BST Manual

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Manual Version 1.0 www.orchestraltools.com The Berlin Woodwinds | Brass | Percussion | Strings | Various Series

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Transcript of BST Manual

  • M a n u a lV e r s i o n 1 . 0

    w w w . o r c h e s t r a l t o o l s . c o m

    The Berlin Woodwinds | Brass | Percussion | Strings | Various Series

  • About Berlin StringsWhen we first recorded at the Teldex Scoring Stage we had no idea of the impact this would have on the way we approach sampling - and on our product range. Berlin Strings not only raised the bar for woodwind sampling, but also made us fully realise the incredible room it was recorded in. A bunch of libraries and recordings later, the idea of The Berlin Series was born. A full orchestral library in unparalleled depth recorded at Teldex. We proudly present the next full volume in this series. Berlin Strings aims to be your go-to string library, bringing the sound of the Teldex Scoring stage to your string parts.

    The string section is unmatched in its expressiveness and versatility. To make intricate arrangements possible with all the sonic possibilities of the instruments, we went to great lengths to our knowledge unparalleled in orchestral sampling so far. BST sports a huge array of short articulations with sometimes more than 20 RRs, deep-sampled legato with an innovative script adjusting to your playing and of course a large complement of pre-recorded runs. All runs are compatible with BST, so you can play woodwind/string runs in perfect sync. We also again included Playable Runs patches which allow you to play custom runs.

    Soaring strings need a place to do their soaring. We are very happy to once again having had the chance to return to the Teldex stage in Berlin/ Germany. The large recording stage 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 makes Berlin Strings a realization of a long standing dream.

    A big thank you to all of our customers! Only the huge success of our product range through your loyalty make it possible to embark on creating The Berlin Series. Your continued support enables us to keep exploring our dreams of innovative sampled instruments! Stay tuned for new volumes of The Berlin Orchestra.

    All the best wishes!

    The whole OrchestralTools team

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    Berlin Strings 1.0 - Manual 2

  • CreditsProduced by OrchestralTools.com

    Schwarzer & Mantik GbR

    Created and Produced by

    Manfred Mantik, Hendrik Schwarzer

    Concept, Scripting and Mapping

    Hendrik Schwarzer

    Mixing / Mastering

    Manfred Mantik

    Editing

    Manfred MantikJan Lepold

    Gernot LangePeter Ulrich

    Daniel WilhelmSebastian ZangarAlexander KetelDennis Schuster

    Quality Assurance

    Jan Lepold

    Tuning

    Fernando Aguila GarciaTobias Escher

    Manfred MantikGabriel Gudenus

    Lukas KnblWolfgang Liebig

    Manual

    Tobias Escher

    Conductor

    Bernhard Fabuljan

    Recording Engineer

    Tom Rubueldt

    Recorded at Teldex Berlin

    Thanks to all our beta testers!

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    Berlin Strings 1.0 - Manual 3

  • BST 101Instrumentation and Recording

    Berlin Strings contains all five orchestral string sections, which are divided into patches containing a single articulation. You will find all of these patches inside the Instruments folder. The library contains the following sections, as they appear in your instruments folder:

    01. Violins I02. Violins II03. Violas04. Violoncellos05. Basses

    All playable articulations are listed in the articulations chart, available in the Documentation folder.

    The Violins II section is played by different musicians on different instruments, and does not reuse any existing samples.

    You have free choice between four microphone positions, Close, Tree and Surround, as well as an A/B setup. All Violins I patches have a special Concertmaster position which you can dial in to your taste to add presence.These microphone positions are switchable in the GUI. Additionally, all core articulations have been recorded with multiple velocity layers for realistic dynamics.All samples have their natural panning.

    BST was recorded at the Teldex Scoring Stage Berlin/Germany with high-end Neumann microphones like the legendary M50 tube microphone.

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  • Tempo-synchronisation and NIs Time Machine

    All pre-recorded runs and figures are synchronized to your host tempo. This marks the next step in flexibility in professional sampling. For Berlin Strings, we recorded all tempo-synced runs and figures at different tempos, with the script of the instrument deciding in realtime upon the sample to use. The chosen sample is then stretched to your host tempo by means of Time Machine 2 (Close and Room microphone positions) and Time Machine Pro (Mix).

