Piano sketch to Orchestra with Spitfire Symphony Orchestra

[@thisislance]

This is still the most "glued together" sound of any VI orchestra on the market.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Lance!

[@ΥπερδιαγαλαξιακόςΑστροπολεμιστ]

How many dynamic layers per note do we have in new SSO?​@@PaulThomsonMusic

[@blackorangegraphite]

​@@ΥπερδιαγαλαξιακόςΑστροπολεμιστThe same as in the old version. You can't magically create additional layers after the orchestra recording is over.

[@Lufade]

This piece of music is its own miniature masterclass on a style of film scoring you don't really hear nowadays. Wonderful.

[@Viewfinderrr]

That was very inspiring! I know you downplay your expertise, “I just bagged this together”, but it’s really great sounding and fun to see how you put this together so quickly. After many years of watching you I’m slowly putting it all together which is great fun!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you!

[@edbuller4435]

Such lovely chords...and you make it seem so simple...!!!!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Ed! You're too kind!

[@patzumbrunn]

Thanx Paul. A lot. For this amazing update. I hope you will do sldo the Chamber Strings and a few other older libraries with this new GUI. One of the bedt is the Purge Unused. Lovely piece

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you Pat!

[@andrewmusician]

Paul, I was quite impressed with the new demos & mockups from you, Andy, and Blake Robinson with this re-release. It reminded me why I chose this orchestra library years ago. Now that it has some renewed vigor, I can see many more years of compositions ahead from this orchestra.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you!

[@jcavazos09]

I can’t wait to dive into this beautiful update! I remember hearing the SSO demos for the first time in 2017 and being absolutely fascinated. So grateful to see the innovation for this amazing library continuing on into 2024!

[@petersvan7880]

What a great composition and tone, IMO one of Paul's best demo's. The new Kontakt GUI is a welcome improvement. Great job Spitfire!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you! Very kind!

[@ASX2001]

What a masterpiece! If it was a soundtrack, I would immediately go see that film. After a lot of other libraries I came back to SSO in 2022 and never touched another orchestra library again.

[@stephank1749]

4:18 gives me the bumps....this is such a great progression. and the last two accords are sooooo beautiful. *sob*

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you Stephan!

[@Phenurios231]

There're some really beautiful Basil Poledouris like moments happening in this one. I really love it. Great work! What a great sound

[@desoconnor7445]

Great summary of the new library and how you would use it. What I perceive is the quality of the voices …which are right where they should be IMHO.🙏🏿🙏👍🎶

[@JustinADawdy]

Lovely walkthrough! Great orchestration, and obviously excellent programming. All the demos on the site were jaw-dropping. This library probably has the most potential to bring orchestral ideas to life. And re-released and remastered at a fantastic price? This is why Spitfire is the best sample library company ever.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks so much Justin!

[@uw0tm838]

Thank you for the update for SSO! This was quite a surprise! And the best part: it's ACTUALLY much better!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks!

[@soundtreks]

Wow what a sound! Congrats on this refresh! Sounds amazing

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you!

[@alontrigger]

The new legato transitions sound beautiful. Very smart move with the new programming and more affordable price. I'm looking toward buying this collection.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks!

[@rgferreira78]

What a lovely contribution to the community. I very much like your videos, thanks not only for your great products but for taking the time to promote them in such a generous way.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you very much!

[@MaxTooney]

Thrown together in twenty minutes? I may cry. So very nicely done! I heard the influence of Bernard Herrmann there at the beginning, then Ralph Vaughan Williams thrown in for good measure at the end. And oh, yes…love the sound of the library, too!

[@petersvan7880]

" then Ralph Vaughan Williams thrown in for good measure at the end" Happy to read that, was thinking the same hearing Paul's mesmerizing chord progressions. Vaughan Williams Thalis Fantasia is probably my all time fav orchestral piece. It uses two string sections distanced from each other, something that should be right up to Spitfire's ally when trying to emulate it with their wonderful Air Lindhurst tone and mic options.

