So how do you make and orchestral sample library sound real and authentic? Today’s MIDI, DAW, plug-in effects, and sample library technology has advanced to the point it’s getting a lot harder to tell what’s an actual orchestral recording, and what’s a meticulously programed MIDI orchestra.
Below lies my research notes in figuring out just how in the heck to turn my tunes into polished products for streaming, music production libraries, YouTube, etc.
Background: This article will be focused on classical based orchestral music. I’ve written three symphonies, a multi-scene dance piece for orchestra, in the same structural vein as Malcolm Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances, a serenade for violin and orchestra, a scherzo for orchestra, a piece for violin, cello, and strings, as well as other pieces for strings that have more of a cinematic flavor to them.
Follow the gurus that make their orchestral sample libraries sound authentic
There are a few people out there making convincing sounding orchestra mock-ups and produce instructional content that is helpful for you to replicate their techniques. These are Alex Ball, and Marco Di Stefano. There is a third fellow that makes super realistic mock-ups, named Andrew Blaney, but he doesn’t make instructional content.
- Alex Ball’s Big Fat Guide to Using a Virtual Orchestra (Youtube)
- Marco Di Stefano’s Virtual Orchestration Vlog Posts (Youtube Channel)
Di Stefano’s Work
Above: Marco shows the detailed MIDI control programming needed to get a convincing performance with the Spitfire Symphonic series. Later in the video, he talks about mixing and reverb assignment
Above: This piece was made with: Cubase Pro 9.5 ▸Spitfire Chamber Strings ▸Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds ▸Spitfire London Contemporary Orchestra ▸Spitfire Percussion Redux
Marco’s programing technique is to go through the piece, bar by bar (every 4 beats), and program each instrument in a vertical fashion (flute first, piccolo second, oboe third, all the way down the orchestra). That way, he doesn’t run into a situation where the strings turned out to be too loud against the winds for a passage, or similar balancing problems. He’s building in balance and realistic performance, one measure at a time.
Alex Ball’s Work
Alex Ball’s take on selecting an orchestral library
Alex Ball, famous for making realistic mock ups of popular Hollywood score cues, says the following:
What I look for in a library is one that has as many of these variations [of articulations] as possible. For example Cinesamples Cinebrass has three different lengths of short notes that can all be dynamically controlled. Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds also has three different kinds of short notes that are dynamic… This makes a huge difference in how much control you have, and what your options are when programming.
With legatto, which is probably the most fundamental patch for each instrument, I look for libraries that have multiple types of attack, multiple types of transition, like fast, portamento, accented, slurred, etcetera; dynamic control, vibrato control, expression, different mic positions, etcetera.
Alex Ball – My Big Fat Guide to a Virtual Orchestra
Andy Blaney’s work
This tune by Andy Blaney sounds very convincing:
Orchestral sample libraries for real sounding classical music
After spending some time, researching which orchestral sample libraries are most able to pull off convincing classical performances, I’ve identified a few:
- Spitfire Audio Symphony Complete package
- Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings (for divisi and chamber work)
- Orchestral Tools Berlin Orchestra
- Acoustic Samples V Winds series for solo winds
Spitfire Audio Symphony Complete
The Spitfire Audio Symphony Complete series, if you purchase the professional version, gives you access to extra mic placements in their Air Studio recording room, that make your music sound even more like a concert hall recording. These extra mics are outrigger mics that add stereo depth to the Decca tree mics, close ribbon mics, and classical sounding stage & gallery mics. There are also section leader mics, as sometimes adding these to your mix makes the performance feel more live.
But even if you don’t splurge for the extra mics, by just having the Decca tree mics, the close mics, and ambient mics in the non-pro version, you can still pull off really nice performances of your music.
Spitfire lets you control dynamics, vibrato, expression (i.e. volume), in some cases short note length (though they do give you different pre-made short notes of various lengths), with lots of ’round robins’ (i.e. different iterations of repeated notes to quell the ‘machine gun’ effect), and lots of ways to play lyrical and legato notes. The latest version of the complete package also comes with highly nuanced solo flute and trumpets that seamlessly cross-fade different vibrato levels and flutter tonguing.
