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: Capricorn was designed to equip you with a profound rhythmical structure at three speeds which allows you to create numerous variations by combining its main, low, and high sections freely.
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.
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.
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.
BBO Capricorn offers regular Presets as well as ones marked "VelXF", where velocity crossfading provides smoother transitions between samples of different velocities. Apart from that, BBO Capricorn takes a different path than the previous libraries. 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.)
The Main Themes present the entire tonal spectrum of the symphony orchestra, while the Low Riffs and High Riffs are played by the lower resp. higher registers of strings, woodwinds, and brass. By using keyswitches you can create combinations of the different sections and also choose to leave out the low and high variants altogether. You can also select whether to play with Cut release, where the loop stops immediately when you release the key, and Note release, which plays a final accented note.- Keyswitches
- Tempo: C1–E1 (white keys only)
- Cut/note release: A0/B0
- Main variant #1–8: D2–A2
- Low variant #1–8: D5–B5, tacet: A#5, B#5
- High variant #1–8: D7–B7, tacet: A#7, B#7
- Range
- Main riff: C3–C5
- Low/high riff: C6–C7
The expansion to BBO Capricorn provides you with three rhythmical riff variations including single hits, and combinations of these variations, each in versions played by strings and tutti, and available at tempos of 120, 130, and 140 BPM.
BBO Capricorn Expansion offers regular Presets as well as ones marked "VelXF", where velocity crossfading provides smoother transitions between samples of different velocities. There are also special time-stretching Presets which automatically adapt the playing speed to the tempo of your host software.
By using keyswitches you can control which riffs and playing variations to use. The balance between two stacked riffs is controlled with Dim.Ctrl/A (CC1/CC3, depending on loaded preset).
You can also select whether to play with Cut release, where the loop stops immediately when you release the key, and Note release, which plays a final accented note.- Keyswitches
- Tempo: C1–E1 (white keys only)
- Cut/note release: A0/B0
- Strings/Tutti: A1/B1
- Riffs: D2-G2
- Stacked riffs balance: Dim.Ctrl/A (CC1/CC3, depending on loaded preset)
- Range
- Riffs: C3–C5
- Single hits: C6–C8
