Legato - Unlock The Secret Of Orchestral Programming
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มี.ค. 2021
- Inspired by a common question from our audience, Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson shares some essential composing advice on using legato and how to approach voicing.
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From 9:59 to 10:43 I saw the light. Christian gave us the magic. I closed my eyes, tapped to the metronome and listened to how it feels when its LATE, when its EARLY ............ and when it is PERFECT. So good, thank you Mr Henson
"Musicians never stop dead" is one of the most important things to remember when making realistic orchestral music. Sometimes I forget that, and it's always nice to get a reminder!
metalheads do
Skilled musicians can do both, opening up expressive options.
Sometimes we do.
Excellent video, thank you! My mentor through school would always remind me “if the voice leading is tight, you can get away with murder”. It really does make the difference between just okay block chords and, “Hey this is starting to sound like music”.
Interesting perspective
Ladies and Gentlemen you have been schooled! As a rookie composer I bloody love these educational nuggets. Many thanks CH
I've needed this for YEARS! Thank you, Spitfire 💛🙏🏼
Christian, most of the time I watch your video, I feel the energy you emanating and can't wait to try and learn the things you're trying to teach us. I am so grateful to you for that. You have taken my interest in composing to a new level.
Thank you Spitfire for your generosity for providing a free version of a great orchestral VST and introducing programming concepts such as this, this sure helps and widens the horizons of a normal composer to think about a great string section.
Helpful information, thank you. Your passion is infectious.
The best explanation yet I've seen of what Legato actually really is. Brilliant, clear, concise. Thanks for this video Christian. Great for a newbie like me who, while I don't have the best, higher priced libraries nor the equipment or DAW that the pros use, it STILL will be a valuable lesson in using the things I have at my disposal.
Since I always heard the pre-delay feature wasn't in Ableton: you can actually go into View -> Track Delays, and you will be able to adjust the pre-delay in ms for both an audio track and a midi track. Very useful for legatos!
Solid knowledge paired with an excellent sense of humour. These are always great.
Very timely video for me... I've recently purchased a copy of BBCSO Pro and have been using legato patch more. You just affirmed my suspicion as I've been voicing the lines independently and thought, at least to my ears, that it sounded more natural, more organic.
Thank you for all your videos, I have learned so much and learn with each new video you release.
This is why I go with spitfire audio. Not only do they really push to get great sounding samples, they use them ,themselves. They live with them. I found other software companies go for the money grab and that's about it. Plus loving Abby road one so far.
Yes I get it but if your going to do a library a spend the time and money do it right. God people are so sensitive today. You’re sticking up for other companies you don’t even own . What do you care.
Concise, clear, enlightening and generous. Another gift to musicians.
Christian using his new pallet gear!!!!!
Fantastic stuff. Wasn't that long ago that the thought of trying to orchestra anything would've had me shaking the spuds out my underpants. Now, thanks to Christian and Spitfire it doesn't phase me at all. You literally can't make enough of these tutorials Christian - keep them coming please.
After many, many years of using Logic, I never knew about the force legato command. This is going to save me a TON of time.
Plus you can use Command + A to select them all before forcing legato.
Cubase has force legato and let's you determine the overlap of selected notes.
What's this now?
@@c.r.blankenship9040 shift + backslash
@@joeshite Thanks!
best use of Monogram cc i've seen
Even though I'm late to the party watching this video, total lightbulb moment! Thank you Christian.
This was an absolutely amazing tutorial on orchestration. My introduction to music making was playing trumpet; thanks to the vocabulary you bring up in this video, I realize that I in fact do think of the playing of musical notation as 'voicing', and have been struggling with shifting to keyboard cording - I just haven't been pleased with how certain bits turned out. Now that you've taught the difference between the two mindsets, I think I can make some immediate improvements in my work.
You're contributions to the community continue to astound and be outstanding. Thank you.
"Don't cross the beams", me thinking: "Wow, did I just do that in my last piece? Why yes, yes I probably did!". Thanks for articulating the reasons for this. This has an immediate effect on me.
Next steps: don't do parallel fifths :)
Bravo, a wealth of ideas and knowledge.
