# Something wet with the Bernard Herrmann library



## Ben E (Sep 13, 2017)

I still haven’t used the Spitfire Herrmann library for what it’s supposed to be used for. Instead I used the orchestral “chords” patches (which are beautiful) and the harps/celeste to help create this lush Busby Berkeley/Esther Williams kind of thing for fun. Most everything else is Spitfire as well (except the voices.) The Herrmann stuff mixes well with it.

http://beneshbach.com/resources/music/music/Great%20Suburban%20Barbecue_L.mp3


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## ctsai89 (Sep 13, 2017)

Ben E said:


> I still haven’t used the Spitfire Herrmann library for what it’s supposed to be used for. Instead I used the orchestral “chords” patches (which are beautiful) and the harps/celeste to help create this lush Busby Berkeley/Esther Williams kind of thing for fun. Most everything else is Spitfire as well (except the voices.) The Herrmann stuff mixes well with it.
> 
> http://beneshbach.com/resources/music/music/Great%20Suburban%20Barbecue_L.mp3 (http://beneshbach.com/resources/music/music/Great Suburban Barbecue_L.mp3)



beautiful! dreamy! Realistic. This is the kind of stuff I don't hear at all these days... Nostalgia! I hope you have a soundcloud linke for me to follow! can't miss any of your releases in the future.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Sep 13, 2017)

Really nailed it. Thanks for sharing!


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## rottoy (Sep 13, 2017)

Wonderful stuff!


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## gregh (Sep 13, 2017)

incredibly well done, definite poolside visions, though maybe more Hail Caesar! and Scarlett Johansson


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## artomatic (Sep 14, 2017)

I hate it... because now I want to buy BHCT! I truly love this! It made me smile. Would love to hear some more. Fantastic job. Thanks for sharing!


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## madfloyd (Sep 27, 2017)

Wow, fantastic!


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## MaxOctane (Sep 28, 2017)

Love it. Can you share more about the orchestration, libs+patches used, etc?


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## madfloyd (Sep 28, 2017)

MaxOctane said:


> Love it. Can you share more about the orchestration, libs+patches used, etc?



+1 
I would be interested in this too!


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## Ben E (Sep 28, 2017)

MaxOctane said:


> Love it. Can you share more about the orchestration, libs+patches used, etc?



Thank you guys for listening!

Woods: The flutes are all Berlin - longs, legatos, trills. For the rest I used Albion 1 (the legacy thing) this way: One track called “Woods Short” where I load both the high and low short woodwinds into the same instance of Kontakt, and another track where I do the same with “Woods Long.” The Albion 1 woodwinds are so beautiful for this — less “quacky” than Albion One. 

Brass: SSB horns a2 legato, a2 long, bones a2 legato, Albion 1 (not ONE) brass mid short and Albion One (not 1) brass low long. The brass patches in these Albions have to be combined because one of them (I can’t remember which) is recorded in octaves but not consistently across the whole brass range.

Strings: The beautiful Albion One Strings Octave Legato (one of my favorites), SSS Ensemble trems, flautando (another favorite), minor and major 2nd trills, high runs. Then sections V1, V2, VA and VC legato. Then sections V1, V2, and VC pizzicato. Harp is both the regular Spitfire Harp and the BHCT Harp/Vibraphone, heavy on the regular harp, BHCT harp for when the harp is playing a melody.

Percussion: The Spitfire Joby Burgess thing. Vibes, Glock, Timp. The cymbals are Albion 1 — which I’ve always found easier to work with than the cymbals in Spitfire Percussion.

Bernard Herrmann: Chords Minor, Chords Other and TWO tracks of Chords Major. The reason for two tracks: the chord patches in BHCT _swell_. If you don’t want them to swell you must use expression automation to reduce the volume inversely to the volume of the recorded swell. If you have two major chords in succession this won’t work on a single track for obvious reasons, so two tracks solves everything. In wet libraries this sort of thing doesn’t work so nice because as you use expression to compete with a wet swell the instruments stay the same volume but the reverb swells bigger. The BHCT is relatively dry so you can do this without too much consequence.

