OT Articulation Guide - ORCHESTRAL TOOLS · OT Articulation Guide ... We are happy to have found a...

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Articulation Guide

Berlin Percussion - The Timpani

www.orchestraltools.com

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© 2017 Orchestral Tools | Schwarzer & Mantik GmbHRev. 2 017-10-2 5

OT Articulation Guide

CONTENT

I About this Articulation Guide 2

II Introduction 3

III Recording and Concept 4

IV Berlin Series 5

1 Berlin Percussion - The Timpani ..................................................................................... 6

Instruments .............................................................................................................. 7

Articulations ........................................................................................................... 8

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| About this Art iculat ion Guide |


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 thecollections 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 KontaktBPC A | Berlin Percussion - The Timpani 1.1 2.5 Full 5.5.1+

ImportantThis 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.

http://helpdesk.orchestraltools.com/hd_articulation_guides.html

http://helpdesk.orchestraltools.com/hd_documentation.html

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| Introduct ion |


© 2017 Orchestral Tools | Schwarzer & Mantik GmbH

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 Ser ies Overv iew shows you all available Orchestral Tools Series', which group our

collections into broader categories.

- Following this is the respective Ser ies Overv iew 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 Col lect ion Overv iew page, which describes the general

content of the collection as well as its most important features at a glance.

- This is followed by the Inst ruments Section, which lists all instruments (or sections) contained in the

collection with a short description of tone, scope or other pertinent information.

- The Ar t iculat ions Section finally lists all articulations in detail along with all their properties.

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| Recording and Concept |


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.

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| Berlin Series |



IV Berlin Series

The Berlin Series is Orchestral Tools' ongoing journey to harnessing the sound of the Teldex Scoring stage

in an all-purpose orchestral sample collection.

Every major section of the orchestra is represented by one Main Collection, which contains all essentials

instruments and articulations and forms the backbone of any symphonic piece. These collections are

expanded and continued by special expansion collections, which add additional instruments or playing

techniques.

The following table lists all Berlin 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.

When you load any Berlin Series patch inside Kontakt, the instrument slot will show an icon representing the

orchestral section as shown below.

Berlin Orchestra Inspire Berlin Orchestra Inspire

Berlin Woodwinds Berlin Brass Berlin Percussion Berlin Strings

Main Collection Main Collection Main Collection Main Collection

Additional Instruments Additional Instruments The Timpani Special Bows I

Soloists I Muted Brass Special Bows II

Soloists II Horn SFX First Chairs

SFX SFX

http://helpdesk.orchestraltools.com/

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| Berlin Series | Berlin Percussion - The Timpani


4.1 Berlin Percussion - The Timpani

Berlin Percussion forms the backbone of your percussion parts and Berlin Percussion - The Timpani adds

one of the most expressive instruments to the mix: The Concert Timpani. We went out and sampled this

wonderful instrument with five different mallets, seperate left and right hand samples and full control over

rolls and hits. Topped with an assortment of tempo-synced repetition patches and effects, Berlin Percussion

- The Timpani will serve you well on all your compositions.

Instrumentation and Recording

Berlin Percussion - The Timpani contains multisampled concert timpani with a

choice of five mallets, which are divided into patches containing a single

articulation as well as a multi articulation patch. You will find all of these

patches inside the Instruments folder. The collection contains the following

mallets, as they appear in your instruments folder:

01. Normal

02. Soft

03. Hard

04. Impact

05. Baroque

On all Single Hits patches, we have recorded both regular samples as well

as damped samples. The TrueDamping feature allows you to create realistic

percussion lines.

It is also possible to switch between recorded velocity layers instead of morphing between them, harnessing

the power of having a multitude of recorded layers and avoiding phasing.

You have free choice between four microphone positions, Close, Tree, Surround and A/B.

These microphone positions are switchable in the GUI and can be controlled via MIDI CC. Additionally, all

core articulations have been recorded with multiple velocity layers for realistic dynamics.

All samples have their natural panning.

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4.1.1 Instruments

Berlin Percussion - The Timpani expands Berlin Percussion with a set of deep-sampled concert timpani

played with various mallets.

This section briefly explains the individual instruments and points out usage scenarios and expansion

options.

Timpani

Berlin Percussion - The Timpani is adapted from our renowned "THE Timpani" and provides multisamples

concert timpani with several mallets, True Damping and the lovely tone you are used to from Teldex.

E x p a n s i o n O p t i o n s :

If you want more glorious orchestral percussion recorded at the Teldex Stage, Berlin Percussion is the way

to go with a large complement of deep-sampled percussion instruments!

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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 Berlin Percussion - The Timpani.

All Berlin Percussion - The Timpani Patches have Close, Tree, AB and Surround microphone 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.

+ TimeMachine Patches

All patches marked with a "+" (plus sign) also exist as a TimeMachine patch. These patches allow you to

adjust the length of the sample to your liking. For more Information refer to the User Guide.

Timpani

Articulation Properties

Timpani Multi R: C2-B5 (Left Hand: C2-B3, Right Hand, C4-B5)

Normal Mallets


01. Timpani Normal Single Hits R: C2-B5 | L: 7 (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, fff) | RR: 5

02. Timpani Normal Rolls Short R: C2-B3 | L: 4 (pp, p, mf, ff) | +

03. Timpani Normal Rolls Long R: C2-B3 | L: 4 (pp, p, mf, ff) | +

04. Timpani Normal Forte-Piano R: C2-B3 | L: 2 (p, ff) | +

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