Check out all the articulation, performance, and miking nuances you get with the Spitfire library:
Above: Check out the different mic placements, articulations, vibrato, dynamics, staccato stretching, bow placements, etc. the Spitfire Symphonic Strings has.
Orchestral Tools Berlin Orchestra
Orchestral Tool’s Berlin Orchestra series also has tons of miking options, that you only get with Spitfire’s pro version of its library. Included are the Decca tree mics, close ribbon mics for that old warm classical sound, ambient miking, the principle’s mic, and other options. You can even set the mic mixes where you want, then tell the sampler to just pull the samples for that mix to lower your RAM and CPU usage.
Again, it has close mic placements for the principle chairs of each section, which allows you to add to the mix the sound of a solo player, playing along with the rest of their group to give that live feel. Adding a single live human player, to each section of a virtual orchestra, used to be a common technique designed to make cues sound real for film scoring tracks.
One note of caution: if you just buy the Berlin strings, this is a small section of strings (like 8 violins, etc.). So go for the Berlin symphonic strings to get the symphony orchestra sized sections.
And again loads of control and nuance for each instrument.
Above: Check out the legato performances of the Berlin Symphonic Strings Library. Sometimes they just ‘know’ what you want and deliver convincing performances. But of course you’re still in complete control. Things haven’t gone AI just yet.
Above: Di Stefano has programmed in every part in the Stravinsky score, even parts that are barely audible, which are more ‘felt’ than ‘heard’. This simulates how a real orchestra works, where a blaring instrument can cover up, or blur, what other instruments are doing.
Acoustic Samples V Winds
The library that I have my eye on, for the sheer realism of the performances you can generate from it, is the Acoustic Samples V Winds series. But they presently (last quarter 2023) only have select wind instruments used in a standard orchestra. I’m hoping they eventually bring all the orchestral winds and brass to market, as these sound so realistic and have the ability to be placed anywhere in the room regarding microphones.
But likely I’ll just buy the Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds/Brass via the entire symphonic library package just to start out. And maybe in a year or two Acoustic Samples will have the entire woodwind/brass section available.
You can purchase these instruments individually, so if you need to do a concerto for a given instrument, or an important solo, you can just get the one you need.
Mapping articulations in your MIDI sequencer
Modern DAW’s/MIDI sequencers provide ways to keep these large scale orchestral library patches, and the needed controller info that makes your orchestral sample library sound real, in a workable format. So if you’re like me, and haven’t updated their DAW version for a long time, it may be time to do so to get this feature.
Looking through the MOTUnation threads, there was a programing oversight with Digital Performer where MIDI CC data was having trouble getting to different MIDI patch instances, when being routed through Vienna Ensemble Pro (VEP). So maybe stick with Cubase or the like, if your design is to have just one MIDI stem per instrument, like you would on a written score, regardless of how many patches you’re using, when working with VEP.
Digital Performer 11 tutorial on mapping articulations
Below is a lesson on how to map your different articulations for a given instrument in Digital Performer 11, but it’s the same concept on any modern DAW.
As mentioned above, the Spitfire Symphonic series libraries (and others) have loads of articulations, so you’ll need some way to keep them all organized, performable, and automatable for a given instrument. That way you only need one MIDI track per instrument (or rather virtual performer, for example principle flutist), whose articulations change when you press a key-switch.
In the video the presenter suggests using a universal mapping technique so you always know a given key-switch triggers a given articulation, regardless of which instrument you’re working with. They also suggest utilizing a secondary controller dedicated to key-switching, such as a mini-keyboard or an iPad, running a Meta Grid Pro key-switching program that connects back to your DAW computer.
MIDI controllers needed to make your orchestral sample library sound real
Outside of your MIDI piano, your primary MIDI controller should have at least 4 faders: one for dynamics, one for expression (volume), one for vibrato, and maybe even one for velocity.
Using a fader for velocity?
Yes, I know it feels like you have more control of velocity on your keyboard itself. Or at least you can draw in what you need with the mouse, after you input the notes.
But some of the legato patch performances on the Spitfire Audio Symphonic Strings library are triggered by velocity. For instance smashing the velocity at the full 127 magnitude triggers portamento transistions between notes, and the like. And being able to control this with a fader, in a second pass through, after you’ve recorded your MIDI notes, may allow for even more control.
What is a good MIDI fader option for classical orchestral sample libraries?
