Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS
User Guide
Table of Contents
Welcome to Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS
What is Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS?
Installing to a different drive on OS X
Installing to a different drive on Windows
Changing the content location after installation
Controller hardware for Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS
Make A Sound And Learn About Chords
Tell Your Player What You Want
PreSonus Chord Track and Key Track Integration
Moving, renaming, and deleting presets
Finisher MODE Presets - Reference
Welcome to Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS
Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS
We hope you will enjoy Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, a powerful addition to your musical palette, and we thank you for being a part of the UJAM community of music creators!
What is Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS?
The idea for Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS was inevitable for UJAM for three reasons:
- It’s absolutely core to UJAMs mission to let people write and compose with instruments that they don’t play - by inventing instrument concepts that make them easy to use, without sacrificing the professional result.
- Since Hans Zimmer, one of the world’s greatest film composer, is a co-founder of UJAM, the team had exclusive access to Hans’ studio and his multi-million-dollar library of string recordings, honed and expanded for over a decade.
- In Boris Salchow, we found the perfect producer - a guy who both understands the “everyman” and - being an acclaimed film and game composer himself - is perfectly capable of taming a super-complex system like Hans’.
In Boris’ words: “Yes, it's been a herculean task of many years to take something as complex and precious as the Hans Zimmer string library and make it accessible in a workflow that does not require a multitude of computers as well as a studio environment like it is normally used in. That was the main thrill - to turn it into an instrument that allows everyone now to enjoy such musical super powers”
STRIIIINGS – among the wide sonic palette of a Hans Zimmer – was a self-explanatory theme for a host of reasons:
- Unlike e.g. woodwinds or brass, strings are widely used in all musical genres and across the decades.
With Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS we hope for you to experience the same “god mode”, superpower sensation that we felt from the beginning when we put our fingers to the first prototype.
And we hope that we provided exactly the right balance between beautiful simplicity – that makes Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS always a companion in your creating, not an obstacle, and takes the “I’m not trained” out of “Strings”–and the right set of sound design tools so you can make it your own - whether you write ballads, play heavy metal, build hiphop beats or compose for film or TV.
by Peter Gorges
You and us
Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS was built by musicians for musicians. We at UJAM are a pretty diverse bunch – from DJ to weekend producer to Oscar-awarded Hollywood composer. We build every product for ourselves, and, like you, we’re all users of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS too.
That means that before we even start developing, a lot of thought and discussion goes into finding out what you, the user, will expect from the product, what problem it solves, which controls we can remove to make the product more inviting and simpler, which hurdles we can move out of the way between you and a perfect track.
Every Symphonic Elements product is optimized for one clear, powerful purpose: To produce great-sounding strings tracks without distracting you from the complex endeavor that producing a song is.
We hope that Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS transpires that philosophy in everything you do with it.
Naturally, we’re always open to new ideas and critique, and you are always encouraged and welcome to talk to us:
- Send us an email: support@ujam.com
- Visit our Facebook page: facebook.com/ujaminstruments
- Catch us on Twitter: twitter.com/ujaminstruments
- Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/ujaminstruments
Looking for quick help?
If you’re just looking to figure out something quick, there are three ways to get there:
- The Quick Reference has super-short explanations for every control.
- The Walkthrough is a guided tour where you’ll try every control on the Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS screen once – the quickest hands-on experience possible.
- If you’re looking for in-depth explanations of all functions and controls, head straight for the Reference Guide further down.
