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Dear Roberto,
Sordino reduces vibration of the bridge through the application of a mechanical implement to it - I'm sure you already know this. Interestingly, there are several different styles of mute that all impact the sound in various subtlely different ways. My unsatisfying response is that you should get whatever collection is necessary to give you sordino articulations - this will by far give you the best results.
Having said that, the usual (maybe a bit unsatisfying approach) to achieving a faux-sordino sound is to filter out a reasonable swathe of the very high frequencies (the engineers amongst this board's readers will be able to give you a much better idea which ones) and reduce the volume of the track, followed by frequent A-B'ing of the results to check you are not making it sound weird. Finally you also need to squeeze the dynamic range - you can do this by compression, but I would tend to suggest manually doing so via MIDI by just reducing the different between maximum and minimum volume, and easing off use of the velocity X-fade.
It is worth also taking a look at what you are writing and how. Most composers tend (for no particularly good reason) to stick to longer lines and phrases when writing con sordino than without - so stylistically you may wish to consider that in conjunction with the above equalisation trick.
Although a bit of an unsatisfying response, I hope it helps!
Kind Regards,
Nick.
Actually EWQL is competition of VSL, so I will not write any details or anything ... Also I assume that their "plugin" is purely internal and can not be used for other sources.
Also googeling for ewql and con sordino convolution i did not find that much anymore (only some indicators that it is not sampled con sordino e.g.: http://community.vsl.co.at/forums/p/24201/162433.aspx)
So i fear there is no "convolution Emulator" Plugin easily available for all strings ;(
I, too, was trying to emulate con sordino (also sul ponticello and sul tasto), sadly missing from Dimension Strings (for now?). The challenge is that these playing modifications affect the frequency spectrum of each note differently. So what is required is a filter that changes with each note. You can reasonably fake con sordino, for example, with a variable low-pass filter, and automating the cutoff frequency and resonance to change with each note. Sul ponticello can be similarly emulated with a high-pass filter, and sul tasto with a notch (band-stop) filter. This is only effective with monophonic lines or small-interval double stops.@nicks said:
...the usual (maybe a bit unsatisfying approach) to achieving a faux-sordino sound is to filter out a reasonable swathe of the very high frequencies (the engineers amongst this board's readers will be able to give you a much better idea which ones)...
I am a heavy user of con sordino strings in my projects. I am not an experienced arranger and I am not a string player, but to my ear the biggest difference in the con sordino sound is that the fundamental and lower harmonics are being damped. I'm not so sure that taking out the high frequencies is the way to go.
Having said that, I avoid simulated con sordino because it can't come close to the real thing. Most string libraries skimp on con sordino, which is a real mistake. Vienna has provided more con sordino than anyone else, but we could still use more. I would love to see more articulations and more real trills (I'm sorry, there is no substitute for a real trill).
Good luck!
Steve
since I am researching it myself I like to point you to two threads.
One handles brass mutes using an EQ
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/mute-your-brass.67296/
the other uses a convolution reverb to achive CON SORDINO on all string libraries
http://www.numericalsound.com/universal_sordino.html
Cheers
Hello Roberto,
I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you but if I may borrow your thread to ask a related question(s).
Is it relatively easy for string players to switch back and forth between Con Sordino and back again? I mean could they switch back and forth on a dime, say within the span of a few bars?
So if a piece is written Con Sordino is it pretty much that way for the entire piece?
Well, actually some audio engineers specialized in impulse responses and acoustics (even cooperating with VSL for some projects) have a website explaining the topic and offering a plug-in for strings sordino emulation.
I can't remember the name, but you may find it for sure searching not only the web, but even the VSL Forum, since we had recently (few months ago) a full post debating it, with all the details.
EDIT: I did it for you :) here you are
