Writing a movie theme with Berlin Symphonic Strings: Track breakdown

Join composer David Kudell as he breaks down his Berlin Symphonic Strings demo "In Search of Adventure". Discover how David used Berlin Symphonic Strings and its different legato modes to achieve a large, Hollywood-inspired sound.
Berlin Symphonic Strings: Large cinematic sections.
Berlin Symphonic Strings delivers rich, cinematic sound with large sections for creating vivid string arrangements. Introducing 3 new innovative legato modes, Berlin Symphonic Strings sets a new standard for sampled orchestral strings. Captured in situ at the renowned Teldex Scoring Stage, this library extends the sonic possibilities of the Berlin Series while retaining its unparalleled, pristine character.
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[@jonamarvin6291]

The demo track is absolutely stunning. So pretty.

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Thanks for listening

[@DavidKudellMusic]

@@metapotamus lol, yep it’s only BSS. All libraries used are only Orchestral Tools.

[@mrsakitumi]

Great sweeping cinematic composition David! Thanks for the walkthrough as well. It is well explained, edited and really shows off each library and how well they compliment each other when they come together.

[@andrewfisher2717]

This was AWESOME and a great showing of the library.

[@user-xw4tn7xi5v]

Wonderful music and nice library presentation. Bravo!

[@nicksaya]

Really Amazing. Great Composition and orchestration!!!

[@jaredledoux]

Really beautiful David! Very well explained - I do like that staccato/marcato combo. Great tip!

[@muziksculp2r]

Awesome Track. Thanks for sharing. Love the sound of OT-BSS.

[@ASX2001]

Great composition, wow!

[@richardpaul5557]

Again very nice David. A lot of experience is shown here.

[@kamihuntermusic]

Thanks David! Your videos are really helpful and inspiring!

[@JPDC624]

Whoa. Huge and well composed.👍

[@jamescalvey5273]

Amazing piece 🙌

[@ThomasJCurran]

Amazing track, amazing library! Thanks for the walkthrough David

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Glad you enjoyed it and hope the video was helpful

[@myroslavsaratovkin6868]

This is an amazing sound

[@cwagner_music]

Great music. Huge sound.

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Thank you!

[@marvinschluckauf6783]

Turns out, the winner of the spitfire contest is actually really good at composing. Nice!

[@DavidKudellMusic]

I also make a pretty good turkey sandwich

[@avamomoh]

@@DavidKudellMusic I'm coming over. You're teaching me everything you know and making me that turkey sandwich.

[@user-wk2gi5cp9y]

the spitfire contest is actually really good at stealing. he stole the melody from kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6HPcpd8ocyqjrs for the competition aaaand he won!

[@JPDC624]

@@user-wk2gi5cp9y Nice try, but the similarities are WAY less than everything else out there. SO... where's you r amazing composition?

[@airc6361]

Awesome !!

[@mikehall5835]

Fabulous!

[@Orchestral-Tools]

Thank you!

[@FlyingPetschman]

*sad face* the video is over ... so amazing!

[@jackhsumusic2586]

Sick !

[@lirieleth]

Love it! 🙂

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Thank you!

[@jeffhijlkema]

Great piece of music! Convincing sound, strong melodies and nice tonal happenings, all within this well known, embraced movie style. Thanks for doing this David. Are we listening to a raw Midi event mix here or did you use a fully audio rendered mix for this video? Be well, Jeff

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Thank you Jeff. This is the output of just the Midi, I always mix using those tracks and not audio tracks.

[@pradeepmusic37]

hats off!

[@DavidKudellMusic]

But the hat's kinda my thing! :)

[@ToeShimmel]

Looking forward to the berlin series on sine player

[@DavidKudellMusic]

The solo woodwinds just came out, it's happening!

[@jeremiahlyleseditor437]

Very Nice

[@sebazvideo]

Love it! Any chance you can post the Cubase project file for this, just to study it?

[@citizenworld8094]

I prefer this than any Spitfire Library. (Sorry David!) Such precision and exactness in the tone quality, the shorts are exquisite and the rapid legatos are a game changer. It's simply richer and more convincing.

[@gabrield.cstoica1832]

Hi,David very good track ... bravo. What do you think of that library because I also see it very interesting even more than the Berlin strings, do you see it better or are they more or less the same?I'm also buying the junkie xl brass one but I don't know if it's better than the Cinebrass pro ... I hope you can help me on what to do. Thanks and very good track bro.