    Note that when using extreme tempos not playable by real musicians, you will hear artifacts and the playback will not be clear. If you use the auto tempo mode in BST the script will default to half tempo. A 16th run at 200 bpm is not actually playable in reality - there is no recorded sample for this tempo range. The script would then stretch the fastest available sample too heavily, resulting in a bad sound. The auto tempo feature will play the run at half your hosts tempo and the result will sound much nicer. Be mindful of your tempo when writing with runs. Not every run is compatible with every tempo. If you use the patches in their natural tempo range, meaning: at a speed actually playable by real strings, you will get the best results.

    Runs

    To make Berlin Strings seamlessly integrate with our own Orchestral String Runs and Berlin Strings, the complement of Scale Runs is identical to the complement present in OSR. This allows you to play runs from both libraries at the same time without timing issues or note collisions. You can easily double a string run with a flute section - all notes will sound perfectly together.

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  • Blending With Other Libraries

    We have spent considerable energy on making Berlin Strings fit into your existing workflow and make it work together effortlessly with other libraries you are using.

    1. The right reverb

    You can control the amount of room information with the four adjustable microphone positions in Berlin Strings interface.More Room = more softness, wideness; More mid = more presence and character; more Close = more detail.Using the Close position solely allows you to shape the sound even further by using your own reverb - at the expense of loosing the natural sound of the Teldex stage.

    In general we suggest the use of an unobtrusive final reverb on top of the samples to blend everything nicely together in a coherent space and to allow for spatial positioning of instruments within the mix (or, in plain words: to move instruments further back or to the front in the mix).

    2. Volume Control via Kontakt

    We have chosen to not normalise the audio samples used in Berlin Strings. This means that all samples are at their natural volume, making some instrument ranges much quieter than you may find in other libraries. This is intentional to give you the full dynamic spectrum. If you want to raise the overall volume of BSTs patches, you can either raise the volume of individual patches or raise Kontakts master volume slider:

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  • 3. Volume Range Dial

    Dynamics is what makes an orchestra sound good. And incidentally, it is also what makes many mockups sound bad. A piano can be really quiet and a forte can be really loud, not something in-between. Because there is a fixed amount of velocity layers in any sample library, it can happen that a real musician could play that piano part much quieter than your samples do. On the other hand, having the quietest samples at too low a volume can make a library hard to use. We thought about this and have a solution: The volume range dial allows you to set the overall volume range of your instruments between the lowest and the highest velocity.

    Move the dial all to the left and you will have the original dynamics as recorded. Move it to the far right and the lowest velocities will be very quiet while the highest velocities will be pretty loud, giving your the full possible dynamic range. By default, this dial is set to give you some nice dynamic range compared the raw samples while at the same time not leaving you with almost inaudible low velocities. Experiment with this setting and use it in your templates to bring out the full dynamic range of your orchestrations! The volume range feature allows you to blend BST with your other string libraries with ease.

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  • MIDI CCs used by Berlin Strings

    We have taken great care to not clash with your existing MIDI CC allocations for Berlin Strings. Most CCs used by the library are standard and should work well with your current setup. Nevertheless, BSTs scripts internally use a number of additional CCs, which are also available to you as a user in case you want to adjust settings. Most CCs are user-assignable, so you can change them if you like.

    Here is a list of all CCs used by default and their use:

    CC 1The modwheel controls morphing through the velocity layers if the X-Fade mode is activated on the BST knob. You can change this CC (right-click).

    CC 11All patches have CC 11 (Expression) set to control the general patch volume.

    CC 3This CC controls the vibrato mode (select patches only). This CC is user-assignable.

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  • GUI OverviewArticulation Patches vs Legato and Trills Orchestrator

    BST has four general types of patches with some differences in their GUI: 1. Articulation Patches2. Legato Patches3. Trills Orchestrator4. Runs

    These patch types use a similar interface, but have a number of controls unique to specific patches. This section will describe the common GUI features of these patches in detail, while additional sections dedicated to the two patch types will show you what makes them unique.

