Nord User Forum

Dear community,

may I ask for your help? Whenever I use background strings, I have the following two problems:

- Either they don't really sound like real strings, or
- They don't provide enough coverage.

... Can anyone offer tips or help me create their own sound?

Thank you for any help and best regards from Austria,
Florian

No idea about your circumstances:
a) to some extent, it's normal that those samples don't sound like real strings - they aren't; and there are no multiple sounds or playing technics included in just one sample; no Roland Super Natural sound or the like, just a sampled orchestra;
b) I always use an expression pedal to get string sounds a little more vivid - if I use them at all;
c) with a Stage 4, you can layer multiple string sounds to maybe get something more rounded; you can even combine natural and synth strings to shape your sound;
d) make sure you had a look into the existing string sounds outside the Stage 4: The Sample Library has some nice sounds for both big and small orchestra sounding.

I still prefer the strings from Garageband. Use my tool (see below) to use the loop-points that are in the files.
For some reason those strings are great in the mix.

can be found in:
'/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Instrument Library/Sampler/Sampler Files/Violins 1/Violins 1-L_legato_mf/'
There are also other violins sounds.

Try using one of the string samples along with one of the pulse-waveforms in the Synth. A little chorus and you can get a very thick sound.

-dj

May I ask someone for specific sound examples or the program itself?

DJKeys wrote: 04 Mar 2026, 20:40 Try using one of the string samples along with one of the pulse-waveforms in the Synth. A little chorus and you can get a very thick sound.

-dj

I'm sure one of the Stage 4 owners will be glad to help you, I still have my stage 3.

-dj

Hi Huflo,
may we ask for concrete Song examples where you need help? Perhaps then the forum-!members may help you in addition to the Tipps above.

Cheers
Tim

Agreed with the above. Please tell us what you are trying to do. I’ve been doing strings on NS3 since 2018 and NS2 since 2011, which are of very high quality. Based mostly on the Nord sample library basic stuff plus the signature samples. I would expect that the NS4 can do better.

Hi folks,

here's a comment from Eric Barfield (founder of https://www.patchfoundry.com/) , who has programmed a hugh collection of very fine sounds.
He tried to realize the sounds for a song with one patch (using the scene layer II-button and some morphs...). He also seemed to be happy with the 'stock' sounds in the NS4 especially the strings here in this video:



(it´s very interesting to watch the whole video as well...)

Cheers
Tim

Huflo wrote: 03 Mar 2026, 10:27 - They don't provide enough coverage.

I generally turn off velocity sensitivity for strings layers, I find it more consistent and manageable.