We wanted performances that catered to… (yes, I have to say it) soaring string lines and dramatic passages by having the players really dig in with the vibrato and giving us all they had with the triple forte dynamic. This also meant approaching the sessions in a unique, musical way to capture the kind of singular legato we were looking for.

Another focus was to dial things back with what we felt was necessary to produce credible string arrangements in a shorter amount of time. This involved creating a single, natural mix and omitting seldom-used legato articulations. We also developed a “Sustain Sync” feature that synchronizes the starting sustain with the following intervals/repetitions, which saves you from having to make adjustments to start-notes to closely match the intervals timing upon quantization. Lastly, we included a “To Silence” button that can enable the modwheel to completely diminish the softest dynamic to silence. This not only provides unique possibilities with expression, but also saves the need to use another controller to simulate a decrescendo to “niente”.

We also agreed that recording medium-sized ensembles in their traditional seating arrangement would not only provide enough “solo-istic” detail in the recordings, but would have a more natural transparency when writing harmonies.

After various tests throughout the year, months of recording, editing, programming and bringing the polish as far as we could — we’re thrilled to finally share our debut offering, Soaring Strings. Happy composing!