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Both Berlin Strings and BSS are good and they compliment each other well. Berlin Strings has a huge amount of articulations, with a good size section. BSS has larger sections so the sound is “smoother” or “silkier” for lack of a better word. But the folks at OT may explain it better. As for brass, I was in the same shoes as you. I had JXL Brass first and then I recently got CineBrass because it’s been around awhile and seemed like a “popular” choice among composers. But I was really disappointed in CineBrass, the sound in the low end is weak compared to JXL - especially the trombones. I already removed CB from my template.

[@gabrield.cstoica1832]

@@DavidKudellMusic Thank you very much David, because if I will do the same ... I am going to buy the one from junkie xl brass because I also see it more above cinebrass although I also feel a lot the style of junkie in that library haha ​​...Regarding the berlin strings and the new one, I think that in that sense you have all the reason ... now that it was missing in the berlin we already have it in the new one that sounds much bigger or better to say symphonic sound which does not interest us so muchthat we are composers or we try to be haha ​​... you haven't told me anything about afllatus because I know you like it for seeing in a comment by Ane katrine that she talks so much about cinematic strings that well is a very good library and very effective . Thanks Lot

[@DavidKudellMusic]

@@gabrield.cstoica1832 I invested in all of the OT libraries a year ago and they have everything I really need to write great music.

[@woutervanderidder8417]

How is the string run (crescendo) done musically? Is it like a chromatic buildup? Or is it playing broken chords?

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Hey, I don't understand the question - or are you asking how it was recorded (would be an OT question). For me, I just slowed the tempo way down and played it in so I could make less mistakes. LOL

[@woutervanderidder8417]

@@DavidKudellMusic haha yeah kinda, but nice to know how you approached it by slowing down the tempo! But i meant the notation of the notes, how it's played. Do you play every note of the key/schale that you're in? I dont think your string run-up is called a glissandi but there are different kind of glissandis where you, for example, don't play the 7th, or only play pentatonic. I was wondering if there is like a rule with that string run up, sounds epic.

[@DavidKudellMusic]

@@woutervanderidder8417 I’m not great with theory, I go by chords. So I just play it out with the notes I think it should be, and if I hit any wrong ones by accident, it’s easy enough to move them in the key editor after the fact. 😂

[@thisislance]

No reverb added, interesting! I'd very much love a second video on some of your mic selections, even outside of BSS. I'm on terrible headphones at the moment, but those trumpet swells, for example, don't sound like the default Tree.

[@lirieleth]

Yup. Would be really good to have it :)

[@DavidKudellMusic]

For all of the instruments except BSS, I used the default mic positions. (For example, JXL Brass I used the AMXL Tree only). For BSS, I created a custom mic mix of Spot 1 +3db, Tree 0db, AB -3db, and Outriggers -3db. I turned up the spot mic since I turned those other room mics up to keep the ratio of spot to room intact. The great thing about Sine player is the Mic Merge feature, so it took the legato patch from 2 GB instrument and made it only 500MB but still gives you the sound of all those mics.

[@thisislance]

@@DavidKudellMusic Thanks! Mic Merge is indeed a fantastic feature within SINE. I believe it's currently broken with BSS and awaiting an update (perhaps not for all users, or you already have a planned update?).

[@jeremiahlyleseditor437]

Could this have been done with Layers?

[@retrofilmwork]

sadly no

[@DavaakhuuG]

1718 Tracks... 🤯. How many computers do you have?

[@DavidKudellMusic]

Just 1 iMac Pro :). I have the tracks disabled until I need them, so they're not all loaded into RAM. However, I also downsized my template to 1000 tracks and it's quite a bit snappier. I can always just load in anything that's not in the template if I need it.

[@DavaakhuuG]

@@DavidKudellMusic Thank you

[@stefanfrenchmusic]

@@DavidKudellMusic Stumbled across this a couple of years late... Were you utilizing VEP at the time, or literally running 1000's of individual instrument tracks of Sine player, kontakt, etc., and just disabling them until needed? Asking since I am setting up a new rig and trying to decide on best workflow. Your videos have really helped to tip me in favor of the Berlin Series! Incredible sounding libraries, superbly showcased by your great writing!

[@DavidKudellMusic]

@@stefanfrenchmusic Thanks for your comment. At the time I was using a disabled instrument track workflow, but now I am using a VEP workflow. There are pros and cons to each method. For writing many film cues where each cue is its own project, VEP makes a lot of sense. If you're doing individual pieces of music like trailer or production music where each project is unique, you don't need VEP as much.

[@jamesr141]

This is a showcase for David's RAM & CPU.

[@kiddo145ish3]

1:20 I thought I was going to hear Avengers Theme lol

[@AKThem06]

I feel likes this guy watches attack on titan