    General GUI

    This sections shows you the user interface of the articulation. This is how these patches look like, with all interface elements labeled:

    1. Vibrato Style

    2. Concertmaster Mic (Violins I only)

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  • 4. BST Knob

    5. Volume Range knob

    6. Release Samples control

    7. Bow Noise control (select patches)

    8. Volume Curve

    9. Velocity Layers

    10. Con Sordino

    Microphone Positions

    All patches in Berlin Strings have four adjustable microphone positions (plus the Concertmaster for Violins I). You will find rotary encoders with on/off buttons for all positions at the bottom of each patch:

    If you switch off a position, its samples will be purged from memory. Conversely, as soon as you switch a position on, the samples will be loaded.

    CloseIncrease the amount of the Close knob if you want to have a more direct sound with less response of the room. Raising the volume of the Close mics will also increase the playing noises made by the musicians, providing added realism for intimate settings.

    TreeThe Tree microphones provide a balance between Close and Surround. Use them to add presence to the sound by allowing some room response on, while still keeping the sound relatively controlled.

    SurroundIncrease the amount of the Surround knob if you want to have as much room information as possible. The reverb will increase while the direct sound decreases.

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  • A/BThe A/B position features a wide stereo image and is of great use as a supporting microphone

    Concertmaster (Violins I only)The Violins I have a special concertmaster microphone, which lets you add the concertmaster (1st violinist) prominently.

    Note: You do not need to think about adjusting the mic positions if you do not want to! When you load any instrument into Kontakt, the microphone knobs will be set to well- balanced standard positions.

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  • BST Knob

    The BST knob is a key component of using the library. It allows you to select one of two ways to control the velocity of played notes:

    1) Velocity (how hard you press the keys on your MIDI keyboard)2) X-Fade (lets you control the volume via the modwheel)

    Legato and sustained articulations are hardwired to X-Fade (modwheel). Portato uses X-Fade. Staccato and Staccato Short use Velocity by default because they are much more easily playable this way.

    You can re-assign the CC used for the X-Fade setting by right-clicking on the BST knob and assigning a new CC by moving your corresponding fader/encoder or whatever input source you are using.

    In the lower third of the BST know, the current velocity layer is displayed. As you morph through the layers, this value will change to reflect the active layer. If no text is visible, you are in the middle of two layers. Note that this display represents the actual recorded samples. So if you have p / mf / f in the display, that not only tells you that there are three actual layers per note, but also which one is currently active. This is a huge help when creating realistic mockups because you are told by BST that right now those violas are playing mf. When the display says mf, what you are hearing is the actual sound of the violas playing mf, not just a random sample lowered or raised in volume!

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  • Release Samples

    Most patches in Berlin Strings have release samples, which will be triggered when you release a key. This even includes Staccato and Portato Long patches! Release samples are switched on by default. You can switch them on or off by pressing the Release Samples button. The button lights up when release samples are active.

    With the Release Volume knob you can control the volume of the release samples that get triggered when you release a key. Increase the value of the knob if you want to increase the volume of the release samples, decrease the value and the volume of the release samples will decrease.

    Bow Noise

    All short notes patches as well as sustains have an option to add bow noise to the samples. Click the bow noise button to activate this feature and use the knob to dial in the amount of bow noise you want to hear.

    Volume Curve and Range

    You can adjust the volume curve of a patch directly in the BST interface: Clicking on the Vol Curve button opens a bar chart where you can set your desired velocity curve by clicking and dragging in the chart window. Note that this setting is only applied to this particular instance of the patch, so if you want to permanently change the volume curve you need to re-save the patch. The volume curve also affects the X-Fade mode using the modwheel. This means that you can fine-tune the behaviour of the modwheel to allow for unique dynamic control, for example for creating terraced dynamics.

    The Volume Range encoder sets the dynamic range of the patch. You can find a detailed description of what this control does in the section Blending With Other Libraries.

