Steinberg HALion Symphonic Orchestra Operation Manual
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ENGLISH HALion Symphonic Orchestra 111 Combinations: Playing unisono, the first and the second violin pro- duce a bigger sound, becoming even darker when played in a dis- tance of one octave. For a really big melody at a climax of the compo- sition, you can also add the viola, yet another octave deeper. When violins play together with celli in octaves the tenor register of the celli dominates the sound. Viola Transposing: No Range: C2 to E5 Register: Four strings: C2, G2, D3, A3 Agility: High Description: The viola plays in the tenor register of the string section, pitched a perfect fifth deeper than the violin. Compared to the violin the sound is a little darker and slightly ponderous but it can be played with nearly the same agility. Together with the second violin it is re- sponsible for the inner voices, accompaniments and rhythmic figura- tions of a score. Although the viola has a wonderful melancholic timbre for solo work it often has no time to play melodies because of all the secondary duties it has to fulfil. Combinations: The viola has an effect of reinforcement if added to the Violin or a cello. Both sound thicker and have more resonating body in combination. Like all other string instruments the viola has a close re- lationship to the woodwinds, especially to the oboe, which has a good blend with the fourth string (A). The blend with woodwinds is better than that with the brass section; however there are acceptable combi- nations. The trumpets and the horns are good partners, especially when played in p.
HALion Symphonic Orchestra 112 Cello Transposing: No Range: C1 to A4 Register: Four strings: C1, G1, D2, A2 Agility: Good Description: The cello plays in the tenor register and in the bass reg- ister of the string section. It is pitched one octave below the viola and is used for bass as well as for melodic tasks. The tone of the cello is particularly warm and rich. The low C string is a little bit heavier than the G string; both have rich overtone structures. The D string is not as powerful as the C and G string, it lacks a little bit of bite. The highest A string is capable of very expressive solo work, with a powerful, me- lodious and rich sound. The cello is bigger than the violin or viola. So keep in mind that there are longer ways to go on the finger board. However the agility of the cello is still on a high level. Combinations: Because of the great range from bass over alto to so- prano, the cello blends more or less with most instruments of the or- chestra. The combination of cello and oboe results in a more focussed spectrum in the higher frequencies sounding bright and clear. The ad- dition of a clarinet softens the bright timbre. The bassoon intensifies the bass foundation of the cello. The blend between the horn section and the cello section is even better when also adding the woodwind section. Double Bass Transposing: Yes Range: C1 to E4 Register: Four or five strings: (B0), E0, A0, D1,G1 Agility: Average Description: A lack of higher overtones predestines the double bass for the bass foundation, one octave under the cello. This is the classic task and the reason for the name double bass. The e string sounds very dark and gloomy with a dull tendency. The a string is more buzz- ing, but still suggests heaviness. The d and g strings extend into the range of the cello, but have a much darker sound with sometimes vio- lent power.
ENGLISH HALion Symphonic Orchestra 113 Combinations: The double bass is the perfect partner for any low range instrument of other sections: the tuba adds substance and sta- bility; the bassoon adds precision and noblesse; the bass clarinet, like all single reed instruments, softens the sound while adding fullness. The combination of trombones and double bass with a distance of one octave is majestic and powerful. Horns add mellowness to the double bass. Very impressive is the combination of timpani and dou- ble bass, both playing tremolo. Hierarchy and harmonic weight Groups It is helpful to divide the material a composition consists of into three groups: Melodies and main themes belong to group no.1; other char- acteristic accompaniment or counterpoint material belongs to group no.2; and additional background material to intensify or support ele- ments of group no.1 or 2 belong to group no.3. Instruments Think about the instrumentation in relation to the importance of each group. Solo instruments playing a melody belong to group no.1. If you have a melody played by a clarinet in piano it is not a good idea to play accompaniments and supporting elements with brass instruments in forte, to give an exaggerated example. Group no.1 must be heard clearly and obviously, group no. 2 must be heard just as clearly, but it must not overlap the elements of group no.1. Group no. 3 is heard on a less prominent level.
