String Pool

The design process of STRINGPOOL meant forcing virtuoso violinist Sophia Bartlette into many painful days of tortuous sampling (nobody really enjoys sampling – don’t ever let them make you think otherwise).

While I quietly slurped coffee Sophia teased hours of beautifully lyrical long bowed single notes from her 200-year-old instrument. For every note, four different bowing speeds with a hint of vibrato. She truly suffered for our art. From these hours of recordings I created hundreds of seamless, clean single note loops and an alternative set of ‘treated’ samples mangled through tape, valves and Sound Dust malarkey. Then it was all poured into a complex Kontakt engine with a simple interface and wealth of expressive possibilities.

The true joy of STRINGPOOL is that you can morph in real-time through the BPM synced bowing tempo divisions with the modwheel (or CC1) while also using your keyboard aftertouch (or a CC of your choice) for volume expression to create realistically human violining sounds. Also, every control can be automated in your DAW or midi learned for unrealistically human violining sounds.

STRINGPOOL may never sound ‘quite’ as good as Sophia in full flow – but for MUCH less pain you can get a little of her magic and a little bit of Sound Dust magic on your tracks.