Brass FANFARED au gratin
with running winds

Used Instruments
High Woodwinds Trumpets Low Brass

Downloads and Information

Source Description
Youtube (VSL) Video of this Serving Suggestion
Vienna Assistant Sequencer Projects, Instrument Presets, adjusted MIDI
OrchestrationRecipes.com Recipe #13 (Instructions, MIDI, ...)

Preparation

When starting from the "original" OrchestrationRecipe midi file the combined brass instruments need to be split

  • Trumpets: 3 Instruments, in the first phrase the top notes are played by Trumpet 1 & Trumpet 2
  • Low Brass: The Lower octave has to be doubled and is played back by Tuba and Bass Trombone

High Woodwinds

Instrument / Preset Selection

  • Piccolo flute, Flute 1, Oboe 1, Clarinet 1 / VelXF sus / Wide

Preparation / Articulation Selection

  • Legato (All notes of the run, except last one)
  • Staccato
    • Pronounced last note with natural decay
    • All notes except Oboe, which stays on Legato (better blending)

Basic Phrasing

  • Expression (CC11) and Vel.XF (CC01) at maximum
  • Automated Timbre Adjust (CC8) from ~80% to 100% - clarinet only from ~60% to ~80% (otherwise it would be too prominent)

Finishing Touches

  • Humanize Delay Scale (CC25): Different values around 43

Trumpets

Instrument / Preset Selection

  • Trumpet 1 / VelXF sus / Wide (For Track Trumpet 1)
  • Trumpet 2 / VelXF sus / Wide (For Track Trumpet 2)
  • Trumpet 1 / VelXF sus / Wide (For Track Trumpet 3)

Preparation / Articulation Selection

  • Staccato
  • Portato agile (Last note of the first 3 phrases)

Basic Phrasing

  • Only Velocity (See picture above)
    • Add random variations (very high levels)
    • Add accents on the last notes of every phrase
    • Increase from high velocity to maximum velocity
  • Expression (CC11) to increase dynamic range (Crescendo from beginning on ~80% to end with 100%)

Finishing Touches

  • Timbre Adjust (CC8) (to tame high frequencies)
    • Trumpet 2: Value 80
    • Trumpet 3: Value 68
    • Trumpet 1: Add curve as in the picture below (values 71 and 90

  • Humanize Delay Scale between 37 and 47
  • Add dedicated Humanization tuning curves in "EDIT" tab
    • Trumpet 1: In tune random v1
    • Trumpet 2: In tune random v2
    • Trumpet 2: In tune random v3

1st Low Brass

Instrument / Preset Selection

  • Tenor Trombone / VelXF sus / Classic (Clear positioning left of Tuba)
  • Bass Trombone / VelXF sus / Wide (as all other instruments)
  • Bass Tuba / VelXF sus / Ambience (More reverb for low instrument)

Preparation / Articulation Selection

  • Sforzatissimo for the 3 longer notes (beginning of bars 1, 2, 4)
  • Staccato for all short notes

Basic Phrasing

  • Vel.XF (CC01) to maximum
  • Minor random variation of velocity for the staccato notes (on very high values)
  • Timbre Adjust (CC08)
    • Add note decay on sforzatissimo patches
    • Slightly reduce for staccato patches
  • Add c with Expression slider (CC11)

Finishing Touches

  • Humanize Delay Scaler (CC25): between 15 and 30 (with higher values on bass trombone and tuba)
  • Slightly adjust note ends (of all longer notes)

Mixing

Master Volumes

Instrument Value
Piccolo flute 90
Flute 107
Oboe 90
Clarinet 113
Trumpet 1 100
Trumpet 2 98
Trumpet 3 100
Tenor trombone 107
Bass trombone 95
Bass tuba 90

Clarinet

  • Reverb to -4.66 dB
  • Adjust Panning to L 1%

Other Tweaks

  • Add a tempo map with some variation around 113 bpm

Top learnings

  1. Build and balance woodwind runs
  2. Create a new virtual player (Timbre Adjust and dedicated humanization tuning curve)