Christian, This really is a super video. Enormously helpful and informative - and also made a great deal of sense. Thank you,
Very helpful. Thanks Christian.
Hi Spitfire Audio, Please give us the Mid-High Legato String Section for AR-1 Foundations. Such an important part of this library that is missing.
I hope you can release it soon.
Thanks.
Thinking linearly is really important difference from a classically trained composer (who likely studied couter-point both early and baroque) and popular music based musicians now writing orchestral music.. they don't think in musical lines, they think in chords. Spot on video Christian!
BTW - I see a SomaLab Lyria-8! I just got a white one myself. What a beast that is! Check out it's digital brother in the Elmyra!
Brilliant instruction for Legatos thank you ! I’ve had a slight lag in understanding so much appreciated. Funny thing, I’m coming away with an odd craving for steamed broccoli?
Never cross the streams. Unless you're fighting a giant marshmallow man.
Or, you’re Mahler
What is the thing you’re using to control volume and modulation?
Your passion for creating/composing/refining is so palpable in this video, Christian. Thank you. It's inspiring. :) Paul
Glad I tuned in to hear Christian 'sing with his flute' 🤣 👍
Excellent mini tutorial with some really great pointers! Many thanks to you and Paul for these. Enlightening.
Now if I could get my Presonous Atom SQ to play like what you have taught! Excellent video!
The real Ninja is Andy Blaney ! awesome video thx.
Pure gold - thank you.
Awesome Christian! -- Elgar, Bax and Parry would be very proud! Such a great opening idea!! cheers!
Excellent tutorial!
Very, very good points. SPOT ON!!!
This is very valuable content. Thank you for putting this for free in the times where others trying to scam on some masterclasses not even half useful like this.
Fantastic, thank you!!! This really helps fill in the gaps.
Tip for Reason users: the pre-delay feature can be achieved using the ReGroove mixer. Took me a while to figure that out. Much better than moving all the notes manually, as I stupidly did before.
Thanks for the awesome tutorials. I learn something new every time, even though I don’t use the exact same products.
Got suckered in by the free offerings, began buying the Originals series, and I am now saving up for BBCSO or Abbey Road.
Another great tutorial from Spitfire Audio, many thanks!
Very helpful thanks so much Christian
Another fine and inspirational tutorial, thanks Christian!
Incredibly helpful video. Thanks for the great tips.
Gold - thanks Christian.
I love your videos and your passion for what you do! I learn so much each time I tune in. Thank you.
I always appreciate when you and Paul take time to teach us, thanks!
Thanks Christian. For a future tutorial, I'd really value something as detailed on orchestrating shorts. I always feel like I'm winging it. Sounds good at times, less so on others.
awesome tutorial, I learned so much
I absolutely love Spitfire and the stuff you´re making. It´s simply magic! And theese videos are so inspiring and brings my creativity to a new level :)
awesome video, so useful, thanks!
Put in that work!
Great video Christian, thanks you so much, I still have a lot to learn but I did already know some of those things like overlapping notes for legato, great to have that confirmed as good practice. Take care look forward to the next one be safe, best wishes Terry
I always enjoy your spirit, Christian:) Would you make some tutorials of the Round Robins Functionalities? (Albion, Solo Violin, or Solo Cello?)
Great advice Christian,
If I may add another piece of advice to those you suggested. Contrary motion and a planning of harmony/intervals between the voices will further in rich the overall texture.
I couldn't agree more.
Me encantó la explicación. Muchas gracias por compartir!!
Essentially "orchestrate properly"
I joke hahahah great advice for this keyboard driven orchestration day and age!
Great tips, sir! I'm definitely guilty of crossing the beams. And since this video is about Legato, I would be remiss in my duties to not send the request into the universe to please consider recording Violin Con Sord Legatos as part of either the Abbey Road project or a future endeavor. It's something that's sorely lacking in the world today.
Very good per usual
Very interesting video as always Christian!
I noticed that when programming with winds or horns, we should also think about letting some space to breath... In my opinion it sounds more realistic, even if it's programmed orchestra.