Also, the BHCT chords patches are designed so that when the modwheel is down the chords “shimmer” — woods are trilling, strings tremming or trilling etc. It’s gorgeous. As the modwheel comes up the orchestra plays straight. Almost all of this piece was recorded in modwheel down mode. Fiddling with these chord patches is what inspired the piece, both compositionally and its orchestration.

Choir: The choir is a combination of 8Dio Boys Choir and Omnisphere Choir Full Swell Ohs. *I really wish that someone made a choir library that had legato patches of gently sung, nostalgic sounding “ahs” etc. non-operatic…much like what I had to hobble together here. No latin “Domine Klaatu Barada Nikto!” nonsense. If anyone knows of such a library please advise! (Think old Disney or Lassie movies.)*

There’s also a couple tracks of Omnisphere “Granular Humming” to fill out the sound in some places.

59 tracks all together, but some with only single notes.

Is this what you meant?


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## C-Wave (Sep 28, 2017)

+1 , what is the choir?
Edit : Oops! You beat me to it..


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## MaxOctane (Sep 28, 2017)

Ben E said:


> Thank you guys for listening!
> 
> Woods: The flutes are all Berlin...



Damn that was an awesome writeup. Thank you!! 

And LOL at "*Domine Klaatu Barada Nikto*"


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## synthpunk (Sep 28, 2017)

very nice. 
If your ever in NYC or Orlando hit me up. I would love to take a arranging class with you.


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## madfloyd (Sep 29, 2017)

Thanks for the detailed writeup. Wow, you know your way around sample libraries and how to use them!

Albion 1 vs Albion One. If that isn't a great way for Spitfire to confuse people.... lol


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## dannymc (Sep 30, 2017)

wow this is amazing stuff. thanks for posting 

Danny


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## thov72 (Sep 30, 2017)

maybe try realitone the ladies stacked as a small choir for the non vib aaah legato
forgot to mention : I love your work! sounds so real.


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## Darren Durann (Sep 30, 2017)

Ben E said:


> I still haven’t used the Spitfire Herrmann library for what it’s supposed to be used for. Instead I used the orchestral “chords” patches (which are beautiful) and the harps/celeste to help create this lush Busby Berkeley/Esther Williams kind of thing for fun. Most everything else is Spitfire as well (except the voices.) The Herrmann stuff mixes well with it.
> 
> http://beneshbach.com/resources/music/music/Great%20Suburban%20Barbecue_L.mp3 (http://beneshbach.com/resources/music/music/Great Suburban Barbecue_L.mp3)



*Really like! *I'm a total sucker for this kind of stuff.


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## Orchestrata (Sep 30, 2017)

Absolutely gorgeous, totally refreshing. Bravo!


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## Architekton (Sep 30, 2017)

Excellent work, I am impressed!


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## Ben E (Sep 30, 2017)

thov72 said:


> maybe try realitone the ladies stacked as a small choir for the non vib aaah legato
> forgot to mention : I love your work! sounds so real.


Hmm. I didn't think of that. I've only ever used Realivox for solo stuff. But I just stacked them and it sounds pretty good! Thank you for this!


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## The Darris (Sep 30, 2017)

Check out Strezov Sampling's Freyja choir. The legatos are amazing and there are different legato lengths. The soft dynamics gorgeous. 

Great peice by the way.


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## Ben E (Sep 30, 2017)

The Darris said:


> Check out Strezov Sampling's Freyja choir. The legatos are amazing and there are different legato lengths. The soft dynamics gorgeous.
> 
> Great peice by the way.


Wow. That is pretty much what I'm looking for. Thanks!


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## Celestial Aeon (Sep 30, 2017)

Absolutely beautiful! <3 Regarding choir, one possible option might be 8Dio Insolidus if I understood correctly what you are looking for


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