I like the Evolution U-Control UC-33 USB MIDI fader controller. Looks like it has smooth action with not too much resistance. Plus it’s big enough that it wouldn’t slide around on your desk when pushing the faders around with one hand, as you have your other on the keyboard.
The problem is it has been discontinued. There are some on Ebay, but supply is limited.
A good fader controller is hard to find these days and not every one is plug & play with a given DAW. I’ve made a list of 10 different midi fader controllers that would be decent choices for controlling orchestral sample libraries in my article, MIDI Fader Controllers for Orchestral Sample Libraries.
Techniques in using the MIDI fader for classical realism with a virtual orchestra
It’s probably best to map out your controller faders in the following fashion: leftmost fader = volume (expression), to the immediate right of that = dynamics, to the immediate right of that = vibrato, and to the immediate right of that = velocity.
General control of the volume and dynamics in tandem: If you map your volume (expression) and dynamics faders beside each other, you can push them up and down in tandem to make the music ‘pop’ a bit more. At least this is what is done for more cinematic music with long swelling notes.
General control of dynamics and vibrato: For instruments that use vibrato in classical music, again you could push your dynamics and vibrato magnitudes in tandem by having two faders side by side.
Long sustained violin notes in impressionistic writing
Further on long, sustained, and stagnant violin notes, that are neither crescendoing or decrescendoing, it’s best to jiggle the expression and dynamic faders back and forth somewhat rapidly, while slowly oscillating the vibrato controller up and down to provide some semblance of motion in the part. This is even done with recordings of real players.
Using faders to replicate bowing mechanics/dynamics
Also use your dynamic and expression faders in a manner that compliments the string players’ bowings on phrases with longer bowings (where the entire bow is being utilized). Fade in, start to fade a little out at the end of the longer bowing, then fade back in as the bow changes directions, and lastly fade out at the end of the phrase.
Also for repeating string notes in a legato passages, you can just hold your key down on your keyboard, but dip your fader up and down quickly where you need the bow to slow and speed up to represent the stops and starts of repeated notes in the same bowing direction.
Slow and lyrical wind player phrasing
The faders can also simulate woodwinds starting to push breath through their instruments at the beginnings of lyrical phrases and reducing their breath near the ends of those.
Other techniques used to make your orchestral sample library sound real
Adding principle stands to the mix
As alluded to earlier, you can sometimes make your orchestral sample library sound real by adding a soloists’ or principle chairs’ close mic samples to your mix, as is possible with the top tier version of the Spitfire Symphony Complete package or the Berlin series.
Related: If you need individual budget players, check out my suggestions in my incidental article entitled, Tips on Use a Chamber Ensemble for Film Music.
Layering string libraries
Sometimes just doubling up on your strings can add more realism to your virtual orchestra. But this often requires EQ and stereo field management to pull off. See below in the EQ/Stereo Field sections.
Use chamber strings for divisis
It’s best to have a set of chamber strings in your orchestral sample library to make the strings sound more real when divided at the stand. Spitfire’s chamber strings are likely your best best when using the rest of this manufacture’s products. Likely if you have both the Berlin Symphonic Strings and regular strings (which are not quite half the players) you can pull off the same effect.
Make your orchestral sample library sound more real with multiple libraries
Sometimes the instrument set from one particular library is able to pull off a certain section of music better than the other. Take advantage if you have multiple libraries at hand. Or aspire to have multiple libraries at hand, I should say!
Use of pre-made runs or performance peculiarities
When you first get your orchestral library set up, take the time to familiarize yourself with the odder samples it comes with, which are things like string player slides, pre-made scale runs, slow major and minor tremolos in strict time at different tempos, harp glissandos, pre-made crescendos, etc. Then keep them in mind as you render your piece and look for opportunities to use them, as such adds more realism.
The same orchestration rules apply to the virtual orchestra as apply in real life
Every time I’ve heard my orchestral music played by a live orchestra, I find it doesn’t sound much different than even my clunky MIDI mock-up renderings. I mean it sounds better of course, but there are no surprises. And that has to do with being able to orchestrate properly.