HALion Symphonic Orchestra 114 Chords The construction of chords should follow the natural overtone struc- ture of a single tone. This insight leads to the following suggestions: The spacing of intervals is wider in the bass and tenor registers, be- coming narrower as it comes to the higher registers. This means that trombones and bassoons tend to have a wider spacing, while flutes, oboes and clarinets are typical for narrow spacing. The single elements of a chord have different weights. The more dis- tant intervals are from the fundamental tone, the less doubling occurs. So the fundamental tone should be the loudest with most doublings, the third has more doublings than the fifth and so on. Chord examples The first example is a brilliant and powerful C-major chord in forte with- out extensions, as it might appear at the end of an orchestral move- ment. High flutes and trumpets add brilliance; the strings have a wide spacing to add mellowness to the whole range. The middle voices (clarinet, oboe, horns) with their narrower spacing take care of stability. The trombones add warmth in the lower middle register, while bas- soon, tuba, celli and double basses lay a profound base.
ENGLISH HALion Symphonic Orchestra 115 A C major chord C-Major Piccolo 2 Flutes 2 Oboes 2 Clarinets (Bb) 2 Bassoons 2 Horns (F) 2 Trumpets (Bb) 3 Trombones Tuba Timpani Violins 1 Violins 2 Viola Celli Double bass
HALion Symphonic Orchestra 116 The next chord causes another emotion: darkness and menace. The chord is played piano in d-minor and orchestrated without oboes, trum- pets and flutes to prevent high or cutting through frequencies. To evoke more anxiety extensions are added: the horns play a minor seventh and clarinets and violins add a major ninth. The strings have narrow spaces to emphasize the dissonance. Trombones, horns, bassoons and tuba are creating darkness while the gran cassa and the cymbals open an eerie space. A D minor chord D-minor + minor 7th+major 9th 2 Bassoons 2 Horns (F) 3 Trombones Tuba 2 Clarinets (Bb) Gran Cassa Cymbals Violins 1 Violins 2 Viola Celli Double bass
ENGLISH HALion Symphonic Orchestra 117 Reconstructing a score with HALion Symphonic Orchestra In the following example – the first thirty-eight bars of the first move- ment of Franz Schuberts Symphony No.8, “The Unfinished”, composed in 1822 – you will recognize some of the essential points you read about in the first part. For users of Steinberg Cubase SX, a demo project including all the re- corded material from this example is available on the installation DVD, in the “Additional Content\Tutorial” folder. Open the Score Editor in Cubase SX to check the score described on the following pages. We recommend a minimum of 512 MB RAM to open the project file. If you do not have access to Cubase SX, take a look at the .pdf files in the “8_Schubert_Unfinished_Score_PDF” subfolder, and listen to the exam- ple sound file. As a typical first movement of a symphony in early romantic style it be- gins very calm, gaining more and more power until the completely intro- duced first theme evolves into a first dynamic eruption. The crescendo lasts continuously over several bars, sometimes taken back to begin again from pp, to reach its final climax in bar 36/37. The first page It is tradition to introduce all instruments that will appear within a piece on the first page. Schubert prescribes a typical middle size orchestra containing two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in A and two bassoons in the wood- wind section; two horns in D, two clarinos (baroque trumpets without valves) in E, two tenor trombones and one bass trombone in the brass section; Timpani in F# and B as percussion and the classical five-sys- tems string section with 1st and 2nd violins, violas, celli and double basses.
HALion Symphonic Orchestra 118 To record the transposing instruments into your sequencer via MIDI you have to transpose the incoming MIDI notes in the track properties of your host sequencer. The clarinet must be transposed three half- tones deeper, the horns in D ten halftones, and the clarinos in E – we take the normal trumpets instead – eight halftones deeper. After these preparations everything will sound in harmony when you play what you read. Transposing MIDI notes in the track Inspector of Cubase SX. Choosing the right programs in HALion Symphonic Orchestra To choose the appropriate programs in HALion Symphonic Orchestra we have to analyze each system of the score with regards to its num- ber of different articulations. The flute for example appears in bar no. 26 in normal legato mode. Af- ter going through a crescendo it reaches two very high forzato (sur- prisingly forte) quarter notes in bar No. 28/29. The remaining bars don’t show any new articulations. So we have three main features: long legato notes, becoming louder or softer, and loud short notes. In HALion Symphonic Orchestra there is a special program that meets all of these requirements. It is called “Flt solo Combi XSwitch KS”. Combi means that there are different articulations playable in one program by holding the assigned key switches. By using the modulation wheel for crescendo/decrescendo this program is suitable also for different dynamic situations including swells.