Quick Reference
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Area |
Parameter |
Explanation |
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Menu Bar |
Preset |
Click on “Style” to open menu for browsing and loading a new Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS preset. |
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Save |
When editing a user preset, click to save your preset, replacing the previous version. |
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Save as… |
Click to save your preset under a different name and – optionally – assign a category. |
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Notification Bell |
Will illuminate for notifications such as product updates. |
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Info Icon
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Opens the About Page displaying your licensing status and links to acknowledgements, website, this manual and product support. |
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Resize Icon |
STRIIIING’s user interfaces are resizable to fit on small screens. To resize, either click the “window” icon next to the notification bell in the top right corner or simply drag the three stripes in the bottom right corner of the user interface. |
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Volume – Slider and Meter |
Adjust and monitor STRIIIING’s output volume. |
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Low / High Strings Section |
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The Low and High Strings are two layers.The low layer contains mostly the lower section like Celli and Basses. The High Layer contains Violas and Violins. If you only want to hear the low strings, just turn the high layer off using the on/off toggle and vice versa. You can also use the Crossfader to make one layer louder.
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Character |
Opens a rack of effect types that adds character to your Low/High Strings, and lets you adjust the effect. |
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Motion |
Opens a rack of effect types that adds movement to your Low/High Strings, and lets you adjust the effect. |
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Focus EQ |
The Focus knob controls a morphing EQ, allowing you to tweak STRIIIINGS sound character before you send it into the Finisher. |
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Decay |
Control the envelope decay of Strings player, with the link knob you can sync it to the Low Strings decay. |
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Finisher |
Finisher |
Dials in the Finisher effect depending on the preset. |
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Mode
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Selects a Finisher preset – a macro setting for a rack of effects. |
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Ambience |
Select a Ambience preset from a rack of different reverb effects. |
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Highlighter |
Turn left for a lowpass filter, turn right for a highpass filter. |
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Crossfade |
Move the slider for fading between the Low and High Strings. |
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Play Range |
C#3 – B#4 |
As the name says, the Play Range is where youplay notes or chords to perform with STRIIIINGS. |
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Bass Notes C#2- B2 |
Lets you play a bass note independently from the chord or note in the PLAY RANGE. This note will usually be played by the Low Strings. |
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Style phrases |
In this Range you can select between 6 phrases (white keys) and 4 additions (black keys). |
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Stop |
In LATCH Mode, this key stops the performance. |
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ModWheel |
The Modwheel gradually dials in a Decrescendo effect. Turn it up for quieter passages. |
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PitchWheel |
Doubles the Crossfader so that you can fade between the Low and High Strings. The Crossfader limits the range of the PitchWheel. |
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DAW Sync |
Quantize the STRIIIINGS player to the grid of your DAW. In the default position (“Note”), it will play exactly when you play or send MIDI notes. In “Beat” position, it will wait for the next beat (quarter note). |
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Style |
Loads a Style (collection of 6 phrases, accessible via the style phrases section next to the keyboard). |
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Key |
You can set any key here to force notes to that key’s scale. |
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Micro Timing |
This menu opens a selection of parameters adjusting the timing of the Strings: Swing: Continuously adjusts syncopation - often also called Shuffle. Move to the right to syncopate off-beats. |
Why so few controls?
We are all musicians and we know that there’s never enough time for inventing and laying down that amazing idea in your head.
We are also UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) experts, and we know there is a trade-off between complexity – giving you maximum flexibility at the cost of time – and ease of use – letting you focus on your music at the cost of detailed editing options.
The way we design our user interfaces is aimed at giving you the best of all worlds:
- Easy, not simple: By weeding out more controls than we actually leave in, and by carefully grouping, macro-flying and labeling them, we aim to let you use all your attention on making our instruments sound like you, without having to spend too much of your limited time and focus on a large screen estate of detailed controls.
- Hardly any learning curve: Usually you can use any of our instruments out of the box, with very little reading up.
- Fail-proof interface: No matter how you set up the controls of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, the result will never be musically or technically wrong, and it gives you immense freedom and flexibility to create your sound.
Most importantly especially for those of us who don’t play Strings: You can trust in the fact that tracks produced with Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS are legit, professionally produced and sound like a real Orchestra.
Trial and Authorization
We have designed the entire process of downloading, activating and authorizing Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS with a strong focus on simplicity. It’s important to us to make it as easy as possible for you to get your hands on Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS – and make it your own if you like it.