Orchestration example: If your virtual brass are blowing out much of the rest of your virtual orchestra when at ff, or fff, then guess what? They’re going to do the same in real life. Now you might be tempted to unnaturally boost up the volume of say, the woodwinds so you can hear them against the brass, but that’s not going to happen in real life. So you just have to be happy with the woodwinds being felt and not really heard.
Or if you need these weaker instruments to shine through, you better start doubling them at the octave: violas playing the violin melody down an octave, with second violins divided between the two, and upper winds finding ways to even double that melody an octave up, for instance.
On the opposite side of the coin, you can get a big sound out of a virtual orchestra with half the performers not playing (and you manipulating volumes unnaturally), but that same orchestration in real life is going to sound a lot more thin and intimate. So even if the instruments don’t pop out in your DAW due to the problem mentioned above, make sure to still take the time to find doublings in louder, tutti sections to help fill the room up, for the actual concert hall.
Checkout my mini-tutorial on balancing instruments correctly on YouTube.
Don’t keep your tempo stagnant
Real orchestral performances have lots of tempo variance to them. Ends of phrases slow down. Tempos might be naturally accelerated at phrase building moments. If you’ve ever tried to map the tempo of a real orchestra playing on a DAW, that thing goes everywhere. The tempo’s gives and takes are what makes the orchestra breathe. No breath = dead orchestra = not real.
Staccato velocities should vary
Staccato velocities should vary in accordance with how a player approaches them. Up bowing on a string spiccato may be less heavy than down bowing. Same deal on double and triple tonguing.
Real players aren’t strictly quantized
Players shouldn’t consistently be hitting all notes together perfectly. Introduce a bit of variance as here as well. You don’t have to get sloppy. Just loosen up a bit!
Recording engineering to make your orchestral sample library sound real
EQ Work
I have a more dedicated article for using EQ on classical music performed by orchestral sample libraries so click here to check that out. It includes ideas like how to combine multiple string libraries properly for more realism. But I’ll throw down a few preliminary points here:
Di Stefano’s use of EQ
Di Stefano explains, regarding the Spitfire Symphonic library, that ‘Spitfire libraries come already mixed, so there is nothing to do. Really they are great.’ So he doesn’t put any EQ on individual tracks.
He does however use an EQ to cut down the lower frequencies on the reverbs he’s using on different sections of the orchestra:
And for his Tramonto Di Ghiaccio work he did end up boosting high and low frequencies in the mastering plug in. Keep in mind boosting these is composition dependent and not a universal rule.
EQ ideas from film music producers
While film music production guru Marc Jovani, and several other film related music producers, have a different opinion, regarding other popular orchestral libraries on the market: the more virtual instruments you’re adding to your mix, the more the room sound is getting amplified and muddying up the mix, hence you have to EQ out those frequencies that are adding up. These are usually in the lower range.
So it’s best to truncate the low frequencies on middle voice instruments like clarinets, violas, 2nd violins, etc. This provides more clarity to cellos, trombones, horns in their lower ranges, etc.
The full tutti orchestra tends to become overbearing in the mid-ranges as there are so many orchestral instruments playing in that range. Hence more clarity is achieved in finding ways to take the mid-range down in instruments that are more important to either the lower or higher ranges, i.e. low or high instruments.
You’ll also need EQ, mic placement adjustment, and stereo field adjustment when blending two string libraries together to give a more believable sound, as mentioned above.
I’ll get into examples of this in the more dedicated article.
Spitfire Audio’s Jake Jackson’s EQ ideas
Veteran orchestral mix engineer Jake Jackson, who’s done a lot of work for Spitfire Audio, recommends using the Fabfilter brand EQ (see picture above) and multi-band compressor plugins. He also states that for organic orchestral music, not to spot treat frequencies by more than three or four decibels, and in most cases, by just one or two decibels.
In the video below, he uses a multi-band compressor to take some low-end bite out of a double bass section, among other techniques:
Stereo Field Adjustment
And further stated above, when combining string libraries to get a more realistic sound, you may not only have to adjust EQ for the libraries to match, but you may have to adjust the stereo field of one of the libraries.
The tip here is don’t do too drastic of an adjustment. Usually not more than a 10% adjustment will get you where you need to be in terms of balance.
Compression
Alex Ball recommends using multiple compressors as needed at different stages of the flow of music towards the master bus. And when using them, use them in a subtle fashion. That way you’re not just heavily compressing the master bus at the end, for a problem that could have been fixed by, say subtly compressing a trumpet, then subtly compressing the brass, before those go to the final master bus.
