How do you setup your orchestra?

hjl

I try to keep only the files for an active project on SSD, and assorted patches and samples stay on a RAID, which has lots of storage and connected via 10G ethernet. Also start out projects with a bare bones ensemble setup to keep things responsive before fleshing things out with a more comprehensive set of samples.

RevivalSoundStudios

I setup my orchestra using Komplete Kontrol in all assistances.

Project Sam is my current main. I then send my Orchestra to 2x sends of cinematic rooms

1st one is stage setting

2nd is hall setting

Johnny555

I use all Native Instruments orchestra tools. But I have 3rd party ones I have bought through native instruments live symphonic destruction. That one is really cool for action and suspense. I also just recently bought Action Woodwinds and I've been enjoying thar plugin. Very organic sounds. I think I will try Schema light and dark next. I'm a beginner so I'm still learning myself. I also like ashlight and hypha, they have some cool sounds.

David Das

It's common for large orchestral templates to take a while to load. You can try being more selective about microphone positions. Or you can play with the preload buffer. Or you can use faster drives. Those are about the only options for speeding up orchestral template loading!

Lowkus

I haven't loaded any big orchestral projects, but I could imagine checking my email or doing other tasks while the libraries are loading. Using your time efficiently should distract from the load times, and if you set a countdown timer you could have it beep you after 20 minutes so you don't forget to return to your music project. As an alternative to dealing with long load times, you could use cheap tiny orchestral libraries that only load a few samples across the entire keyboard, then build your music with those light-weight libraries until you're happy with the piece, then begin refining it with the larger libraries so you only deal with the long load times near the later part of the project.

DGWVJHTH

External SSDs. I'm trying to be as mobile as possible. Most of the time I don't work in a dedicated place, except when mixing or mastering. But for production or composing I just need a computer and a midi controller. Also I almost never use templates. I know its more work to setup everything, but all my projects are different, so most of the time I start from a empty template.

Milos

I see that some of you might have trouble with recording the huge orchestra and exporting it.

I have a solution that is probably a bit generic (sorry in advance) but very effective for composing a huge project and exporting with with lesser amount of problems!

Of course, this is for those people that have ultra realistic midi instruments, which is the reason why they take tons of memory.

Here is how you do it:

1. Record some midi instruments, logicaly...

2. Freeze them when you are finished with them to make an audio signal

3. If you still experience glitching while recording other instruments, simply click the SOLO for the instrument you are recording and also click the SOLO for the track's main theme or melody that the whole orchestra needs to follow.

I do that every time and it felt like a breeze!

Let me know if this tip helps you too!

Feel free to criticise or share your opinion! :)

Have a nice day and God bless you all, people!

nibor

I use a sketching template in Staffpad. This gets me close to where I want to be. Then I bring the score into my daw (studio one) and work on further if need be. I use Musio. I also tend to work with smaller ensembles. And for me working with notation in Staffpad is much more rewarding than using the current norm of using the mother of all templates giant and “playing” into a daw. I’ll be exploring using articulation maps more in the future. I originally was going to use Notion as it’s closely tied to Studio One but Staffpad is just too addicting once you get over the quirky recognition. Oh… I keep my libraries on an external ssd. Seems to work fine.

BFG10K

As for the large orchestra projects I would generally advise freezing tracks that you're sure about and you won't go back to them so you can flatten/bounce them and leave more RAM for more instruments and lessen the struggle for your PC.

I haven't done any orchestral music yet but I can imagine how much work there is to do.

Donkey Oaty

I tend to write using piano and / or cello.

Once I get to the stage that I'm ready to expand further, if it's srings, I'll pull up a strings template from my DAW. There's an order to how the string instrument tracks are laid out - along with colour coding.

I also use Babylon Waves Art Conductor - which has been great at building Kontakt multis and provides for a fairly consistent layout and sound variation ordering.

I try to avoid using limiters in my DAW though I will EQ individual tracks. I use reverb buses - strings on one, brass on another one - but the same room reverb settngs. And I EQ both these buses - to get rid of the low or high reverb I don't want. It aids with cohesiveness and gives the sort of controla conductor would get when plaing musicians on their stage.

Fairly late in the process I'll add Ozone 11 - and let it work it's magic. As a relative noobie, it's been a real boon. It's allowed me to concentrate on writing and not mixing.

I tend not to bounce to audio until late - if at all. Though bigger piece demand it.

WR7654321

Maybe you can try to create a template using Vienna Ensemble Pro.

I don't know if this is really a solution for the initial loading of the samples (although I think I read somewhere that VEPro have faster sample loading times? but I don't quite remember. used microsoft's "copilot" to find answer quickly, attaching a screenshot of the answer it gave me & links in the end of this comment if you want to red for yourself🙂)

Anyway, what this method does help you with is loading times in cases where you need to switch between projects or if cubase crashes and you need to reopen the project. VEPro stores the samples as an external host that you can plug to cubase, so once you start your VEPro session and all the samples are loaded up, it saves you the time of loading all the samples again- because they are already loaded. It's just openning the cubase session with the midi tracks, so even if you have hundreds of them it suppose to take couple of seconds.

I will say that I don't use VEPro yet (don't need it for the time being because my computer is pretty strong), but I intend to buy it and give it a try somehwere in the near future.

Hope that this helps 🙂

screenshot & Links-

1)

Template: VE Pro vs. Enable/Disable Cubase Tracks | VI-CONTROL

2)

Important Notes For Cubase Users | VSL - Software Manuals

3)

[SOLVED] Cubase 10 Super Long Load and Close Times VE PRO 7 | VSL Forum

OlivierCas

I like the free templates from Spitfire audio

Tomás Mulcahy

I generally do small ensembles not full orchestras. The bundled VSL library is good for many things, even still. I was not that impressed with the new Kontakt 7 orchestral library, it's all very reverberant with not enough fast/ strong attack material for my style. I use even older libraries sometimes too, from hardware days with E-mu sampler library. I still use Peter Siedelacek although it is the Kontakt version (which could do with some updating itself!) For colour I use old samples I made years ago from various CDs, these are usually strange sounds like looping trumpets that are great for bringing a bit more life. Lately I have been using the Turkish Ensemble a lot, that is a beautifully designed and very playable and lively instrument, although glides could be more natural sounding IMO. I have been layering that with some of the original Fairlight CMI 3 factory strings. I have Prosonus and Sound Genesis from the Fairlight too, those are still very big sounding even today. Lastly, I often ask my wife to play a real violin line or three over the arrangement, this makes all the difference!

So basically, I mix things together to get a more lively sound.

sofiafile

I use Logic Pro and Komplete 14 Collector's Edition.

I use Cremona Quartet most often among all the libraries there. I love to use this library.

I often use Session Strings Pro, too.

For a big orchestral pieces, I usually combine Symphony Series instruments and some Audiomodeling SWAM solo instruments.

Royal Tee

Raid is unnecessary in 2024... KISS.