Berlin Strings Bundle Review & Demo Composition

In this video I review the Berlin Strings Bundle by Orchestral Tools and share my original composition featuring each library in the bundle.
0:00 Introduction and Overview of Bundle
2:34 SINE and Mic Options
6:30 Berlin Strings
13:04 Berlin Symphonic Strings
14:30 Con Sordino Strings
17:08 Special Bows
18:25 SFX
20:38 First Chairs
22:30 Demo Analysis
37:27 Demo Playthrough
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[@AlexHeppelmann]

If there's interest, I can make a composition analysis video of my demo piece!

[@williamh57]

Please do!

[@PaulieDC]

I’m in!

[@iancurrie3763]

Yes!!!

[@PaulieDC]

Thanks for doing this Alex!

[@AlexHeppelmann]

My pleasure!

[@mpeacockmusic]

Amazing piece and great mockup!

[@AlexHeppelmann]

Thanks Micah!

[@MahlonBouldin]

Incredible. Great writing. Awesome editing. Outstanding music and lesson.

[@johnnmusic]

The piece is outstanding, thank you for breaking all of this down

[@AlexHeppelmann]

Thank you!

[@jfranciskeys9500]

Nice Video!

[@Sal-tq4so]

Fantastic composition, thoroughly enjoy it! Do you use negative track delays at all? Do you have every part in my hand, or draw in parts?

[@AlexHeppelmann]

Thank you! I use negative track delay on the majority of the tracks, I find it a bit easier to program quickly. And I played in each part with the keyboard then quantized and edited the MIDI / CC data.

[@evanseesred]

What is negative track delay?

[@tylerpedraja6049]

One thing that’s bothered me about Berlin strings (I have the old version for kontakt) is that the short articulations are controlled via velocity and the longs vs modulation. My workflow is such that I use expression maps to switch articulations and keep each instrument on one track, so it would be nice if the dynamics would be controlled by modulation alone. That way I don’t need to keep track of both modulation and velocity on the same track.

[@tylerpedraja6049]

Edit: also I would love if they included sections which are pre-eq’d for an ensemble. Because every section is recorded alone with full EQ, the combined string orchestra can sound unnatural IMO.

[@-Meric-]

You can customize that and make them the same setting. In Kontakt Capsule lets you reassign it

[@AlexHeppelmann]

@@tylerpedraja6049 On the original Kontakt Berlin library manuals, I think I remember something written about how they recommend EQing the strings. Generally speaking, I've found that there can be a bit of resonance build up in the 3-4k range for upper strings (ordinary unmuted strings), and they also recommend adding a bit above 8k to give it more air. The orchestration and string arrangement itself can have an enormous impact on this as well, and it's very easy to get overdo the low mid register.

[@user-vl2tl2pq4l]

How did you bring Berlin vst from the Vienna Ensemble program?

[@hittjett]

You might message OT about blending recommendations for BS and BSS. Surely they've tackled this.

[@AlexHeppelmann]

I'm sure you're right. I don't think I'd use them layered together, but perhaps within the same piece.

[@jfranciskeys9500]

when you purchased the Bundle did it allow you to use it on more than one Mac/PC? or is it a single licenes per machine?

[@AlexHeppelmann]

I'm pretty sure that you can use it on more than one machine -- the SINE player is linked to your account, so it's sort of like an iLok device

[@jfrancis2649]

@@AlexHeppelmann ahh makes sense. thanks you 🍻

[@lillosnx]

What a wonderful piece! Congratulations! Also a very nice walkthrough for Berlin Strings. I have a question. Since you use several channels for every instrument I guess you use negative delay compensation (also judging from what I could decipher from the piano roll playthrough). Is it ok to have the same delay compensation amount for all longs or for all shorts? Does it work?

[@AlexHeppelmann]

Thanks! Negative delay is one of the trickier things to manage when combining articulations into a single channel. For example, I have all of the violin shorts (staccato, spiccato, etc...) on one track, but many of them require different negative delay times -- I try to find a good average number, but it can be tricky. But for me personally, this problem is necessary because I don't like splitting each articulation up into its own track (this would result in hundreds of tracks for me, which gets tedious). Some sample libraries will have more consistent negative delay times, so this problem is entirely dependent on the libraries you use.