Also see my EQ article on dynamically spot treating a particular offensive note that’s overly resonating in a given room.
Levels you should be recording at
Marc Jovani records in all his parts very low at -12 to -6db so as not to overwhelm the master bus during tutti sections. Once he gets his final mix, he brings up the volumes during mastering.
Keep in mind Jovani does simple film music related work, that’s more like a rock concert at a steady level, than a classical piece, which revolves around the dynamics of mp to mf and has exceptional moments of pp, p, f or ff.
Reverb
The main themes on reverb use, that I’m seeing, are that you should be using multiple reverb instances for different sections of the orchestra. And this can get as detailed as using reverb automation on buses to blend or clarify your parts. And you should be using convolution reverbs in conjunction with more traditional, algorithmic reverbs.
The convolution reverb is first applied to put the instrument sections in the room, and the algorithmic ones are then applied to increase the tail, and make different instrument groups gel together.
For classical music, my ideas are that you should be using convolution verbs to really bring out the early reflections of the instruments that sit in the back of the orchestra. But the library engineers may have already naturally added these to the more ‘symphonic’ based samples, i.e. those mentioned above, beforehand.
Which reverb products for orchestral sample libraries?
I was always a Altiverb user for my Digital Performer 3 and 5 DAWs. But I’m sure there’s probably something better these days. So far, recommendations I’ve found are:
Cinematic Rooms Professional by Liquid Sonics
Computer requirements for your DAW computer:
- iLok 2/3, iLok machine activation or iLok Cloud
- 64-bit DAW
- Windows 7 and above
- OS X / macOS 10.9 and above
- VST 2.4, VST3, Audio Unit (AUv2) and AAX Native plug-in formats
- 200 MB hard disk space is required
- At least 8 GB of main memory is recommended
- Modern quad-core (or higher) processors are recommended
ValhallaRoom
ValhallaRoom is the most popular Valhalla reverb for classical applications and virtual orchestral instruments. The Depth slider in Room is useful for setting up an early reflection / late reverb balance. The 12 unique algorithms in Room allow the user to put instruments into a realistic acoustic space.
‘The Best Reverb Plugins For…’ (valhalladsp.com)
Di Stefano’s use of Cubase Reverbs & Mastering plug-ins
Apparently you can get a good sound on a budget:
Di Stefano used his Cubase DAW’s ‘Reverence’ reverb when mixing down the track posted above, alongside a Cubase EQ to cut the lows from the reverbs, as previously mentioned. He applies shorter verbs and delays to the strings, brass and winds, then puts longer verbs on the percussion.
He also has a quieter verb that everything runs through to make all the instruments gel together…
…before finally going into an Ozone mastering plug-in that he uses to mildly boost low and high frequencies, and which further allows him to maximize the mix such that he’s hitting his -1 decibel target.
Computer needed for an orchestral sample library to sound real?
I’m currently building a new computer to update my rig. To check out my research notes, including recommendations on CPU, RAM, and disk requirements, and the parts list of the computer I’m building to run these modern libraries you can click here.
Spitfire Audio makes the following suggestions:
| Music production level | Libraries and use | Computer Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Intermediate | “This is someone who has just started to do professional work, or an advanced level university student who is working on student films. Your projects are a bit more complex and can have up to 100 tracks, and you may have begun to invest in our more pro range orchestral products such as the Studio Range, BBC SO Core, and Artist Libraries from the LCO, Olafur Arnalds, and Eric Whitacre.” | 1TB External SSD Drive 32GB+ of RAM 8 Core Processor |
| Professional | “This is someone who has a career in music, and uses large and advanced templates of 200+ tracks. Products you own may include BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional, Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Motions, and Abbey Road One.””This is someone who has a career in music, and uses large and advanced templates of 200+ tracks. Products you own may include BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional, Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Motions, and Abbey Road One.” | 4TB External SSD Drive 128GB of RAM 16 Core Processor |
More sample library requirements in my computer article previously mentioned!
Next up
Thanks for checking out some of my ideas on how to make an orchestral sample library sound real! You can find my main page here. Or check out more topics below! Take care!