seemless looping of violas and violins ...

hy guys

over the past weeks i organized lotsa multisampled orchestra sounds at my 4k. for this i looped lotsa multisampled instruments like flutes, trumpets, cellos, horns and the like with no problem ... but i m quite struggling now with violas and violins ... also with entire string ensembles (but less) ... the samples are all some real nice natural sounding multisampled 3-4 second samples ...

so i did a search on the site - found also a few little relevant things but mostly i found things like looping strings is tricky! ... well, since i have to loop lotsof (surely over 100 samples the next days) i thought i ll ask here for tips and tricks to get some seemless loops on those sounds ...

basically i m undecisive which outta 2 different ways is better atm - either goin for a longer loop to catch the natural vibe of the viola/violine, or go with a very short loop (ie one cycle) at the end to catch the basic tune whilst tryin to emulate the natural vibe via for example lfos in the programs afterwards. which way do ya think is mor promising (note that there are 20 violas/violins per program which should all have more or less the same vibe)

any other tips and tricks are naturally welcome just the same. also note: 4k has quite some tools - loop crossfade (lin/log/sine), loop forward/backward, and so on ... any help is greatly appreciated.

niceone beat conductor - dope read - thanx ... and thanx tutor at the ocasion.... however my violas and violins are imo much trickier as this bass example - as i said - no problem to loop flutes and trumpets, i also just looped some orchestra basses with no problem but those violas r real bitches! ... havin much more irregular cycles ... and than that beatyful natural vibe that shold be catched (or reproduced via the program ?!) ... at times even if the viola loop alone is quite fine the entire sample isnt .... coz there s too much a diffence between the unlooped and the looped part .... i also tried with crossfading but as tutor points out there too at times that crossfade destroys more as it helps .... but thanx for the link ... still - any futher help is much appreciated ...

try crossfade looping, strings have to be some of the hardest things to do. I would get a longish loop and crossfade it and animate it with some lfo action.

thanx el ... your answer is much appreciated!

I only tried this once with a cello that we recorded. Using a s5000 I found the best results at the time for me seemed to be when using a small loop and lfo action. But only for the very end section. I made sure the original samples were looooong to begin with.

thanx arctec .... niceone - ya sampled a cello on your own ... hope ya took lotsa different takes at the ocasion ...

as for your hints - i hear ya - long samples are (were) best to start with on those kinda things (apart ram usage). but mine are all from a sample disc and ca. 3-4 seconds long - so there s not much i can do about it ... and i went for a long loop on the cellos already - and they r real beatyful as they are right now. (wanna try on yours?)

.... so - for now i decided to go for long loops whenever it works on those strings, viola and cello sounds .... but on some of those stringish samples a long loop just doesnt seem to work (ie. my viola at c loops fine, whilst the same viola at d or e just doesnt - no matter what and how often i try )... but nice to hear that ya obtained dope results also with short ones and some lfo ... i might have to come back to it ... but not on my cellos - they ll stay as they are ...

thanx mate

try inverting the sample. this is an old rick, I'm sure you already tried


there was an old classic macintosh software called infinity, it was designed to do this.


If you have accsess to an asr10, or eps 16. They had an auto loop algorhythm that works extremely well.


You could try ablton live, melodyne would work really well.


maybe a vp9000 would work

elmacaco wrote:try crossfade looping, strings have to be some of the hardest things to do. I would get a longish loop and crossfade it and animate it with some lfo action.

What he said, a short cycle loop of strings will sound unnatural at best. Go the long route.

seems that there are many options and opinions. Good thread

What is "inverting the sample" in what way do you mean?

yo - lord, lamp, arc ... been loopin (offline) a few more days - still thanx alot for your hints and coments on the matter ... i went the long route at the end and in most cases this worked really better ... most of my violas are looped now. but i think so too that there are different ways (or on some samples none) to achieve seemless loops. and imo it really strongly depends on the sample ya workin on and therefore it s a bit difficult (for you) to give advice ... esp. on those complex sounds ... but nonetheless i like to chat with y'all about it and appreciate your coments ...

also dope to see a 4k user stepin in ... got some questions

Lord Toranaga wrote:try inverting the sample. this is an old rick, I'm sure you already tried

... not sure whether i got ya - ya talkin bout the alternating looping mode ... if so - yes i tried it but wasnt really impressed on the violas ... forward loopin worx better on those sounds imo ...


there was an old classic macintosh software called infinity, it was designed to do this.


yo - pc user here - never heard of it - but i ll check whether it s available for pcs too ... currently i only have soundforge and wavelab at my pc .. but i think loopin - esp. of complex sounds - worx much better on a sampler. well - maybe i m just more used to it and dont use those softwares correctly ... you guys generally are using softwares or your samplers to loop (always talkin bout complex sounds in this topic)?



If you have accsess to an asr10, or eps 16. They had an auto loop algorhythm that works extremely well.


nah man - no asr or eps in the house ... but the 4k has an auto loop finder too. i m interested on your opinion on the auto loop finder at the 4k ... i used it a few times and imo 1. the thing takes ages ... and 2. imo is rather useless at the 4k. ... did ya ever find a dope looppoint with it? i havent - again - maybe i dont use it correctly - if ya have any suggestion how to use it better this were very welcome too ...

I have never tried the 4k auto loop.

Definelty, ifinity, was not a pc product


inverting a sample, basically just turns it upside down, it is one of the dsp processes in peak. It is supposed to help with looping

I never make mulisamples, so I hardly ever loop anything

aright ... cheers mate.