Back to the strings, It could be cool to do a video to speak about vibrato. A violonist, altist, cellist or bassist don"t use vibrato everytime,
and I think it's important to know how to use it when programming.. Otherwise it can ruin a composition. Sincerely, Yvan
Great video, Christian. Just got Legendary Low Strings and learning...good product.
It will be great to further appreciate your admonition about not thinking of harmony as block chords. I will just add that guitarists frequently do use, with pull-offs and hammer ons, finger-independent (dedicated) parts within chords to avoid the straight block sound. That aside, your point is extremely helpful.
Has anyone figured out the delay offset for each library? that would come in handy.
The eternal question!!!!
Lots other brands have it in their literature, but as yet, not Spitfire. Fingers crossed they will catch up soon 👍
@@johnjoedaly which brands? I find that orchestral tools libraries timing needs to be adjusted the most.
@@nicksaya Hi Nick.
Turns out I'm completely wrong in this circumstance! 🤣
I just looked up the Legendary Low strings manual and they actually have included the info in there.
"CC1 DYNAMIC PEAK POINTS ff - 127 (100%) mf - 64 (50%) pp - 20 (15%) INTERVAL TYPES SLOW Below 99 Velocity, playing at normal speed. Timed to 125ms. Slow Intervals will trigger regardless of playing speed below 40 Velocity. HARD Over 100 Velocity, or playing at faster speed. Timed to 75ms. RUNS At very fast speed only. Timed to 125ms"
So I guess that they have responded to users requests for the info. Bravo Spitfire 👏.
Now if they would go back to libraries such as BBCSO and update the manuals with the info, that would be amazing.
As for other brands, I don't want to start a cross brand promotion on their channel. 👍
@@johnjoedaly I’m surprised that it doesn’t vary depending on RAM amount, speed of processor and other individual Mac configurations, but very glad you shared this info which I hadn’t read yet!
@@OfficialStevenCravis that would mean your workstation can not properly cope with the workload. With nowadays hardware, hardly possible.
Great video and a great help to me personally. I'd been playing the overlap (as you demonstrated) but found it impaired the performance. It's much better to tweak afterwards to trigger that legato effect.
Liked the video. This was the reason I always liked libraries with separate instruments instead of a single strings, brass, woodwinds patch. Probably the same reason why I didn't like Albion or Abbey road irrespective of their sound. BBCSO is great though!.
Really helpful thank you very much :)
Great video! What device is that you are using with the slider and wheel to control the intensity?
Great stuff.
You can bundle these "lessons" and have one bang-on orchestration master class. I learn something with every one I watch
"Empathize with the instruments"!
This is actually a very important way of arranging. We really do have to get away from block chords as keyboardists, and this video shows exactly how to do this. I am very guilty of writing block chords for orchestration and i really do have to get out of that habbit.
Thanks Christian for this very important informative video. Now, off to my keyboard! lol
Is the move to record the block chords first then split out the voices and tweak? Seems easier than writing in individual voices. Trying to improve my workflow
@@theweakerthanyou yep Christian was saying in the video it’s ok and good to write in block chords - seperate it after. Not that I’m mastering that yet lol
@@theweakerthanyou it depends on what you want. I find myself many times making melodies with counter melodies and harmonizing etc because I do an individual voice separately. One neat trick is to create a melody individually then create the other and just listen to each group together. Lets say you write cellos then horns then trumpets. You do each separately then pick horns and try to blend with the cellos, harmonizing or something similar. It works for me. Hope I made sense lol
Would be nice to see you playing around with the velocity-legato-transitions especially from the new AR selections
This is gold :-) Tx!
11:52 .Depends on the Broccoli, Christian :).
Is there a way to trigger some kind of dynamic bowing in any of your strings libraries? In other words change bow direction within a long or legato??? If not do you know of a way to making it sound as if a rebowing has happened?
So, Christian, would you do that for all your instruments or just mainly the lead ones? Great video by the way!!!!! Thanks for sharing!
Totally unrelated to the topic, but what is that black mac keyboard? I'm trying to find a compact (depth wise) wireless one for my setup :)
I like to include the solo Cello or violin right after I bring in longs string chords from Albion one. Is is necessary match the room mics when it come to realism.
great
Good video
Love it
Thanks Christian for your teaching, always full of infectious enthusiasm.