Trying, Buying, Authorizing
We only want you to spend money if you’re absolutely happy with Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. Therefore, we grant you a 7-day trial period, during which the plugin will run without any limitation.
When opening Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS during the trial period (or when clicking the Authorize button in the menu bar), you will see this overlay which
- displays information about your trial status,
- provides a link to the STRIIIINGS website where you can purchase a permanent Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS license after or during the trial period,
- allows you to enter your credentials and authorize STRIIIINGS once you’ve purchased it.
Trial Screen
Where to put the Content
The actual strings goodness of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS – the audio content – is packed into a so-called blob file named SE-STRIIIINGS.blob which is about 4.7 GB large.
You can keep the blob file anywhere you like (e.g. on a separate content drive).
During standard installation, it will be put into the following locations on your system drive:
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OS X |
/Library/Application Support/UJAM/SE-STRIIIINGS |
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Windows |
C:\ProgramData\UJAM\SE-STRIIIINGS
(assuming your system drive is C) |
Installing to a different drive on OS X
If you wish to install the blob file onto a separate drive, you can set a different content installation folder in the installer.
- Open the installer and follow the procedure to step “Installation Type”
- Click “SE STRIIIINGS Content” to select it – as shown in the image below – and follow the instructions in the installer.
OS X Installer – Change Content Location
Installing to a different drive on Windows
The Windows installer will ask you if you want to install the content to a different directory.
On Windows, you can also set a different location for the plug-in, however we recommend leaving this untouched unless you have a good reason.
Windows Installer – Change Content Location
Changing the content location after installation
You can always change the content location after installation by just moving the SE-STRIIIINGS.blob file:
- Move your file to the desired location (different folder or different drive)
- Launch your DAW and open Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. It will present you with a dialog asking for the file location. Simply point to the new location of the SE-STRIIIINGS.blob file – done.
Controller hardware for Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS
Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS requires MIDI note input for playing and recording musical performances, and optionally Pitchbend, Modulation and Sustain Pedal data for added real-time variation.
If you have a MIDI controller (keyboard), this will be the easiest and most straightforward MIDI input method and it’s most fun as this way you control your STRIIIINGS player in real-time.
Of course, you can also control Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS by using MIDI step sequencers or by entering MIDI notes manually into MIDI tracks.
For getting to know Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS and for testing purposes, you can also use the interactive keyboard in the bottom half of the Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS window. This works best with the Latch function enabled.
Please note that whatever you play on this keyboard won’t be sent by the STRIIIINGS plugin and therefore won’t be recorded in your DAW.
Start Playing!
Before we look at things in more depth, let’s first explore how to play Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, as that may be all you need for now.
Let’s go through the various playing modes and how you can use them:
- When you press keys from C#3 upwards, STRIIIINGS will start playing a phrase with the notes you hold on the keyboard. When you release the key(s), playback will stop.
- When you play chords, the integrated chord detection will map the chord you played to an existing chord that’s been recorded with the orchestra.
- Add Bass Notes by pressing keys below C#3.
- MIDI notes below C#2 don’t represent musical keys but select the phrases of your player in real-time. This is a powerful way of making your performance interesting and dynamic.
When using a keyboard, combine left hand (phrase select) and right hand (notes) to build your performance.If you know these things and can switch presets, you know all you need to start producing with Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS.
*C3 is middle C. The MIDI note number is 60. Some DAWs refer to it as C4.
Walkthrough
If you’re pressed for time or if you already know the basic concepts behind STRIIIINGS, then this Walkthrough may be all you need for now, and you can come back later to look up deeper explanations as you need them.
We will take a quick tour across all controls of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. After this you will have a good basic understanding of the instrument and how to use it.
We assume you have Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS opened in your DAW. Ideally you have a MIDI controller connected, otherwise use the interactive keyboard.
Make A Sound And Learn About Chords
- With Player Mode selected, play C#3 or a higher note. Your STRIIIINGS player will start playing. Play a few notes or chords and get a feel for how it works.