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  • Con Sordino

    We integrated a sophosticated Con Sordino simulation in to Berlin Strings. The CS button switches the sordino effect on and off. You can assign it to any CC by right-clicking.

    Velocity Layer

    To free up system resources you can choose which velocity layers of any instrument will be loaded. This also helps counter phasing issues as well as allows you to just play with a single layer if your piece requires it.

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  • Articulation PatchesBerlin Strings has a broad range of articulations across the whole string section. While all of these patches use the general interface described in the previous section, some have additional features accessible in the GUI, which will be explained here.

    Dynamics

    The dynamics patch provides you with a vast complement of pre-recorded dynamic notes. The different lengths and dynamics are controlled by a series of keyswitches. For all one way dynamics (i.e. p to mf), low velocities will trigger decrescendos, while higher velocities trigger a crescendo.

    The currently selected dynamic is displayed in the instrument interface.

    Click the button below to view and change the keyswitch assignments.

    Repetitions

    BST features recorded 16th note and triplets repetitions. These have been recorded at multiple tempos and are played in perfect sync to your host tempo by the script. By default, the script conforms to the host tempo. If you want to adjust the tempo yourself, set the tempo switch to manual and use the BPM knob to set the tempo.______________________________________________________________________________________

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  • Sustains with Vibrato

    Most Sustain patches as well as the Playable Runs have multiple vibrato levels. Depending on the patch, you have Romantic Vibrato, without Vibrato and Strong Vibrato. Use the vibrato toggles to switch between the different vibrato types.

    By default, CC3 is assigned to the vibrato styles. You can reassign this to any CC you wish by changing the value in the CC box.

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  • Legato PatchesBerlin Strings has true legato (interval sampling) for all sections. To achieve the highest level of realism and detail, we have recorded every interval up to an octave. That means you will hear the natural transitions from one note to another. Every true legato patch is sampled with three dynamic crossfade layers. For Berlin Strings, we improved and vastly expanded the Adaptive Legato technology introduced in Berlin Woodwinds Expansion B - Soloists. While you play, the instrument analyses your playing style and adjusts the transitions automatically

    Graphical User Interface (GUI)

    A lot of the core interface elements in the legato patches look and feel the same as in the other articulation patches, but there are some differences. This is how a legato patch looks, with individual controls numbered and explained in the following section:

    Legato Styles

    The Adaptive Legato will react to your playing and choose the correct style automatically. You can see which style is currently used in the Style view left to the BST knob. Use the solo buttons left of the style panels to force the script to use this particulat style.______________________________________________________________________________________

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  • Vibrato

    By default, CC3 switches between romantic vibrato, no vibrato and strong vibrato. These three vibrato styles use dedicated recorded samples and have not been created by manipulating existing audio material. You can see which vibrato style is active by looking at the interface. The highlighted button shows the currently selected style:

    If you would like to use a different CC to control the vibrato style, double-click on the CC number and enter a new one. Make sure not to use any CC already in use.

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  • Trills Orchestrator PatchesOne of the most powerful tools in Berlin Strings is the ergonomically playable Trills Orchestrator. We say ergonomic because you do not need any keyswitches to change between different trills, you just play them. Depending on the instrument, you can play looped trills up to a fifth, one-shot semitone and wholetone trills (just one single trill) as well as identical sfz trills. Our custom script manages the biggest collection of different trills and interval tremolos ever created and it is a huge time-saver! Choose the interval to be trilled between by just pressing the starting and final notes.

    Read more about the use and features of the Trills Orchestrator on the following pages.

    Graphical User Interface (GUI)

    At the right of the GUI you see a helpful tool for your orchestrations: The notation view, a huge timesaver if you want to notate trills in your written scores. It shows you every trill you are playing, regardless of the number of notes you play. Just like in all other instruments, there are three knobs and buttons for the microphone positions: Room, Close and Mix, as well as a knob for the Release Volume. Last but not least, every Trills Orchestrator has a Mode Change Function.

