Up and Down Bowing

[LFO]

I'm trying to get a bit more of a `real' sound and so I started looking at up and down bowing for solo instruments. As far as I can tell, up bowing is less aggressive, down bowing is more aggressive. To my ears using the automatic up and down bowing is uneven. However, using up bowing all the time, while more even and less aggressive does not match what I would see a violinist do. (A 8th note run would not be played with all up bows would it?)

So, what am I doing wrong? Is there something I should do to temper the down bow? How do people use up and down bows? As you can see, I'm totally lost.

One last question. What is used by default when you load a solo string? I found that if I used either up or down bow that the sound would change (as expected) however, I could never get back to what the original sound was.

Thanks for any help!

-Kevin

[tfishbein82]

I'm trying to get a bit more of a `real' sound and so I started looking at up and down bowing for solo instruments. As far as I can tell, up bowing is less aggressive, down bowing is more aggressive. To my ears using the automatic up and down bowing is uneven. However, using up bowing all the time, while more even and less aggressive does not match what I would see a violinist do. (A 8th note run would not be played with all up bows would it?)

So, what am I doing wrong? Is there something I should do to temper the down bow? How do people use up and down bows? As you can see, I'm totally lost.

One last question. What is used by default when you load a solo string? I found that if I used either up or down bow that the sound would change (as expected) however, I could never get back to what the original sound was.

Thanks for any help!

-Kevin

Let's look at one of the Solo Violin KS. When you select the keyswitch for up/down bowing, it will alternate bowing on every note.

Now, why might things sound strange: a phrase will usually begin with a down bow. But if your previous phrase ended with a down bow (as would happen if there were an odd number of notes), then the samples played back will start with an up bow. This will give an unnatural sound compared to what you're accustomed to hearing. You can correct this issue by inserting another note at the end of the previous phrase with 0 velocity. This note will not sound, but it will trigger the up bow sample to be played, and set you up for the next down bow.

When you have a particularly light passage, you may want to keyswitch to up bows only. When you have a heavier passage, you may want to keyswitch to down bows only. I would say that both of these should be used sparingly, and only to briefly highlight that particular mood.

EDIT: And I think the default is a sustain, the low C KS.

[LFO]

Thanks for the clarification tfish! This will be a big help!

-Kevin