Try The Presets
- At the very top of the Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS window you can load presets. A preset is always a complete setting of STRIIIINGS, i.e. it will change the performance as well as the strings and effects.
- At this point, just go through different presets to get an impression of the musical and sonic palette of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS.
Tell Your Player What You Want
- Activate the Latch button right next to the Player Range. Now Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS will keep playing even if you don’t hold a note. Let it keep playing.
- Now play a note in the correspondingly labeled STYLE PHRASES range of the keyboard, C1 – A1. Go upwards and notice how the phrasing gets more intense. Try black keys, C#1 to G#1 while holding white keys to throw in riffs. You can replace all these phrases by loading different Styles. Let’s do just that now:
- Load different styles by clicking a Style name or the arrows left to the interactive keyboard. You will notice that your player masters a vast range of playing techniques and musical genres.
- Now try keys in the C2 – B2 range, labeled Bass Notes. These bass notes will always be there no matter which style you’ve loaded, and can be freely combined with the style phrases.
- Try the KEY parameter and notice how it “locks” your keyboard into a certain scale. This is a nice helping hand if you’re not too familiar with keyboard playing.
- Now stop your player by pressing or clicking the stop key (B1).
More Performance Tweaking Fun
- Have Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS keep playing. Open the Micro Timing menu by clicking the icon in the bottom right corner of the interactive keyboard.
- The speed switch lets you set Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS to half time or double time – this comes in extremely handy when you like a particular style that plays half- or double-time relative to your existing arrangement.
- Click on Microtiming right next to the interactive keyboard and slowly turn up the Swing control. As you will notice, this will delay the off-beats until the phrasing resembles a ternary feel that is common in Swing music (hence the name), often also called Shuffle or Groove depending on your DAW.
Find Your String Sound
Let’s look at the Low and High Strings settings of the Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. Here you set up the Low and High strings and you can shape the sound in almost any way you like.
- Activate Player mode and Latch and keep playing while you tweak controls.
- First, mute the High Strings section or turn the Crossfader towards the Low section.
- Now, select a preset from the Character menu in the Low Strings section and play with the Character knob. Notice how it changes the character of the STRIIIINGS sound. Try more presets.
- Now experiment with the Motion knob. Motion offers animated effect types such as Tremolos, Gates, Filter and more to add movement to your signal.
- Turn the Focus EQ knob to find out how you can go from boosting bass to low-mids to neutral to making the high mids silkier to boosting treble.
Finish him!
The Finisher is a creative wonderbag that lets you mangle and twist the sound of STRIIIINGS in a lot of ways – from subtle adjustments to total craziness. Let’s try it:
- While having STRIIIINGS playing, click through the Finisher Presets by using the arrow buttons underneath the Mode bar (or turning the knob, or selecting presets from the menu that opens when you click the Preset name)
- In every Preset you try, turn the Finisher knob up and down and listen for the alterations in the sound! A complete guide to Finisher Presets is included in the Reference section.
By now, you have a pretty good first impression of what STRIIIINGS can do! Keep playing and experimenting. There’s nothing to break. When you’re done, just start laying down tracks or continue to the Reference Guide for more detailed information.
PreSonus Chord Track and Key Track Integration
Note: These features are only visible and accessible in Presonus Studio One
Descriptions of styles and phrases are displayed on the piano roll to help you find the right styles and phrases faster and easier for your track. The play range and the style/common phrases are divided into red (general key switches) and blue (play range) on the piano roll.
The chord track feature in Studio One automatically follows the chords and automatically changes the MIDI notes for you.
We recommend activating the “Follow Chords” toggle above the “Key” menu on the user interface. When Studio One interprets a wrong chord, the “Follow Chords” feature will correct it. Of course, the chord track feature will also work with turning off the “Follow Chords” toggle .
Note: Changing styles or common phrases won’t affect or change the chord tracks, but the harmonic input. Not all chords that are possible in the PreSonus Chord track are recognized in our instruments, but any chord will be mapped to the closed, musically “not wrong” interpretation.
