Articulation Guide. The Orchestral Grands.

Transcription

1 Articulation Guide The Orchestral Grands 1

2 CONTENT I About this Articulation Guide 2 II Introduction 3 III Recording and Concept 4 IV THE Series 5 1 The Orchestral Grands... 5 Instruments... 6 Articulations Rev Orchestral Tools Schwarzer & Mantik GmbH

3 I About this Articulation Guide The number of Orchestral Tools is constantly growing and covers all instrumental families of the orchestra, with some collections even branching out into non-orchestral instruments. This Articulation Guide describes all contained articulations as well as their technical properties (velocity layers, Round Robins, and many more). This document is a special version of the Articulation Guide that only contains features applicable to the collections listed below. You can download the full Articulation Guide that applies to all Orchestral Tools collections in our Helpdesk. The following table lists all collections covered by this Articulation Guide with their current Capsule version as well as the minimum Kontakt version. Collection Name Collection Capsule Kontakt Important This Articulation Guide does not cover the general installation, usage and features of Orchestral Tools collections. These topics are explained step by step in the respective User Guides and Installation Guides, which you can find in your collection's Documentation folder. You can also find them in our Helpdesk. 2 About this Articulation Guide

4 II Introduction Welcome to the Orchestral Tools Articulation Guide! Orchestral Tools provides high-quality sampled instruments for composers. Thanks to our Capsule Scripting Framework developed in-house, all Orchestral Tools collections look and work in a very similar way. Articulation names, labeling and all technical terms are identical in every collections, so you will find it easy to find your way around. This Articulation Guide describes all articulations as well as their technical features and is organized as follows: - The general Se r ie s Ov e r v ie w shows you all available Orchestral Tools Series', which group our collections into broader categories. - Following this is the respective Se r ie s Ov e r v ie w Page of one particular Series, which lists all available collections by name and gives suggestions for expansions options. - Each individual collection then has its own C ol l e ction Ov e r v ie w page, which describes the general content of the collection as well as its most important features at a glance. - This is followed by the Instr ume nts Section, which lists all instruments (or sections) contained in the collection with a short description of tone, scope or other pertinent information. - The Ar ticul ations Section finally lists all articulations in detail along with all their properties. 3 Introduction 2017 Orchestral Tools Schwarzer & Mantik GmbH

5 III Recording and Concept We are happy to have found a sonic home for our collections at the Teldex Scoring Stage in Berlin. The large recording stage at Teldex looks back on a long tradition of many well known and Grammy award winning recordings. Famous orchestras, like the Berlin Philharmonics and great film composers from the USA and Europe trust and love the wide and clear acoustics of this room. One of the best sounding scoring stages in Europe, this room together with a fantastic complement of legendary microphones catapults our work to a new level of orchestral sampling. The quality of a sampled collection begins with the recording. Every Orchestral Tools collection is recorded at 96khz with state of the art equipment. The full editing and post-production process uses these 96khz recordings without downsampling. We very rarely denoise our recordings and never treat them in any other automated way. If tuning is needed, it is done by ear without resorting to tuning algorithms. Only at the very end, right before the samples are mapped into their instruments, the content is converted to 48khz for best use of resources. Our goal is to provide a set of tools that easily adapts to any workflow and creates a coherent sonic representation of the orchestra. The main way we achieved this is by recording every instrument in its orchestral position. All collections come pre-panned and pre-mixed with their respective volumes balanced. If there are multiple types of the same instrument, they are recorded in slightly different positions, yet still in their general section area. The different snare drums in Berlin Percussion, for example, have been recorded slightly spread over the general "snare drum area" within the percussion section. This allows you to have a very wide and full sound when combining multiple instruments. We deliberately choose to also record non-traditional instruments as belonging to a symphonic setup, like electric guitars and a drumset in our Metropolis Ark Series. Modern media scoring introduces a host of new instruments into the established orchestral lineup and we feel these instruments deserve the same care and precision in fitting them into the symphonic sound as their traditional counterparts. All collections feature a number of microphone positions commonly used in orchestral recording. The position of these microphones is identical in every collection, which means that for example the Tree is much nearer to the string section that it is to the percussion section (because the percussion section is situated at the back of the orchestra). This enabled lively acoustics that come pre-mixed for the respective stage position. The choice of mic positions also depends greatly on the instrument. Some instruments, especially in the percussion section, benefit greatly from a M/S position to enable accurately positioning the sound source. Wherever possible, similar instruments use the same mapping scheme so it is usually possible to transfer MIDI data from one instrument to another easily. This is especially important and useful for percussion. 4 Recording and Concept

