Office, Guildhall (Bath), Guildhall. A Berlin original which inspired Orchestral Tools to preserve all its strength, greatness and bold exceptionalism in a monumentally powerful collection to bring it back into the latest cinematic soundtrack productions.Orchestral Tools go up to 11 with a large-scale symphonic library inspired by a sci-fi masterpiece.Central Library, British Library, Greater London Record. Metropolis Ark I is inspired by a cinematic monument from 1927 - The first ever epic science fiction motion picture of our time.
Metropolis Ark 1 Recorded In Position Or Centered Trial And Then
In the early days Berlin had very big cinema production studios and this movie was one of their biggest, most expansive projects. Company founder and composer Hendrik Schwarzer explains: “Metropolis was the first full-length science fiction movie. Industrial and then post-industrial center (Acuto, 2010 Pacione, 2005).Conceived as an homage to Fritz Lang’s revolutionary 1927 film, Orchestral Tools’ Metropolis Ark 1 sample library aims for size and massive power. Everything is designed to be loud, to be bold and amazingly epic.Chapter 1: Specific urban history, particular governance and a customized. METROPOLIS ARK 1 has the loudest dynamics, starting with mf and ending with ffff. Crime and misery were foster.METROPOLIS ARK 1 contains a huge orchestra, choir, electric guitars, percussion, grand piano and a great drum kit, all recorded with first-class musicians on the Teldex counting stage.
Wolfenstein & FinckensteinIn support of the ‘fundamentally huge’ sound the makers strive for, MA1’s orchestra features unusually large sections and line-ups which don’t follow classical tradition. Where Lang’s film was silent, this collection is anything but: it focuses on the upper end of the dynamic range, from mezzo-forte up to a “very, very loud” fortissimo. The library contains large orchestral strings, brass and woodwind sections, male and female choirs, percussion, grand piano, rock drum kit, overdriven electric guitar and a bass guitar, the latter being the only instrument recorded outside the Teldex facility. I think sonically it fits very well our imagination of how Lang’s Metropolis could sound, although it has nothing to do with its original soundtrack.” In a further combined tribute to the film’s Berlin origins and the library’s recording location, the makers named the sections after the street names around the studio.Like Orchestral Tools’ Berlin Woodwinds and Berlin Strings (reviewed in SOS March 2013 and August 2014 respectively), Metropolis Ark 1 (henceforth called MA1) was recorded from multiple mic positions in Berlin’s historic Teldex Scoring Stage, famed for its classical recordings. We had a vision of a monumentally big orchestra that is unique, bold but also highly versatile and flexible for arrangers.”Why ‘Metropolis Ark’? “The ‘Ark’ part symbolizes a kind of vessel in which the spirit and atmosphere of the 1927 movie is preserved in a modern interpretation, in the form of a sample collection.
There is no separate viola section. Another articulation of note is the ascending glissandi patch, featuring some fantastic slow ascending atonal slides reminiscent of the noise of a jet plane take-off.The Metropolis Ark 1 GUI’s Performance View, showing the characteristic ‘very very loud’ dynamic marking.Consisting of 14 violins and 10 violas playing together, MA1’s ‘Finckenstein’ high strings are played in octaves with a unison option for their sustains, spiccatos and tremolos. Held notes are automatically re-sounded when a superimposed note is released, making it easy to play realistic trills and grace notes. For more moderate musical use, the low strings perform dark, atmospheric sustains and excellent true legatos, which employ my preferred VSL-style monophonic legato mode, ie. Its layered ‘snap’ string pluck and woody bow hit creates an aural experience roughly equivalent to being beaten ‘round the head with a piece of stiff cardboard — but in a good way.
Whether they’re playing rousing true-legato melodies, marcato long notes or staccato accents, these horns sound absolutely splendid. The combination of large section size and tasty hall reverb creates a massive horn sound which composers will enjoy plastering over their scores. Horns & TrumpetsA modern orchestral French horn section might contain as many as eight players, but continuing the Nigel Tufnel-esque ‘one louder’ mentality, MA1’s has nine. The high strings closely match the low strings’ articulation menu, turning in their own great set of atonal glissandi builds. Point taken, though: these urgently-played short notes are a great tool for underscoring swashbuckling action scenes, and for sheer drive, drama and power, they have few, if any equals. The section’s tremolos are equally forceful, while the lovely hushed note starts in the long-crescendo patch demonstrate how lush this section can sound when asked to play quietly.One online commentator described the high strings’ spiccatos as “very full and piratical sounding”, evoking visions of an eyepatch-wearing, violin-wielding band of cutthroats.
For light relief, they also play some cartoon-style comedy clusters (three adjacent semitones) which come in staccatissimo, short crescendo and long crescendo flavours. Though the trumpets lack true legato intervals, their ultra-strong sustains sound fabulous playing fanfares and noble, superhero-esque lead lines. Anticipating this turn of events, MA1 supplies a four-player trumpet section ideally suited to triumphal and grandiose music. Also included is a three-horn section optimised for chordal work in the maker’s view, nine horns are fine for “huge melodies”, but the three horns’ tighter sound avoids an excessive, synthetic-sounding instrumental build-up when used for chord pads.Once you’ve used the big horn section in the main titles theme of your latest blockbuster movie score, you’ll probably want to add some heroic trumpets.
In a nod to the much-vaunted ‘wordbuilding’ concept, a simple but effective round robin system rotates between different syllables in the short-note patches. The singers also perform a small menu of atonal glissandi effects.Both choirs’ legato sustains are excellent, and the articulation sounds particularly mellifluous on the female voices’ quieter samples. Performed by members of the Berlin Opera in 10-strong sections, the choirs sing true legatos, sustains, short staccatos and marcatos, using the ‘aa’ vowel sound and a strong, vibrato-rich classical delivery. Metropolis ChoirIf I was using this library to rescore the 1927 movie, I’d be tempted to introduce MA1’s male and female choirs for the scenes where the oppressed workers rise up, revolt against the system and destroy the machines.
Judging by what I’ve heard here, that would be an object of desire for many. Hendrik Schwarzer has hinted these sections may be the precursor of a forthcoming choir library. You can also solo or de-select certain syllables if you wish (see ' General Points' below).
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