Reference Guide
In the following part of this user guide, every feature of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS will be explained in depth.
Menu Bar
The top bar of the Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS interface lets you load and save presets. It also contains important management functions from checking your trial status to contacting support.
Menu Bar
Loading Presets
Preset Browser
A preset in Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS is a complete setting of the entire plug-in including Style selection and all control values. Here’s how you can switch presets:
- Advance to the next preset by clicking one of the arrows left and right of the PRESET name.
- Click on the name of the current preset in the PRESET menu to open the Preset Browser (see image above).
As you can see, the Preset Browser is a clean, organized list of presets, categorized by simple musical terms.
Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS ships with nearly 200 Factory Presets. Take your time exploring them, as this is the quickest way of getting an overview of what STRIIIINGS can do!
If you have freshly installed Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, there will only be Factory Presets. User Presets will appear once you have saved your first own preset.
Save and Save as …
You can of course save your own Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS presets. You can name them and assign a category too.
“Save as …” Dialog
The difference between the Save and Save as … buttons:
- Save replaces the preset with the changes you just made.
- Save as … lets you assign a name and a category, so does not replace the current preset.
Factory Presets can only be saved using Save as …, they cannot be replaced.
Moving, renaming and deleting presets
You can move, rename or delete Presets directly in your operating system. You will find Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS Presets in these folders (replace “USERNAME” by your actual username):
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OS X |
Factory Presets |
/Library/Application Support/UJAM/SE-STRIIIINGS/Presets |
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User Presets |
/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/UJAM/SE-STRIIIINGS/Presets |
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Windows |
Factory Presets |
C:\ProgramData\UJAM\SE-STRIIIINGS\Presets |
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User Presets |
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\UJAM\SE-STRIIIINGS\Presets |
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(assuming your system drive is C) |
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Notification Icon
Notification Icon
When you launch Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, it will automatically check for updates. If an update is available, the notification icon will be visible.
Clicking it will open a dialog that lets you choose whether you want to download the update now or later.
Info Icon – About Page
About Page
The About Page is the place for information about your version and licensing status of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. It is also a portal to other services:
- Visit Product Site takes you to www.ujam.com with regularly updated news, videos, tutorials and other helpful stuff.
- Contact Support lets you report problems and ask questions.
- Read User Manual opens this document.
- Acknowledgments – the people behind Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS.
- License Agreement – legalese for gourmets.
Volume Section
Volume Slide
Although a virtual instrument such as STRIIIINGS lives inside a DAW with multiple level faders, a correct output level setting is important. If nothing else, it makes sure that subsequent audio processors, particularly dynamics or distortion, work in their optimal range.
Therefore, the Volume slider and meter at the top left let you set and automate STRIIIINGSs output level between -inf and +12dB, and monitor the resulting level.
All components in STRIIIINGS are adjusted so you won’t exceed the level meters top range, but it’s still ideal to watch it, particularly if you work a lot with automation.
Interactive Keyboard
The keyboard is divided into three sections: Style Phrase Selection, Bass Note and Play Range. All strings play pre-defined parts so every Style Preset is like a small composed music piece that interlocks the Low and the High strings layers.
Interactive Keyboard
Style Phrases
Style Phrases
Keys in the C#1-B1 range play phrases of the currently selected Style. There are 6 phrases plus 4 additions in each Style.
Stop Key
The highest key of the Style Range – B1 – is the Stop key. In Latch mode, pressing this key will stop playback.
References:
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White keys: C, D, E, F, G, A |
Phrase 1-6 |
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Black keys: C#, D#, F#, G# |
Addition 1-4 |
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Black key: Bb |
Ending |
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White key: B |
Stop |
Note: Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS lets you switch phrases in real-time without interrupting the performance. That’s a great way to create dynamic and interesting phrasings of your own by quickly switching phrase keys.
