Strings Recording & Arranging

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: We recorded and produced a full album of Canadian orchestral music for Canada’s 150th anniversary for the Canadian Music Centre (Centrediscs Label, distributed by Naxos). It was fantastic to discover and work on such great music and to put it on the map for others to enjoy and appreciate!

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Soho Sonic Studio are very professional, imaginative and really nice people. Mix engineer Yoad Nevo is very knowledgeable does amazing job.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: We’ll pay attention to the details and do the maximum possible to realise their dream recording.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: We love making music and meeting creative people.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: Question: How do you get it to sound so good? Answer: we smile and say ‘thank-you’.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: Some people assume that because we’ve had classical training, we are not open to other genres or not able to understand or adapt quickly to creators working in completely different styles.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Listen to the provider’s audio examples to make sure you get the quality and style you want. Once you’ve selected who you will trust with your song, be very clear about what you have in mind, and be creative about how you communicate what you have in mind. It can be by using sounds, images or even a poem!

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: We’ve been working in performing and recording orchestral music for over a decade with the Symphonova Orchestra. More recently we created the Symphonova Stem Service for composers who write big orchestral scores for films and games. In 2022 we added this service, of creating strings for songs.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Be respectful to everyone - from the head of production or the intern who brings the coffee. It’s amazing how the right attitude helps get the best out of a production.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: We’ve been working for many years recording orchestral scores for media, including films and games; we have also made several classical recordings.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Deep musical experience as professional musicians combined with unique technical knowledge and resources, in the context of orchestral recordings.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Our love of music-making, years of experience in making orchestral recordings, appreciation for the creators who keep making music, and gratitude for the trust in us with their songs.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: We’ve developed a streamlined process that allows us to deliver a high-quality and cost-effective service. We ask the song creator/producer to send us either a notated score or a sketch recording of the string parts they have in mind. This can be a recording of pads on a keyboard, harmonies on guitar or send each part in separate recordings played on any (reasonable) instrument. The recording(s) is/are our guide for the arrangement and performance of the stems. To ensure we get the correct timing (tempo), we ask to provide metronome marks, or to send us a backing/click track. Once we’ve received the project, we arrange for a meeting between the song creator/producer and our conductor to chat about the specific performance and arrangement requirements for the song. We then record the strings and deliver a full set of professional, multi-mic strings stems, ready for mixing. We also deliver a preview stereo mix. Our usual delivery time is five working days.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: We’ve got some amazing gear on top of the typical professional equipment one would expect. We’ve got a full rack of MOTU interfaces, and we also use Antelope hardware to get the full benefit of their remarkable modeling microphones (we have a few of them). We’ve got a decent rack of hardware effects and processors. Our main stable of microphones are DP, but we have AKG and Neumann mics in the locker. We’ve also got a pile of Behringer mics because we find they have a useful place in our work. We work mostly with Cubase, Digital Performer, Dorico and Sibelius, and we would really like to get into StaffPad which looks like an amazing tool. We also have a mountain of plugins, research and measurement software. Some of our uncommon, outside the box gear that has found its way onto some unusual recordings include a 78 record player from 1934, a Steinway grand from 1905, a Broadwood from 1856, and a Kawai VPC1 which is a fabulous keyboard for virtual pianos.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: We are totally eclectic in our tastes, and we find there are so many amazing performers and writers. We are constantly excited and inspired by new discoveries, coming from every country, and as far back as recordings go.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: We record and produce string- section multi-mic stems, ready for mixing. For custom projects, we can also do the arrangement.