# Berlin strings sample update 2.0



## Hendrik-Schwarzer (Apr 22, 2015)

Hey Everybody,

we're proud to release the Berlin Strings 2.0 update today. 
We improved a lot of things and will introduce a bunch of new features and additional articulations.

*What is new?*

- *A whole new set of Spiccato samples*:
[tab]- 1st Violins Spiccato Exposed[tab]
[tab]- 2nd Violins Spiccato Exposed[tab]
[tab]- Violas Spiccato Exposed[tab]
[tab]- Celli Spiccato Exposed[tab]
[tab]- Basses Spiccato Exposed[tab]

- *New Fingered Legato* for 1st Violins

- BST is now *based on CAPSULE* within Kontakt
[tab]- Apply True Legato to any long notes[tab]
[tab]- Multi Articulation Patches with custom keyswitch maps[tab]
[tab]- Polyphonic Keyswitching[tab]
[tab]- 2D morphing of up to 4 articulations simultaneously[tab]
[tab]- Custom Round Robin Rules[tab]
[tab]- ...[tab]
[tab]More infos on CAPSULE in the Berlin Series CAPSULE update thread[tab]

- *Improved Release Tails* for more consistency

- *Naturally balanced articulations/instruments/mic positions*





Videos and more information regarding CAPSULE can be found in the CAPSULE Update thread: 
http://www.vi-control.net/forum/vie...#3866397&sid=2d89594c2482020240069d0ac2fba48f.

This update is free for all Berlin Strings users. You'll get your own download link soon via e-mail.


All the best,

Hendrik and the whole Orchestral Tools team


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## DocMidi657 (Apr 22, 2015)

Wonderful News!


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## kurtvanzo (Apr 22, 2015)

Wow, the exposed staccato patches are very good, makes the library very tempting and free update to existing users is awesome. I may not have this yet but these factors def make me want to punish my credit cards.


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## EwigWanderer (Apr 22, 2015)

Thank you! o-[][]-o


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## Simon Ravn (Apr 22, 2015)

Awesome. thanks! Cant wait to try this, and CAPSULE! Now, get on with more libraries please! :D


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## Stiltzkin (Apr 22, 2015)

Damn, Hendrik.. You sound tired!

Sounds incredible though, amazing job, may as well throw out my other orchestral samples!


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## Hendrik-Schwarzer (Apr 22, 2015)

@Stiltzkin: Sorry for that. Was a bit late when I made the update screencast :D 



> Awesome. thanks! Cant wait to try this, and CAPSULE! Now, get on with more libraries please! Very Happy



Exactly that is our plan.

Best, Hendrik


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## Rasmus Hartvig (Apr 22, 2015)

Super cool! Can't wait to try this out. Thanks a lot!


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## quantum7 (Apr 22, 2015)

Thanks!!!!


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## feck (Apr 22, 2015)

Awesome, thanks guys! o-[][]-o


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## Mahlon (Apr 22, 2015)

Great news! And thanks, OT. Huge update with CAPSULE, and free. What more could a guy ask for? Cant' wait to try this out.

Mahlon


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## Simon Ravn (Apr 22, 2015)

Those exposed spiccatos are awesome, guys! Will have a nice time re-building the whole BS part of my template, using fewer tracks etc. Thanks again for the update.


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## Sebastianmu (Apr 23, 2015)

Love OT. 
You're doing a great job, gentlemen!


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## Trace (Apr 23, 2015)

Orchestral tools Berlin series are amazing libraries. Their customer service is top notch.

I really wish the brass library was available. I really need a great brass lib, and I know orchestral tools will offer something great!


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## Rob Elliott (Apr 23, 2015)

Great update!!! I am not sure if I want your Brass library or Solo Strings - more. So just put them both out. :wink:


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## Usernamed (Apr 26, 2015)

Dear Hendrik,

Capsule seems profoundly exceptional.

Yet I wonder how does the user maintains upmost realism if let's say he suddenly wants to go from one note to three, four, six melodic voices on Violins 1 & 2 ? Without divisi, wouldn't that triple, quadruple, sextuple the amount of musicians ?

Should he try and compensate by lowering the dynamics when his goal is to sound like a constant number of musicians ?