Bass Notes
Bass Notes
The “Bass Notes” range of the MIDI keyboard (C2 – B2) allows you to play bass notes independently from the chord played in the Play Range. This way you can play so-called Slash-Chords:
D/F# for D-Maj with F# in the Bass.
C/G for C-Maj with G in the Bass.
In Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, the Bass Note range will control the Low Strings section, while the Play Range still controls the High Strings.
Play Range
Play Range on the Interactive Keyboard
The right section of the keyboard is the one that actually starts and stops the strings performance and determines the chords your STRIIIINGS player will play.
Chord Recognition
The built-in chord recognition will map the notes or chords you play to the ones available in Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. If the chord you play is not available, it will map it to the closest musically correct replacement.
Playing only one key results in a major chord. But you can play different triad-combinations and STRIIIINGS will understand them:
- maj, min, sus2, sus4, 7, dim
- some phrases/sections only play roots and sometimes fifths so not all chords make a difference
- when it's ambiguous the lowest note or bass note decides e.g. between Csus2 and Gsus4
Chord Fingering Scheme
Here is a reference of the chords supported by Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS and how you play them when “C” is your root note:
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Cmaj |
C, E, G or just play C |
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Cmin |
C, Eb, G or just play C and Eb |
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Csus2 |
C, D, G |
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Csus4 |
C, F, G |
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Cdim |
C, Eb, GB |
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C7 |
C, E, G, Bb or just play C and Bb |
PitchWheel and Modwheel
The two standard wheels on many MIDI controllers give you a lot of dynamic control over the performance of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS.
PitchWheel and ModWheel
PitchWheel
The Pitchbend Controller or Pitch Wheel lets you crossfade between Low and High Strings in realtime. Its range is limited by the Crossfader setting.
ModWheel
The Modulation Controller or Modwheel creates a decrescendo effect. Use it to tone STRIIIINGS down in breakdowns or softer passages.
Style Selector
Here you choose a STYLE – the selection of phrases accessible via the Style Phrases range on the keyboard.
Style Selector
A STYLE in Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS is a collection of phrases that you “tell” your strings player to play. Styles are the “rhythmic vocabulary” of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS.
You can select styles by either clicking the arrows of the Style Selector to skip to the previous/next style, or by clicking the name of the current Style to bring up the full list.
Style List
Every Style is a set of 6 phrases plus 4 additions.
Phrases are ordered by intensity/density from left to right, with white keys playing the actual phrases and black keys adding extra riffs.
SYNC
Symphonic Elements will always play in sync with your DAW, but you can select between two ways of it reacting to your playing:
- In “Note” mode, whenever you play a note on the MIDI keyboard, it will immediately trigger a phrase. This is more intuitive when trying out phrases, but will hardly make it possible for you to play in time with a song while the DAW is running.
- In “Beat” mode, after you hit a note, Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS will wait until the next beat (quarter-note). This way the performance is always perfectly in sync with your song, but it will take you a while getting used to playing notes slightly ahead of time.
DAW Track Pre-Delay
If you load an instance of STRIIIINGS initially the sync mode is set to Note. If you
record STRIIIINGS to your playback, quantize the MIDI afterwards and play it
back the STRIIIINGS sound rather late - which is what real strings also do, because it takes time for the bow to start the string moving.
Film composers using high-end sample libraries compensate for this by setting
a negative MIDI-delay per track. You can do this to STRIIIINGS as well if
you want them to sound tighter to super-tight. We recommend a negative track delay of -30 ms.
Note that in Beat sync mode, phrase playback is automatically adjusted 30 ms early to sound tight to the beat. But you must ensure chord and phrase selection notes are sent before the phrase note you want to change has started playing - either with a negative track delay or playing the notes early and leaving them unquantized.
KEY
Key Selector with menu
The Key parameter forces any note you play on the keyboard to notes of the selected scale. This comes in particularly handy when you use pad controllers to play STRIIIINGS, or when you are not a prolific keyboard player.
- Click between the arrows or on the current key denominator to change the key.