[@Slynell1]

Very Vaughan Williams at the end there

[@BluemountScore]

I really enjoy this composition of yours, Paul. Well done.

[@doctorcane]

Jeez Paul, some really nice orchestration techniques there. Absolutely incredible. Subbed.

[@markhensonguitarist-composer]

Hi Paul, love this piece of music it's so atmospheric and evocative I keep coming back to this for inspiration ! Very impressed with the beautiful sound of SSO and your brilliant compositional skills, so much so that i grabbed SSO in this years summer sale ! Really interesting to see how you developed the piano sketch into a fully orchestrated piece (and made it look easy !). I look forward to more videos like this one ! Great orchestral VI, well done spitfire !

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you very kind! More coming!

[@rookproductions6031]

This was excellent, and I found the breakdown very helpful. It had a bit of a Christopher Young - Hellraiser vibe, and that’s a vibe I love a whole lot :)

[@spadogs]

Thank you for this. I always love to see how your create music.

[@nugzar.paitchadzepaitchadze]

Mr Paul huge respect from me

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you! Glad you are finding the videos useful!

[@Bashanvibe]

This is beautiful 🔥🔥🔥

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you very kind!!

[@MoonhareStudio]

Reminds me of some of the most beautiful sections of Holst's planet suite. Love the woodwinds!

[@awakenedsoulproductions]

This was one of the most helpful videos, thank you

[@TheHansen01]

Amazing piece,! Very reminiscent of Mark Griskey's score for the old video game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

thank you!

[@jcjacques]

Très belle orchestration ! Very beautifull. I, who am a fervent admirer of Spitfire Audio and a happy user of BBCSO pro, makes me want to diversify my palette with this new version of your SO. Magnificent sound imagination, very evocative, sensitive, Filled with mystery. Bravo,

[@jcjacques]

I add that I dream of seeing Solo Strings benefit from this type of update....

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you! Very kind!!

[@earl3736]

That piece is exquisite. Good one, Paul

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks for listening!

[@godsonkeyz3201]

man what a blessing to watch!!!

[@alexpapas99]

Wow I got chills from the piece...

[@PeteCalandra]

Great work Paul. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to working with this library.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Pete!

[@toi_techno]

That's cool The spacial separation is very convincing

[@aarondjacob]

I am positively FLOORED by this rerelease. The inclusion of all those tremendous performance patches changes the game for letting me lay out what’s actually going on in my head. And the fine tuning of the legatos in general is such a welcomed update. Couldn’t download it faster if I tried!

[@XeNoS_Music]

This piece should be called "Mulan meet phantom of the Opera" I really love this !

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks! wow - too kind!!

[@ArturoAlbero]

An amazing demo for an amazing library (My favourite one). I love the new GUI and that all the instruments (including harp and piano) are inside. The performance patches are amazing and make writting music much more nice than having to rely on keyswitches or several tracks. Also, I love this video because is very educative and shows us how to properly write music using the DAW. Also, it is nice to see a more "classically-trained approach", because there are a lot of videos focused on the "music producers" and the "not-so-good-at-music-production" can use the things you show here. Thank you! About the library itself, I miss performance patches for trombones or cimbasso (and some more brass). Also, the transpose could be better (because when I transpose the piccolo, the notes get transposed well but the keys available remain the same and I would like to move then so as I can play flutes and piccolo (8 above) with the same key). Another thing interesting could be to add some kind of variation to performance patches (I mean, con sordino, sul ponticello, sul tasto, second player, etc). I sent my thoughts and feedback on the library to your employees in charge to attend people via email, as I don't know where to share them and, who knows, they may be useful to you...🤣

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks for this feedback - very useful and I'll pass on the message!!

[@storiesreadaloud5635]

Need more of these videos. I don't want to hear an impressive demo of a library, I want to see exactly how I can do that with the library too

[@patzumbrunn1227]

Thank you Paul....insane

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Pat!

[@jenssieckmann]

Really great piece and orchestration. It reminds me of Conan the Barbarian by Poledouris.