6 IV THE Series THE Series holds our more special collections that do not fit neatly in any other series. All THE Series collections provide a tool for a certain task. These small and focused collections are created to be there for you when you need them. The following table lists all THE Series Collections currently released - underlined names jump to a description of its content and unique features. You can download a version of this Articulation Guide that applies to all released Collections on our Helpdesk. THE Series The Orchestral Grands 4.1 The Orchestral Grands The Orchestral Grands is our take on grand pianos within the orchestral context and gives you two splendid Steinway pianos plus a special processed piano. Instrumentation and Recording The Orchestral Grands gives you two of the most famous grand pianos in the world: A Steinway B and a Steinway D. These two pianos are designed to cover your piano needs both in the context of solo passages as well as in the context of the orchestra. For more intimate moments, the special Sustaining Grand, produced by a stunning analogue signal chain (Chandler Zener Limiter, A-Design s Hammer EQ, Electrodyn 501 preamps) will enable you to melt hearts at the press of a key (literally!). You have free choice between three microphone positions, Close, Mid and Room, the latter being a splendidly lofty Decca Tree with M50s. These microphone positions are switchable in the GUI. All samples as usual with Orchestral Tools have their natural panning. The Orchestral Grands was recorded at the Teldex Scoring Stage Berlin/Germany with high-end Neumann microphones like the legendary M50 tube microphone. 5 THE Series 2017 Orchestral Tools Schwarzer & Mantik GmbH

7 4.1.1 Instruments The Orchestral Grands features two Steinway Grand Pianos recorded at the Teldex Scoring Stage as well as a post-processed Sustaining Grand. This section briefly explains the contained instrument and points out usage scenarios and expansion options. Steinway B The Steinway B with its brilliant sound cuts right through anything. Use it if you need a piano with a lot of presence that is easily heard. The Steinway B offers full Pedal Control and Pedal Noises and is very suitable for work in all genres. Steinway D A true gem, the Steinway D lives and breathes nobility. With a very smooth sound when playing piano and a well rounded forte, use this grand piano for places where either a soloistic sound is needed, or a classical sound blending well with the orchestra. This piano features 4 round robins for all sustains. The Steinway D features special Staccato samples with six round robins. To use these samples, move the modwheel (CC1) up. Move it down again to play sustain. The staccato mode is great for percussive passages cutting right through a dense orchestration. Sustaining Grand The Sustaining Grand is a special processed piano derived from the main recordings which is reverberated through a Teldex IR.If you cry easily, beware of the Sustaining Grand. This special processed piano will enhance all those bittersweet moments in your scores. Lovers long separated will reunite, the valiant hero, who just once again happened to save the world, lovingly embraces his treasured lady... you get the trick. Just play this piano and marvel at it beautiful tone. And then post in online forums that good old analogue signal chains sound bad. We dare you! Expansion Options: The Orchestral Grands works great with any collection recorded at the Teldex Scoring Stage. 6 THE Series The Orchestral Grands

8 4.1.2 Articulations All Orchestral Tools collections focus on providing a versatile pallet of articulations to help you shape your sound. This section lists all articulations contained in The Orchestral Grands. All The Orchestral Grands Patches have Close, Mid and Room mic positions. As such these positions are not listed in the tables below. Articulations Legend Symbol Name Description R Range The playable range of the instrument. L Layers Lists the number and musical dynamics of velocity layers the instrument uses. T Transition Range The interval range of recorded legato transitions. S Transition Styles If multiple legato styles are present, these are listed here by name V Vibrato Layers The number and type of vibrato layers M Microphone Positions Any special mic positions that deviate from the collection standard. TM Time Machine Denotes a patch that uses TimeMachine for tempo-sync. The Orchestral Grands Articulation Properties Steinway B R: A-1-C7 L: 3 Pedal Control Pedal Noise Steinway D R: A-1-C7 L: 3 Sustained & Staccato Samples Pedal Control Pedal Noise Sustaining Grand R: A-1-C7 L: 3 Pedal Control Teldex IR M: Single Processed Position 7 THE Series The Orchestral Grands 2017 Orchestral Tools Schwarzer & Mantik GmbH