Big Bang Orchestra: Eridanus

Introduction

Welcome to the Vienna Symphonic Library's series of Synchron Instruments! As the name says, Big Bang Orchestra furnishes you with a selection of full-orchestra articulations, at the same time allowing you (if you haven't done so already) to explore our powerful Synchron Player software. If you're looking for that extra dramatic effect or want to highlight a passage in your composition, this bonus library could be the solution, or at least point you in the right direction.

Big Bang Orchestra: Eridanus is the percussion-based counterpart of Capricorn.

About Presets

Big Bang Orchestra makes use of our Synchron Player's unique features, and offers several Mixer Presets in five categories: Room Mix, Stereo Decca Tree, Surround to Stereo, Surround, and Processed. The Mixer Presets in each category are Close (Dry in the Room Mix), Classic, Wide, Distant, and Ambient. The Processed section offers "Big" versions of these Presets.

BBO Capricorn also provide you with a "Wet" Mixer Preset in each category, as well as more choice in the Processed section. The additional Mixer Presets are named Vintage Tape, War Fanfare, String Is King, Massive, Lush, and Bouncy.

The riff-based BBO Capricorn and BBO Eridanus also offer special Mixer Presets for their time-stretch variants.

About Patches

Patches can be used to build your own custom Presets and shape them according to your specific requirements. Big Bang Orchestra does not contain so many Patches, so the possibilities are somewhat limited. Still, if you want to get into creating Presets of your own, please refer to the Synchron Player manual, which will be helpful in case you encounter any problems.

About Pitch

For designating pitch, the Vienna Symphonic Library uses International Pitch Notation (IPN), which was agreed upon internationally under the auspices of the Acoustical Society of America. In this system the international standard of A=440 Hz is called A4 and middle C is C4. All pitches are written as capital letters, their respective octave being indicated by a number next to it. The lowest C on the piano is C1 (the A below that is A0), etc.

The Synchron Player software allows you to set middle C to C3, C4, or C5 according to your preference.

Selecting another setting than C4 will of course also change the play ranges and keyswitches accordingly.

Walkthrough Videos

Included Presets

BBO Eridanus offers regular Presets as well as ones marked "VelXF", where velocity crossfading provides smoother transitions between samples of different velocities. Apart from that, BBO Eridanus is structured in the same way as BBO Capricorn. It provides you with a collection of rhythmical riffs played by main, low, and high sections, and available at tempos of 120, 130, and 140 BPM (if you want to go easy on your RAM, there are also separate Presets for each tempo). Moreover, there are also "Timestretch" variants that allow you to adapt the playing speed to the tempo you need.

Main Riffs as well as Low Riffs are played on the ensemble's low instruments, while High Riffs consequently employ the higher instruments. With the latter, you can also select whether to play with sticks or with brushes.

  • Keyswitches

    • Tempo "all" Presets: C1–E1 (white keys only)
    • Riffs #1–8, all: D2–A#2
    • Sub variants 1a–1c (Main Riffs only): G1–A1
    • High Riffs Sticks/Brushes: A0/B0
  • Range

    • C4: loop with cut release (the loop stops immediately when you release the key)
    • C#4: loop with note release (plays a final accented note); D4: single note release.
  • Range "Riff-all" variants

    • Main riff: C3–G7
    • Low/high riff: C4–G7

Mapping

The variant "Main Riff-all" has the additional variations of Riff 1 mapped from C3 to G3, Low and High start at C4.