[@andrewkeys]

i genuinely thought this was already a remade soundtrack made by SSO, wow incredible!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Andrew!

[@AMTunLimited]

Weird question, have you ever heard of a conductor program? I ran across one a LONG time ago called Tapper, which let's you essentially "conduct" a midi piece, re-recording the timing with the same notes to get that tempo push and pull. Thoughts? Super happy to have found your channel, this is great!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks! No not heard of that one.. there always was a way to do this with Studio Vision Pro that I started on at college in 94.. I've never worked out a way to do it in protools or logic!

[@viktorerdody5368]

Paul, Thanks for the answer! I would love to hear an adaptation of a piano sketch from beginning to end, maybe there is a link to it. I'm very interested.

[@drtimv]

What would it take to get the Logic project shared somewhere so we can study the project and process more deeply?

[@JmlMusicNorway]

Will there be a template for logic on the new Spitfire Symphony Orchestra, like the BBC? I hope...😅 Great video!

[@maxtofone]

Thanks Paul for this demonstration... I love the composition that in places has the classical Alan Hovhaness ancient and medieval sound. Blessings, Max PS: I really hope you and the SF team consider a face lift also for the Chamber Strings ;-)

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Max - I'm not familiar with him so thanks for this tip - I'll check his work out!

[@maxtofone]

@@PaulThomsonMusicYou are most welcome Paul... Hovhaness is a much underrated composer who wrote some magnificent works. I am positive you will love his music. Blessings, Max

[@cubaseman1487]

Sound Amazing

[@cvrart]

Well, I pulled the trigger and bought the SSO. Now I just need a new Mac Studio, Logic Pro X, and a controller keyboard, so that I can actually do something with it. At least I'm starting with the most important element... lol. I'm thinking of the Arturia KeyLab 61 MkII as controller - I like the idea of having aftertouch for modulation, and being able to plug in two pedals for controlling expression and dynamics. Seems not many budget controllers even have an expression input these days - just sustain.

[@viktorerdody5368]

Paul, your video is fantastic! I'm a blind composer and I work with Reaper, which is fantastic. However, I have questions that I would like to ask you now. There won't be little, but I'm curious about your answers: 1. Is the piano on one track or on several tracks? 2. Did you use a metronome to play the piano sketch? 3. How did the transfer to actual instruments technically happen? Did you play it on separate tracks based on the piano sketch, or did you simply copy the elements of the piano sketch to the appropriate instrument tracks? If you played the concrete tracks, did you use a metronome? 4: Have you quantized wind instruments, strings and brass? 5. What do you think about making the sketch with ensemble patches instead of a piano? I'm very interested in your answers, and thank you in advance.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks Viktor! in answer - 1 - Piano just on one track, 2 - I did have the click track playing while I improvised, 3 - I turned the volume of the piano down low and played new parts in onto the other tracks and instruments live alongside it. 4 - Nothing quantised for those but I did fix a few notes where I had played slightly out of time! 5 - Yes I sometimes do this, but I prefer piano as it is then quite distinct from everything else and I can separate it in my ear while I'm working.

[@robinhilton2829]

Love these walkthroughs, Paul. Just bought! When you orchestrated did you play each individual part reading off the piano score or did you just copy the piano midi across the various instruments and tweak?

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

replayed everything! its quicker I think, and the piano is pretty rough!

[@robinhilton2829]

@@PaulThomsonMusic Thx! And thx for all your amazing work.

[@WesleyWestMusic]

Nice Rick Rubin Book on the desk 😉👍🏼

[@cvrart]

Sibelius would have gone to town with this tech. Finlandia comes to mind, when I think of how the brass could be put to use.

[@Pooter-it4yg]

Nice result and definitely a good showcase for Spit tech, although obviously built on an improvisation - mostly mood with little structural sense or development.

