Expensive sounding strings with Malay

Sneak peek from Malay's "Inside the Track " series, in which he shows you how he produced the song "It's you" by Zayn.

Join producer Malay at Larrabee Studios to explore the production of ‘It’s You’ by Zayn! In this three-part series, the renowned musician and producer introduces himself with an overview of his professional background and a walkthrough of his current studio setup. He recounts the unusual journey of recording the song’s vocals and his collaboration with the artist, songwriter, and mixer. He then dives into the multi-track session to reveal some of his favorite production tips, recording strategies, drum programming techniques, signal chains, automation workflow, and more. He also discusses his methods of maintaining the excitement of a recording project and getting desired results from the artist.

[eman]

That's how *Larry Gold* does it as he explained how he arranged the strings for *Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River* with a string quartet. Larry Gold himself was also one of the cello players on that recodd. You don't necessarily need a lot of string players to do what you need to do for multi track recording when you can record layers.

[almur]

to my ears it sounded more like Cairo orchestra from 50-60s. especially because of more than two octave gap, they used to like doing that way back when in arab orchestras, resulting in the easily recognisable distinct sound.

[RyeToDaEyE]

The tracks not being named properly is giving me anxiety

[catloverextreme]

This is exactly what I do. My string player plays viola and violin and we do about 8-12 parts per instrument including doubles, harmonies, and improvisational takes. If you have a player that can play in tune its super hard to NOT make this technique sound huge and epic. Also, good to see even millionaire mixing engineers are too lazy to title their individual tracks 😅🤣 (audio12.dpl.cm.cm)

[sphtng]

The man behind Channel Orange. Damn...

[eugene.francis]

He's like, "sup guys! I'm the guy they call in when they wanna save money!"

[nuno]

he used it in zayn's tune "its you"

[KieronSmithMusic]

Excellent technique. I double up my violin over and over to get a similar effect, but could do with using the room microphones too!

What reverb are you using?

[RippleRiverRecords]

Genius idea of taking only a few string players and layering the parts to create a full sound. I regret not mixing earlier in my music career. Tons of things to learn and get great at but also so much fun! Thanks MWTM!!!

[darkskinwhite]

I wish he would stop talking over the strings so I could steal them

[YAYYEE]

I need somebody who understands stacking instruments and engineering like this on my team

[themixclinic]

Yep thats how I've done it as well- get great result thats way!

[AALFAVITS]

Is there a difference in which program to work? FL STUDIO OR LOGIC?

[stevehansen]

Funny how stacking ends up hiding intonation issues

[slavesforging]

Nice. i room mic everything, (it often saves or salvages recordings in a mix) and routinely move the room mics around just to see which takes sound better later. but i never thought of moving the sound source around the room mics to get a layered orchestra, or 'gang' type sound. super basic, and very smart at the same time! now, to find out how he handled phase issues. lol. i currently have a little labs IBP (in-between-phase; it's an analog phase sweep that is pure studio witchcraft) but would need a few to make it work in this case. i guess i could re-amp the already recorded tracks through it... or buy the plugin. but i'm sure he has another way. very cool video.

[arthurjames]

1:51 he mentioned it sounds like an Orchestra... he's definitely never heard an Orchestra

[SoundFriendly]

I think I can easily get better results with my Roland Integra 7 and XV 5080 Symphonic Orchestra than asking those talented musicians to come and play 20 times the same part. It didn't blow my mind to be fair. If you then buy some of the Spitfire string ensembles - even the cheaper ones - it just surpasses this performance in the video.

[YoungBlaze]

just throw *Soundgoodizer* on the master track and there ya go! no need for mulitple takes










lol sike

[g.p]

The Musicians Union rate for overdubs is HIGHER than for single takes, so it’s CHEAPER to record a full string section than do overdubs…. Unless you’re not paying Union rates!!

[TheAerovons]

Unfortunately overdubbing the same players multiple times is nothing like actually having a larger section.