ENGLISH HALion Symphonic Orchestra 119 The number of articulations available is similar to the other woodwind instruments and also to the horns and strings; they all need long le- gato notes, crescendo/decrescendo and some short notes with a dis- tinct attack. So the *-combi XSwitch KS programs are the right choice for these other instruments, too. For cello, double bass and viola we need some extra pizzicato pro- grams playing the bass motif from bar no. 9 to 26. For the trombones and for the trumpets (clarinos) we just need short forte accents. And finally, we need a single hit program for the timpani. Distributing instruments It depends very much on the amount of memory and the CPU speed of your computer(s) whether you can have all instruments of an or- chestra at your disposal at once. For a single computer with an average specification (1 GB RAM and with a CPU speed of about 2 GHz) it is a good idea to handle each or- chestral section separately: In a first step, create a MIDI recording of the string section. When everything is recorded correctly and mixed so that you are perfectly happy with the sound, create an audio mix- down of the MIDI material. After that you can record the next section with new programs in the same way, with the mixdown of the of the first section as a reference. If you have more than one computer, or if you have access to a really big system (2 GB RAM and a CPU with a speed over 3 GHz), you should take a single instance of HALion Sym- phonic Orchestra for every section, to have enough slots left for sev- eral articulations of one instrument. Woodwinds For each instrument the *-combi XSwitch KS programs were used. The first main theme begins in bar 13 with a full sounding unisono combina- tion of a single oboe and a single clarinet in pp. For both the use of the mod- ulation wheel comes with the first crescendo/decrescendo in bar 18. The next entrance is for two bassoons playing a third at the bottom of the high register combined in a surprisingly dark colored forzato chord together with horns and trombones setting up a sharp contrast to the lovely melody of oboe and clarinet. But after the decrescendo the melody comes back, supplemented by a single horn line to intensify the sound slightly.
HALion Symphonic Orchestra 120 After four bars the augmented theme goes through a harmonic sequence up- wards becoming fuller in sound because the flute joins the woodwinds in bar 26, contributing some silvery higher frequencies. The other reasons for the growing sound are oboe and clarinet playing in pairs, and the general cre- scendo going through the whole orchestra. The forzato quarter notes in bar 28/29 and 36/37 were achieved by holding the key-switch for short staccato notes. To intensify the orchestral fortissimo tutti the woodwinds lay a full ranged nar- row spaced chord under the rhythmic strokes of brass and strings. For this last chord the flutes jump another octave higher to add brilliance to the whole sound. Brass & Percussion The horns and trombones are building a dark forzato chord with decrescendo in bar 20 together with the bassoons. Because there is a decrescendo on a long note after the accent, you cannot use the accent and the legato sound of the combi program at the same time. However, to emphasize the attack’s forzato effect you can add an extra program (hrn solo stacc ALT Vel) to the hrn solo -combi XSwitch KS program. Whenever an accent is needed, record these staccatos in a second MIDI track. The trumpets and trombones just have to play short accents. So it is enough to load staccato programs for that purpose. The timpani just need single hits. Strings For crescendo/decrescendo tasks, assign the modulation wheel as the main controller in the Options dialog of HALion Symphonic Orchestra. If you listen carefully to real string players, you will nearly never hear a steady tone. So make use of the modulation wheel a lot, to bring life into the samples, to shape the motion within and the transition between notes dynamically. It all begins with a very dark pianissimo prelude in the celli and double basses. The combi sounds are suitable for this purpose without holding a key-switch. Just slightly move the modulation wheel to bring a little bit of motion into the sound. The violins join in bar 9 with a sequence of 16th notes, continuing this pattern – sometimes softer, sometimes louder – through several harmonic fields until bar 36, where an accentuated quarter note is needed. For the short spiccato notes, hold the key-switch (A#-1) all the time; HALion Symphonic Orchestra