Dear Anyone.

I'm so new to Reason that I don't even know what to look for in the tutorials to help me, so just pointing me in the right direction might help, if you're too busy to answer.

2 questions, might be interlinked, might not. 1. How do you get Soft Buzzy Strings/ backing sounds? I'm trying to write New Age, piano'n'strings, flute'n'strings, strings with everything!! If you listen to Richard Clayderman or anyone like that, gentle New Age in general, the strings are lovely, misty and buzzy background sounds. My strings sound like the shower scene from Psycho! What is it that makes 'em buzz and sound soft, without sounding so quiet they're inaudible? (I want loud softness, loudness without harshness).

2.) There IS a nice string sound called buzzstrings. But if you do a long string chord - anything over 2 beats - it has this crescendo effect that seems built-in. It just keeps on getting louder. How do I set it to the level I want and KEEP IT THERE without the crescendo effect cutting in?

If anyone has any other tips on keeping things soft, like every piece of New Age anyone's ever heard, I'd love to know them. (Keeping pads sounding soft and warm, adding fuzziness to flutes, anything like that.) If there's a lesson on this in the tutorial section somewheres, rub my nose in it! I'm so new I don't even know what I'm looking for

Yours with a gentle smile

ulrichburke

P.S. I know about Reverb, I also know, from the professional pieces I've heard, there's more going on in their softness than tons of reverb. I just don't know what it is or how to reproduce it.

1) To get buzz strings you layer strings over MKS or PWM synths, just experiment.

2) Change the attack knob and the volume knob to get a consistant dynamic.

__________________
...

Filter filter filter filter, that's all I have to say. In addition to a ton of reverb

A lowpass filter will get things sounding MUCH softer as it strips the high frequency content. Just make sure you don't put a lowpass over everything or that whole range is going to get cluttered.