Finding instruments and articulations a specific piece

[Hattemageren]

Hello,


I'm quite new to orchestral music, so I still havn't fully developed an ear for recognizing all instruments and articulations. I was listening to this piece (listed below) earlier today, and thought it'd be awesome to have something like that in one of my own scores.

I cut out the piece (only 10 seconds to avoid copyright issues), but it covers what I want to know about. It's at http://www.hunermund.dk/external/vsl_question.mp3

I hope someone will listen to it and help me identify what I need to create that sort of stuff. What I really like is the violins (I think) that sort of have this "swaying" sound. What I get from it is a horn (or more?) and a number of string sections. But the most important for me to know is the name of the articulation of whatever string section that makes this "swaying" sound that slowly rises in volume.

Thanks in advance!

See you around.

- Mark

[Conquer]

Hi Mark, it sounds to me like the violins are playing repeated rhythm figures with detaché bowing. (Most orchestral string libraries have detaché samples.) I can't hear what the lower strings (cellos and basses) are doing, they may well be playing longer sustained notes. The crescendo effect sounds as if all the musicians (not just the strings) are rising in volume throughout the passage, an effect that's heightened at the end by a crescendo cymbal roll.

[Hattemageren]

Thanks a million :) I hope it works.

[Conquer]

You're welcome![:D] It takes quite a lot of work to make orchestral samples sound realistic - check out some of the demos on this site and if you're wondering what sounds / articulations were used, ask the people who created them. Composers like Beat Kaufmann, Guy Bacos and Mike Verta seem happy to explain what goes into their demo pieces.