I needed a music track for Steve Lawrence's version of "Mama A Rainbow" for a karaoke contest.

Here's what I did on my PA1XPRO. I'm sure the guitar voicings are not realistic, but it was fun to make it. Let me know how you all like it.
http://www.seanbaker.com/mama.mp3

WOw... very emotional piece, definitely a film sound and great to hear such a wonderful ensemble of sounds, without a pounding repetitive beat! Regardless of how accurate the guitars sounded, the arrangement is amazing! Flute sound was very eery, strings a bit thin in places but everything was so moving... a fantastic bit of work I'd say!

Simon


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THanks. I've never been able to figure out how to eq stings so they don't sound so thin. Synth strings are very difficult. Any tips?

Hi Seanbaker,

nice arranged song, beautiful voicings and blending sounds !!!
I like this stuff.
congratulations.

notlos
www.notlos.com

Sean,

VERY VERY NICE !

Scott

I liked that a lot!

Yes, very lovely. So refreshing to hear an 'orchestral' sounding piece. I'd really like to hear some of you classically trained musicians contribute some more of this kind of thing.

It was hard for me to judge the guitars or strings as it's very late and I can't crank the speakers up. But I'll have a 'louder' listen tomorrow.

EQ'ing synth strings. I record the strings in 2 tracks at least, high strings and low strings. Then the trick is to eq them where they live. On the high strings, a slight boost from around 400 to 1000 hz is helpful. (that might be a bit wide, but experiment) Most synth strings are really trebly anyway so boosting in that middley area puts some fatness in that sound. However, if you record the strings in one track and try to do this it will get muddy because the low strings will then start to dominate because they have a lot of sound in that range too. If low strings are in their own track you may not need to eq at all, it may be then an issue of setting correct volume for low strings to high strings. But if you do want to eq low strings, maybe try the 100 to 300 range.
There is a school of thought that says cut what you don't want rather than boost what you do want, which is a good school, but hasn't worked for me in the area of synth strings. I always turn all midi tracks into audio tracks so I can eq individually.
Another advantage to having separate high and low strings is in the area of dynamics. If you are using an expression pedal or something to control volume, It creates a more natural effect if the volumes are changing together, but not absolutely dead on together. Or you can bring out certain lines in the high strings and leave low strings in the background, vice versa. Having the dynamics move separately is far superior to having everything move the exact same amount at the exact same time with the exact same rate. Just my .02.

So, I've thrown in my 2 cents, but you only give me a penny for my thoughts. So who's coming out on top and where does the extra penny end up?

[This message has been edited by FAEbGBD (edited 11-17-2005).]

How do you think I was able to afford a Tyros 2?

Sean,
I really liked your arrangement a lot, even if I did not know the original song.
Re. the strings issue, Rory has some excellent points; I can only add that a trick I have always used when programming string pads is to layer two sounds together, detuning one a bit, but not too much. This has nothing to do with the Eq issue, but helps to come out with a big, fat sound.