Hi Christian. Thanks for the nice video, especially the difference between longs and legatos. I never really understood this one! Can you by the way recommend a good medium priced expression controller? What's the one you're using here?
Wow, I actually went mad and RTFM'd with Legendary low strings.
Turns out that the legato transition sample offsets are actually contained in there!
(Not sure if this is a first for Spitfire? It's not in the manual for any of the other spitfire libraries that I own)
"CC1 DYNAMIC PEAK POINTS
ff - 127 (100%)
mf - 64 (50%)
pp - 20 (15%)
INTERVAL TYPES
SLOW Below 99 Velocity, playing at normal speed. Timed to 125ms. Slow Intervals will trigger regardless of playing speed below 40 Velocity.
HARD Over 100 Velocity, or playing at faster speed. Timed to 75ms.
RUNS At very fast speed only. Timed to 125ms"
Please please please please Spitfire, go back and include it in the manual for older libraries
(BBCSO I'm looking at you!)
That's the joy with these videos, @John Joe Daly: I watched this and found to my great joy that even BBCSO Discover has some legato, if you truly play the notes in the way that Mr. Henson demonstrates in the beginning. Yay! :-) (more fun playing them)
16:45 lol did not expect that
Thanks, Christian! I always learn so much from you! I am about to invest in the BBC Orchestra Professional after a ton of research. Can I assume the legato patches work the same way in BBC Pro as they do in Abbey Road!
Yes!
Christian! Amazing as usual! What are your thoughts between the old palette gear and new monogram. I could never find the monogram in stock so ended up getting a huge deal on the palette gear version. Then the monogram then became available again in stock ... of course ... smh ...
The new monogram is cross-compatible with the old palette gear and seems great!
Hi Christian, curious to know how you implement the sustain pedal which is reportedly not supported on most Spitfire libraries. Would be interested in trying it to, as you say, make transitions between chords more seamless. Thanks!
Thanks Christian, I enjoyed the video and learned a lot. Is there any rule for calculating the negative pre-delay, or is a trial and error process?
How it feeeeeeeeels!
@@TheCrowHillCo Thanks
Great video! What about the practice of stacking articulations on top of each other? When is this a good thing, and when is it a "no-no"?
Thanks for this Christian, very informative and useful. Quick question - how did you smooth off those modulation and expression curves at 21:08. Is it just a mouse click and drag? Thanks, Chris.
Use the pencil and simply hold down the mouse button and drag a shape that is smoother.
Any hints on playing faster sections with legato where the lag becomes more of an issue? Are you better off writing with longs or even piano and then converting?
Might as well play roughly what you need then quantize and modulate afterwards
Excellent advice for a 'newbie' like me! Thank you Christian - so well explained. Questions or requests for demos I guess please =) 1. What is correct use of the Vibrato control for strings to sound right? (sometimes I see all on or all off vs. other times sliding up and down) 2. When playing slower/longer notes in quieter passages with Longs/Longs CS is there anyway to make the transitions from note to note a bit less wooden? (without using Legatos! ha ha) Which leads to (excuse any ignorance)... 3. Do you have Legatos for con sordino strings? I love the sound of the CS longs - do you just blend with a Legato line as CH suggests?
Christian, I'd also love to hear your instruction on the best use of Vibrato control.
since the video talks about legato. I'm wondering if the BBCSO core strings section and Spitfire solo strings both legato patches work the same way. like how they triggered the different type of transition
Where can I buy them. the official site is too messed up. Is there a simple sto like strumentimusicali or thomann? Thank you Christian.
What is the name/model of that expression controller you are using please?.. the one on the left with the green, purple &. blue faders and scroll wheel in the center... Thank you
One of your best videos on midi orchestration. Thank you Christian
how did i end up hear? i was looking for spitfire airplane sounds. But i'm not complaining.
Great video! How do you smooth it out.. I can't seem to find the shortcut
Oh man, I'm cracking up about the human Apple Mac idea...My brain definitely CPU overloads at times hahahaha.