fletcher Tweedy for help editing this tutorial.

Here are other Examples using the Ensemble Building Feature

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Thanks to Kevin Fletcher Tweedy for help editing this tutorial.