Micro Timing Parameters
Timing Menu
- On the right of the interactive keyboard above to the “Key” and the “Sync” selector, you will find the micro timing menu.
- Click it to open a selection of Timing parameters that you can use to adjust your Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGSs performance to your song.
Speed
The Speed switch lets you halve (0.5x) or double (2x) Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS’s tempo relative to the song tempo.
Swing
This function, often also called “Shuffle”, delays the off-beats. Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS will automatically switch the Swing resolution to 8th or 16th note depending on the selected Style.
At maximum position, the off-beat will have the same timing as the last note of a triplet.
Use this control to match the timing of Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS to a shuffled or triplet-based song.
Latch
Latch
When Latch is activated, once you press a key in the Play Range, Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS will keep playing until you press the Stop key.
When Latch is off, Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS only plays as long as you hold at least one key in the Play Range. Latch is convenient when testing or setting up sounds, and is more practical if you build a track by manually entering notes into your MIDI track.
You can use an optional Sustain Pedal as a temporary Latch. Lifting the sustain pedal unlatches any notes that are no longer held, even if the Latch switch is still on.
Note: Latch behaves differently in Instrument Mode. Please read on!
Low and High Strings
Low and High Strings Section
Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS offers the entire string section as two distinct sub-section - Low and High Strings.
The Low Strings section contains mostly Celli and Basses, while the High Strings usually consist of Violas and Violins.
Skilled arrangers will notice that we don’t take the term “section” as literal as in a real orchestra - you will often hear multiple layers of string sections within the Low and/or High String sections.
You can mute either section or crossfade between them using the Crossfader.
Character FX
Character knob and selector
The character knob, available in each section, offers 30 different effect types that let you change or subtly adjust the sound character of that section, using algorithms like EQ, compression, LoFi or Saturation/Distortion.
Motion FX
Motion knob and selector
The Motion FX selector and knob let you add subtle or drastic rhythmic movement or modulation - separately for Low and High String sections. The effect algorithms used vary from Gaters, Auto-Filters to Chorus to Delay.
Focus EQ
Focus EQ slider
The Focus EQ slider controls a morphing EQ - an EQ with 4 distinct settings optimized for string sounds that you can morph between. Whether you need more beef in the low end or a silkier high end, the Focus EQ is where you can do this. It is also a great tool to sonically separate the Low and High String sections from one another. Here’s a reference of EQ settings for the various slider positions:
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Left |
Bass Boost, subtle Treble attenuation |
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½ Left |
Low-Mid Boost |
|
Center |
Neutral |
|
½ Right |
High-Mid attenuation (silkier sound) |
|
Right |
Treble Boost. |
The Focus EQ is a three-band parametric EQ with EQ frequencies and Q-factors optimally set for STRIIIING’s sounds.
Decay
Decay slider
The DECAY slider lets you shorten the length of individual hits within the phrases - in common terms - make the performances sound rather staccato and dry.
The Default position is all the way to the right. Turn it left to create the described effect.
Click the LINK button underneath a DECAY slider to link both section’s DECAY parameter to this one.
The Finisher Section
The Finisher
The Finisher is a UJAM proprietary multi-effect concept that is available either in separate effects plug-ins –such as Finisher NEO, VOODOO or FLUXX - or integrated into our virtual instruments, starting with Virtual Guitarist Carbon.
In Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, the Finisher is a creative lucky bag designed to allow you all kinds of effects from simple modulations to crazy grain clouds or effects that render the original sound unrecognizable.
The Finisher comes with over 25 presets specifically created for Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS. Every preset sets up the 20 individual processors under the hood in a new way and macro-controls them via the Finisher knob.
Best of all: The Finisher is meant to be “played live”. Either using the Finisher Knob or the Mod Wheel of your keyboard (or generally MIDI cc#1) you can create amazing morphing sounds.
Finisher Mode Menu
Finisher Knob and Menu
Select a Finisher mode
- click either on the preset name to open the full list,
- or click the arrows to step through the list.