Or maybe since the number of players per section is reduced, he should consider every section as a sub-section from a larger orchestra, and play polyphonic lines within the same patches (Violins 1 & 2 for constistency of my example  ) but then how to maintain that musician's count when he goes back to unisson without phasing issue and several MIDI tracks ?

The number of melodic voices shifts constantly during my music and I don't know how to take this into account if I purchase the Berlin Strings (compared to LASS' divisi). Could you please share your thoughts on this ?

Thank you so very much!


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## lucor (Apr 26, 2015)

Usernamed @ Sun Apr 26 said:


> Dear Hendrik,
> 
> Capsule seems profoundly exceptional.
> 
> ...



It's definitely a good practice to lower your CC11, when you start playing a polyphonic line to avoid volume buildup and maintaining the balance. Thomas Bergersen also wrote about it in an article and if he says so it's definitely worth considering.  
Here's the link to the article: http://www.samplelogic.com/sequencingsamples.pdf
It's a great read, so be sure to check it out.
Another thing you could try is using the "transposing trick" to create your own divisi sections. I don't know how well it works with Berlin Strings since I don't own it, but it works great with Spitfire's Sable which also uses smaller sections just like Berlin Strings.
Here is a demonstration video how this trick works: https://youtu.be/F6vglSQm08Y?t=1m46s
You'd need to know how BS was recorded (as in which interval) to know how much you have to transpose though. Maybe Hendrik can tell us?


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## Usernamed (Apr 26, 2015)

I trust his answer will be helpful as was yours Lucor : thanks for that informative article and the insight into this aspect of the Sable Library


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## Stiltzkin (Apr 26, 2015)

lucor @ Sun Apr 26 said:


> Usernamed @ Sun Apr 26 said:
> 
> 
> > Dear Hendrik,
> ...



BST was recorded per tone from what I can tell. Rather than going g-g#, a#,c etc, they went g-a-c etc. So the g# is an open string on the violins which you can sort of hear in the samples. You can also check it out in the original lib kontakt options by going into it a bit.


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## Hendrik-Schwarzer (Apr 26, 2015)

Dear Usernamed, one of Berlin String´s strengths is that we captured smaller sections than commonly used. Instead of 12 or 14 first Violins, we recorded just 8 of them. We tried different section sizes to find the perfect balance between the sound of a large string section without to loose the definition. 
Playing more than one voice with a single section with BST sounds very natural. And that relies on our care we put into the sample recordings to keep the definition.
You just should lower the volume (CC7 or CC11) a bit (20% less is convincing with 2 voices e.g.).

To have something like that automatically built into CAPSULE would be nice but is technically impossible as CAPSULE can´t look into the future if you´re going to play DIVISI or not and a delay on lowering the volume would mean that you get artifacts on the note attacks.
So by now we have to do that manually 

*Making bigger section sizes with Berlin Strings*
is pretty easy without the need of complicated halfstep shift tricks. I recommend to just use another expression style of the sustains/legatos. We have a lot of them in the main library.
If you own our Special Bows I / Special Bows II with sul tasto legato you can also use these patches to layer or also for divisi playing. Their slightly different flautando character adds another dimension to your string sound. It´s worth to try it out.

@Stiltzkin: Since the new CAPSULE update the low g and g# sounds different. We fixed that.

Best,
Hendrik


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## Stiltzkin (Apr 26, 2015)

Hendrik-Schwarzer @ Sun Apr 26 said:


> @Stiltzkin: Since the new CAPSULE update the low g and a# sounds different. We fixed that.
> 
> Best,
> Hendrik



Ah then my apologies, nice change! Haven't checked that out yet


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## Usernamed (Apr 26, 2015)

I believe Lass' auto arranger takes by default 25 milliseconds to "predict the future" and assess how many number of notes are simultaneously played ("chord detection") so maybe an outside script could adjust the % of current CC values passing thru every time a new note is played. I'll now ask for Greg's opinion in a Divisi script context 

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtop ... t=#3852894


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## Mahlon (May 1, 2015)

What are the TM patches? Is that short for Time Machine? I see the Time Stretch slider in these so assuming that it's Time Machine. Just couldn't find any info on it.

Thanks,
Mahlon


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## OT_Tobias (May 4, 2015)

Yes, TM stands for TimeMachine. There is actually a section about these patches in the User Guide (inside the Documentation folder).