[@joshbarron8961]

I really wish this was done in Spitfire's UI so that we didn't have to upgrade to Kontakt 7. This is what draws me into Spitfire products because the Spitfire UI is amazing and I can upgrade my sounds without upgrading everything

[@D_o_n_k_e]

Im pretty sure you can use this with the free kontakt player

[@marcusc.nordin5624]

Fantastic composition and demonstration! Do have a new new instance of Kontakt and SSO on every track or do you split it to several midi tracks? 😊

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you! Yes - one on every track.

[@Ajwmusicmedia]

Beautiful sounds Paul! Did you do any processing on the track as we hear it or do is sound like that out of the box? And what reverb have you used if any?

[@RaJa-pp7bt]

Thank you very much. Great score, great tutorial. One question: What's the DAW controller at your left hand? (the brownish fader thing) Thx

[@StephaneGman]

I just got albion one and nucleus and wish I'd have gotten this one :p impulse ftw. It's next for sure!

[@tdesercey]

god damn. Paul. you doin something to me with that beard and hoodie. --and talent. STOP IT!

[@rafaelhernandez5550]

Very well done the orchestration. It sound just great. Hi Paul what kind the Midi CC are you using the (Red one) Thanks

[@dustintheblacklight]

Congrats! This is a wonderful and inspiring track! SSO sounds great, Can I ask what is whole session size?

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you! Can I check what you mean by session size - in GB loaded or..?

[@dustintheblacklight]

@@PaulThomsonMusic Thank you for your reply, Paul. Yes, I meant GB loaded. I noticed you use all the mics.. :-)

[@cvrart]

Very nice, btw!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thank you!

[@Metalpazallteway]

Very nice. The chordal structures feel very Jesús of Nazareth from the Maurice Jarre version

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

thank you! ooh yes I haven't heard that for a while.. lovely score!

[@Metalpazallteway]

@@PaulThomsonMusic You're very welcome always a pleasure to hear your work Paul.

[@muiscman807]

Nice piece...

[@alexpapas99]

Because I know that under this video people will know... I freaking loved the composition, so what are some pieces that use similar chord progressions/ create similar atmosphere?

[@samaltima6998]

Reminded me of Holst !

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

thanks!! way too kind! if only!!

[@colinpang15]

What do you think of Rick Rubin’s book?

[@braunhausmedia]

The piano sounds like it's at the back of a gigantic room. Are there any closer mics on it?

[@christiannilsen2835]

What is the name of tthe Red MIDI CC controller ??

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Choi sauce design

[@ΥπερδιαγαλαξιακόςΑστροπολεμιστ]

03:41 do you wanna play "Atlantis theme from Conan the barbarian"?....❤

[@Metalpazallteway]

It does sound like it 💯. I was thinking Jesus of Nazareth but this is spot on

[@Metalpazallteway]

Atlantean Sword I believe?

[@ΥπερδιαγαλαξιακόςΑστροπολεμιστ]

He wants to try at least​@@Metalpazallteway

[@dafingaz]

Nice!

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks!

[@dafingaz]

@@PaulThomsonMusic Thank you too!

[@weltenraunen]

This piece gives me Basil Poledouris vibes. I want to grab my sword and go on an adventure.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Thanks!! Sally forth!

[@electedmusic7685]

Rest of ABBEY ROAD ORCHESTRA please, ABBEY ROAD perc muted, rest of STRINGS sections....

[@joniadama6885]

BBC PRO, Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Strings and Solo Strings... Then you are good to go, and can do almost everything.

[@PaulThomsonMusic]

Absolutely! Great to have the different sound choices.

[@d_lydian]

How do you adjust the Kontakt 7 window to fit SSO by default? It's a pain :(

[@alexbeckhellingmusic]

I must say that us a beautiful piece, but John Williams esq if I may say so.

[@alleyway3215]

I will be honest. I think most of piano to sketch examples sound like garbage. Harsh, I know:( However, this? This is wonderful. But please stop. I don't need another library. But, you're convincing me with promising success. The library sounds rich, even crisp. I enjoy your orchestration. So many articulations, and the GUI looks composer-friendly.