Finisher MODE Presets - Reference
Finisher MODE preset selection can be automated, i.e. you can switch Finisher MODE presets during the track. Note that some algorithms won’t switch glitch-free, in that case plan for a brief pause.
|
Name |
Description |
|
Nice Boost |
Boosting the beautiful frequencies to make the strings really shine. |
|
Broken Capacitor |
A combination of saturation and EQ pushing the sound over the edge. |
|
Moving Cloud |
Mix of pitch, filters and chorus. |
|
Ripped Apart |
Distortions and Saturations turn this into a shredding machine. |
|
Fragments |
Chopping the sound into smaller and smaller bits. |
|
Old Cassette |
Saturation and pitch manipulation. |
|
Marshall Law |
Guitar amp distortion. |
|
Voodoo Glitchcraft |
Various glitch and gating effects. |
|
Voodoo Tormentor |
Spectral synthesis explosions. |
|
Voodoo Bullet Time |
Freezes the sound in time and space. |
|
Voodoo Poisoned |
Infinite Doom Atmo, very dynamic and controllable. |
|
Voodoo Under A Spell |
Quantizes and chops the signal into 8th notes. Uses beat cutter and filter. |
|
Neo Infinity |
Turns anything into an aerial Synth Pad. |
|
Neo Back To 1900 |
Creates a phonograph Character with adjustable aging. |
|
Neo Super Lo-Fi |
Easily create almost any kind of LoFi Character. |
|
Neo Tremolo Shaper |
Tremolo on steroids with adjustable Shape and Synth Filter. |
|
Neo Das Boot |
Deep Sea atmosphere with Echolot. |
|
Neo DualPeakSweep |
Two resonant Filters moving with the Effect Knob. |
|
Neo Freq Shift |
Shifts all frequencies in the signal. |
|
Neo Gator Aid 4th |
Speed Gater with 4th note gate length. |
|
Neo Gator Aid 8th |
Speed Gater with 8th note gate length. |
|
Neo Gator Aid 16th |
Speed Gater with 16th note gate length. |
|
Neo Space Station |
Virtually sends anything into space as you turn the Effect knob. |
|
Neo Hot Bath |
Boosts signals with a „bathtub“-shaped EQ plus Compression and Ambience. |
|
Neo Phaturator |
Extra fatness, bass and grit for tracks, busses and mixes. |
Highlighter
Highlighter
The Highlighter is a multimode 24dB synthesizer filter specifically optimized for creating those juicy risers and intros by slowly turning the filter across a bar or two.
Turn the knob left for a low pass filter (gradually removing high-end frequencies), turn right for a resonant high pass (gradually removing low end frequencies). Apart from automating the filter, you can of course use it stationary as an extra sound-shaping parameter.
Ambience
Ambience
The Ambience control in the Finisher Section of the UI lets you adjust the level of Ambience added after the Finisher.
You can select between 30 different ambience types, most of which are convolution reverbs.
The Ambiencer presets are ordered from short to long and provide a large range of natural and not-quite-so-natural characters.
Crossfade
This slider provides an equal-power crossfade between Low and High Strings sections. The Crossfader Position also sets the center of the Pitchwheel.
MIDI Learn
Using MIDI Learn, you can assign any Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS control to hardware controls of MIDI keyboards or other controllers.
To assign a control, you usually right-click or ctrl-click a control in Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS to open the MIDI Learn context menu of your DAW.
MIDI Learn
Automation
All controls in Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS can be automated. In combination with the phrase select keys this is actually a very powerful way of creating more dynamic performances. For example, automate FINISHER or CHARACTER with faders to create dynamic transitions, or switch-automate AMBIENCE or MOTION to drastically change the sound between song parts.
For instructions on how to activate Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS parameters for automation, please refer to your DAW’s user guide.
FAQ
Where can I get help?
We keep a help desk with a knowledge base and known issues here: UJAM Helpdesk
I still have questions! Where can I send them?
Please submit a request to our support stuff. We will help you out asap!
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