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## Mahlon (May 6, 2015)

Thanks Tobias; don't know why I missed it. :oops: 

Mahlon


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## mverta (May 9, 2015)

Here is a demo I did of Berlin Strings 2.0. As you may know, I do not do demos to make a library sound good, cherry-picking contexts which are friendly to the library. Instead, I lay them bare - the most challenging contexts, EQ-free, and using straight factory patches. What you hear on my demos is what you'll get out of the box, quickly, when pushed to its limits. I find this approach both sobering and encouraging - you know the library will only sound better given time and consideration. Thanks to Hendrik and Tobias for the sneak peek!

Enjoy.

BERLIN STRINGS 2.0 DEMO

Made purely with Berlin Strings v2.0 default patches, Tree mics only, no EQ. Orchestration is for a large string section, two percussion and piano. Articulations featured for each section: Legato, Sustain, Pizzicato, Spiccato, Playable Runs, and Tremolo.

_Mike

**EDIT: *Since posting, people have asked me if I use the library. The answer is: Yes. BST 2.0 is now my primary string library. Playable, internally consistent, and flexible. It needs finessing in terms of placement and EQ in my opinion, but I've never personally encountered a library that doesn't.*


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## mc_deli (May 10, 2015)

mverta @ Sun May 10 said:


> Here is a demo I did of Berlin Strings 2.0.



Thank you very very very much. Amazing stuff.

The playable runs... are they the same in OSR, if not, how do the playable runs differ from BS2 to OSR?


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## lucor (May 10, 2015)

mverta @ Sun May 10 said:


> Here is a demo I did of Berlin Strings 2.0. As you may know, I do not do demos to make a library sound good, cherry-picking contexts which are friendly to the library. Instead, I lay them bare - the most challenging contexts, EQ-free, and using straight factory patches. What you hear on my demos is what you'll get out of the box, quickly, when pushed to its limits. I find this approach both sobering and encouraging - you know the library will only sound better given time and consideration. Thanks to Hendrik and Tobias for the sneak peek!
> 
> Enjoy.
> 
> ...




Fantastic piece, Mike!
Unfortunately it seems the stereo image is skewed? Sounds almost mono, not sure if something went wrong during the upload. Or is that what you mean by "needs finessing in terms of placement"?
Otherwise sounds very promising, looking forward to someday own the whole Berlin Orchestra. :mrgreen:


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## EwigWanderer (May 10, 2015)

mc_deli @ 10th May 2015 said:


> Thank you very very very much. Amazing stuff.
> 
> The playable runs... are they the same in OSR, if not, how do the playable runs differ from BS2 to OSR?



BST is recorded at Teldex Studios. OSR somewhere else so they sound different. Selection of runs in OSR is better than in BST. I hope OT will update OSR to fit better with BST and maybe add Teldex IR to OSR.


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## mverta (May 10, 2015)

This is my first time using SoundCloud - I uploaded a .wav and it spent a lot of time "converting," perhaps that's what's odd with the stereo. I'll see if it lets me replace the file.

As for runs, playable runs are part of the legato samples, now. It detects your playing speed and automatically handles it. It's very playable and expressive. Playability is just my #1 concern.



Here is a 20-second improv I just did of it "in context." 

BST In Context


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## Mahlon (May 10, 2015)

Nice piece, Mike.

Mahlon


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## JF (May 11, 2015)

Hendrik & team, thank you for this free update. You fellas do tremendous work!

Here is a quick mockup of the beginning of Mahler's 10th symphony with BST 2.0 (strings only). https://soundcloud.com/john-freese/mahl ... 20/s-F54tx


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## Saxer (May 12, 2015)

i'm a bit lost...
where do i find the violins legato like in version 1.6 insinde the 2.0 update?
i mean this best playable tempo and velocity adaptive legato for slow/med/runs with slow/mid/fast attack and romantic etc in one patch... do i have to rebuild that inside capsule or can i just load it somewhere? or just load the 1.6 version? load older patches into capsule? everything looks different and is sooo tiny...


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## OT_Tobias (May 12, 2015)

Hi,
all the single articulation patches are of course still there, but with the new release tails, better legato, etc... So just load the Legato patches as usual.
best
Tobias
OT Support


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## Saxer (May 12, 2015)

aaah, i see... i thought this was a multi-articulation because of it's playing adaptive character.

found it - thanks!


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