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  • How to play the Trills Orchestrator

    We were looking for a way to make this instrument easily playable.After testing a few options we discovered rolling up the chords is the best and easiest way to play trills without using keyswitches. All you have to do is press a starting note and then the final note of your trill and the Trills Orchestrator will trill between these notes.The Orchestrator allows you to trill between more than just two notes; flickering chords are possible and easy to play. Just roll off the whole chord and the Trills Orchestrator will trill between the notes you are playing. You can trill between up to 20 notes, the problem is that you will not have enough fingers to do that ;-)

    NoteThe starting note must always be lower than the final note. While you are playing, the delay between the start note and the end note can be very short, you can roll up the chords very quickly. But it is important to always roll them up; pressing two or more keys at exactly the same time will not work.

    The Mode Change Function

    Every Trills Orchestrator can run in two different modes:

    End Tone = Start Tone

    In this mode every final note is automatically a new starting note if you press more than two keys. For example: When you trill between C and D, the C is your starting note and the D is your final note. Now you can use the D as another starting note. Just press any other key, an E for example. Now the Orchestrator trills between C and D and also between D and E. So the D is automatically a final note as well as a starting note.

    Start Tone = Always New

    In contrast to the other mode, in this mode you cannot trill between odd numbers of notes like 3, 5 or 7 for example. Why? Because you cannot use the final note of a trill as a new starting note.With the example before: You trill between C and D. If you press E now, the E is your new starting note. The Orchestrator then waits for an additional note. Now you need to press one more note, lets say an F. The Orchestrator then trills between C and D, and between E and F, but not between D and E.______________________________________________________________________________________

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  • Note

    Just find out which mode is good for your current needs and choose accordingly: If you want to play flickering chords for example, choose the End Tone = Start Tone mode. If you want to play two different trills, each between two notes, you should choose the Start Tone = Always New mode.

    Tip

    You can blend the sfz trills perfectly with the irregular trills to achieve a sharp attack at the beginning of a long sustained trill.

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  • RunsBerlin Strings puts a strong emphasis on idiomatic string writing. No one will argue that runs are an important part of what a string section tends to do, so we felt we really needed to nail that bit. For this reason, you get a large complement of runs to choose from in the Scale Runs patches and you can play your own runs with the help of the Runs Transitions patch. Orchestral String Runs was our first commercial library and we tried out many things to come up with the best sounding and most flexible solution. With the experience gained in creating OSR and OSR2 and the feedback received from of our customers, who sent us e-mails with ideas and suggestions, we improved the algorithms for the runs patches dramatically over the course of many updates. Now we can all use the best of it in Berlin Strings.

    Scale Runs

    The Scale Runs patches contain full recorded runs in all major and minor keys. All runs have been recorded at different speeds and are tempo-synced to your host. Please refer to the included Scale Runs Chart for information about the different types of runs available.

    Scale Runs patches have a toggle that lets you switch between upward and downwards runs. You can assign this toggle to a MIDI CC by right- clicking on it to control it from within your sequencer.

    C0 to B0 on your MIDI keyboard act as keyswitches to switch between keys.

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  • The tempo mode slider with the auto tempo button is controllable via an assignable MIDI CC (right click - by now you should know this by heart) and lets you adjust playback of the samples between half tempo, double tempo and regular tempo as well as half triplets and double triplets. The current selection is shown below the slider. As an example, if you have a host tempo of 200bpm, a 16th run would be way too fast.Change the setting to half tempo and the run will essentially play as an 8th run.If you have the auto tempo button switched on, BST will adjust this slider automatically to find the ideal solution. To control the slider manually, switch off the auto tempo button.

    All Scale Runs use NIs Time Machine Pro to sync to your host tempo, regardless of the mic position(s) used. This means unrivalled fidelity and complete freedom in choosing your tempo.

    Runs Transitions Patches

    The Runs Transitions patches (also called Playable Runs, because that is essentially what these patches allow you to do) are based on the same technology that powers legato instruments and use very fast legato transitions between notes. They are available for both solo instruments and ensembles. We have sampled transitions between notes up to the interval of a fifth, so you can play runs leaving gaps between notes if you want. Now it is finally possible to play completely unique runs on a MIDI keyboard and hear the glue in between individual notes. Just play your run and BST will do the rest!

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