Question: Q: Garageband: Strings sound unusable

I completely agree. I’ve been using garageband on my iphone for many years and it’s always been next to impossible to create good-sounding strings, horns– any orchestral instrument, for that matter. The built-in guitar sounds are pretty rubbish as well. Apple seems to only be interested in adding hip-hop drums and synths and, for some reason, obscure “world” instruments, while ignoring other, more common and useful ones. I’ve been waiting for saxophone, accordion, tympani, and even basic hip-hop samples like a decent orchestra hit or record scratch. Some “solutions” I’ve resorted to for strings are as follows: 

Using many staccato notes in rapid succession to create a faux-legato sound with better attack,

Layering a staccato sound on top of a legato sound to create a faster attack,

Shifting the notes backwards so that the attack comes before the beat,

Making my own samples using my crappy phone mic,

Using the “cello” and “bass” sounds in the viola and violin registers to shorten the attack,

Chopping up the “Apple Loops” to create string parts,

and using the “erhu” world instrument, as it has a good, natural, bowed string sound. Strange that they would put so much more effort into such an obscure instrument, huh?

happy composing,

Thin Jim