OT Articulation Guide - Orchestral Tools · Articulation names, ... lowest end of the Contrabass...

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Articulation Guide

Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments

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 Brass - Additional Instruments ............................................................................. 6

Instruments .............................................................................................................. 8

Articulations ........................................................................................................... 9

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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 KontaktBBR A | Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments 1.0 2.5.2 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 Brass - Addit ional Instruments


4.1 Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments

Berlin Brass brought the Berlin Series full circle by bringing symphonic brass directly to your projects. Now

the brass line-up is expanded with four new solo instruments in Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments,

extending the existing complement while maintaining consistency is use and articulation depth.

Extending the Best.

With Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments, we present the second complement to our Berlin Brass Main

Collection.

Have full control over four new inspirational and extraordinary brass instruments:

New possibilities of expression.

Combined with Berlin Brass Main or on its own – these solo instruments extend your brass paintbox from the

lowest end of the Contrabass Trombone to the highest range of the Piccolo Trumpet. No matter if you write

high and festive solo lines or ultra low pads - the Additional Instruments are your new tool to realize

strikingly different brass arrangements.

Uncompromising recording techniques in the Telex Scoring Stage combined with the best orchestral

musicians of Berlin shaped the surpassing sound of the Berlin Series.

No wonder that the Additional Instruments received the same treatment.

An incomparable balanced, flexible and premium sound is the result.

Instrumentation and Recording

Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments contains four instruments, which are divided into patches containing a

single articulation as well as multi articulation patches. You will find all of these patches inside the

Instruments folder. The collection contains the following instruments, as they appear in your instruments

folder:

15. Piccolo Trumpet

16. Bass Trumpet

17. Euphonium

18. Contrabass Trombone

Note that the instrument numbering continues the sequence from the Berlin

Brass Main Collection.

This structure is identical for Single Articulation, Multi Articulation and Time

Machine-enabled patches.

All instruments within a section are different instruments played by different

musicians, not just additional recording passes.

You have free choice between six microphone positions, Close I and II, ORTF,

AB, Tree and Surround.

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.

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All samples have their natural panning.

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4.1.1 Instruments

Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments expands your brass section with four additional instruments.

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

options.

Piccolo Trumpet

Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments adds a Piccolo Trumpet with all essential articulations including full

legato, immediate and soft sustains, as well as repetitions, crescendos and even Playable Runs.

Bass Trumpet

The Bass Trumpet extends the trumpet line-up towards the low end with identical articulations to the Piccolo

Trumpets sans the Playable Runs.

Euphonium

The Euphonium comes with 3 velocity layers for essential articulations, making this versatile instrument an

integral part of the Berlin Brass line-up.

Contrabass Trombone

Much requested, the Contrabass Trombone brings low-end agility with essential articulations.

N o t a b l e A r t i c u l a t i o n s :

Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments features a number of unique articulations in addition to the regular

staples. These include:

- Tempo-synced 16th and Triplets repetitions

- Several dynamics, including crescendi and swells

- Playable Runs for Piccolo Trumpet

Most articulations are also available as Time Machine patches, which allow you to adjust the sample

length dynamically.

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

Berlin Brass - Additional Instruments of course fits splendidly with the brass staples from Berlin Brass and

Berlin Brass - Muted Brass bringing various mutes to the brass line-up, as well as Berlin Brass - French

Horn SFX, with four additional French Horns recorded both separately and individually with a host of highly

controllable effects.

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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 Strings - Special Bows I.

All Berlin Strings - Special Bows I Patches have Close I and II, ORTF, 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.

About Instrument Ranges:

The ranges given below are recorded note ranges. You can stretch or limit the playable range for every

articulation within the UI.

Piccolo Trumpet

Articulation Properties

01. Piccolo Trumpet LegatoR: D3-Eb5 | L: 2 (mp, ff) | T: 1st-8th | V: Without,

Romantic

02. Piccolo Trumpet Sustains Imm R: D3-Eb5 | L: 2 (mp, ff) | V: Without, Romantic

03. Piccolo Trumpet Sustains Soft R: D3-Eb5 | L: 2 (mp, ff) | V: Without, Romantic

04. Piccolo Trumpet Staccatissimo R: D3-Eb5 | L: 2 (mp, ff) | RR: 6 | +

OT Articulation Guide - Orchestral Tools · Articulation names, ... lowest end of the Contrabass...

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Transcript of OT Articulation Guide - Orchestral Tools · Articulation names, ... lowest end of the Contrabass...