Thanks so much for watching Walid! Glad you didn't fall asleep haha. Happy to try and help by answering any questions if any pop up!

Thanks for watching and for your comments Sam! I try to combat the A.D.D. mouse syndrome, really! haha. Regarding the music to voice volume ratio, it's pretty tricky with the style of music I write. It has a lot of great dynamics in it! The volume ratio to me sounds ok through most of the video, but during quiet parts of the song I totally agree with you :) I tried to find a happy medium.

Blakus, you're a beast! This is both awesome and inspiring. Thanks for lifting the veil on writing with VST's and orchestral templates for me. Your brass and strings sound incredible.

Thank you very much for the presentation, Blake! I think you made a great point on what constitutes the sound of an orchestra when it comes down to virtual orchestration. Beautiful composition as well!

Fantastic series of walkthroughs, Blakus! I can't wait to see more :)

Very interesting! Thanks for the hints! - I am looking forward to your next post!

Man, I absolutely -love- these videos. Hope you will upload more, it's really inspiring and pro. Not sure what to ask, but when I have something fresh on my mind, I'll be sure to ask it!! Thanks for these.

That would be a really awesome video to watch. I have not found anything on youtube that describes this process in the context of VI composers. I am personally looking forward to it. Take care.

Thanks mate! Glad you're enjoying the cello.

Very informative Blakus, thank you! I've got LASS and a Kurzweil PC2x. Looking into CineBrass, Berlin Woodwinds and Exp B Solos, and other stuff. Beautiful work!

SO beautiful music

Haha, oh I'm sure she will let me! Thanks and glad you enjoyed it! I will keep an eye out for any resources or people that specialize in that area!

Thanks mate! I maybe I should do another vid specifically about my personal approach to EQ and how I work out which frequencies to cut/boost. Thanks again for the kind words.

Hi there! I don't use a wind controller at all. Everything is controlled by my keyboard. I use a Kurzweil PC3K series that has a number of assignable midi faders. I also perform everything live, I nearly never edit midi with the mouse unless I have to. I treat it like a real "performance", if I don't play it right, I play it again! Thanks for the kind words!

love ur music btw, very inspiring

Thanks Robert! You are quite watchful! Those little bits of midi initialize some settings that I like to use as defaults for some of my libraries that require it. LASS for example uses CC83 to control the portamento interval length. I don't like the standard setting at 0, as it is too slow and restricts its usefulness. I also use this bit of midi to reset CC11 (usually volume) to 100% (just to be sure). And the same goes for CC2 (vibrato in LASS 2). You get the idea though! (Hopefully!)

PLEASE MAKE A POCKET SOLO VIOLIN! UR POCKET SOLO CELLO KNOCKED EVERYONE ELSE OUT THE WAY! I DONT KNOW HOW U DID IT BUT ITS PERFECT!!!!!!!!!

great as usual. can't wait for your thoughts/demos on adagio since 1.1 was released

Yes. If you highlight multiple midi tracks and double click on them you can see all of the notes.

Hi Iain! I have fiddled a little more since then and am always trying to improve things - but to be honest I've been straying from SM brass a little bit - I mainly use it to layer with other libraries at the moment!

I am quite picky about intonation too, LASS tuning used to really bug me! But honestly I haven't noticed it since I upgrade to LASS 2.0, fairly sure they adjusted the tuning. LASS LS (sordinos) however still has a lot of tuning issues, at least to my ears.

Thanks for your answer! Keep up the good work :)

Hey there! I try not to quantize where possible, but if I have to I definitely use iterative. The limiter is there on my LASS bus purely for protection, because in the past there was a bug that caused it to nearly blow up my speakers! The stereo enhancer is visible, but it is actually disabled - I was experimenting with decreasing the stereo width of my brass sections, but found the results not quite as pleasing.

I'm from the Central Coast, about an hour north of Syd :) Yeah I knew CS was made in Syd!! I don't own it, but I really like everything I've heard of it!

I am using: LASS, SYM 1-2, Play, pretty much all the same as you. I have a pretty good intel processor. I am experiencing pops and clicks. Cubase 7 64bit.

Thanks DesoloZ - if everything goes to plan, I have a violin coming sometime in the future :)

Thank you very very much Blakus!! It really helped a lot! And it sounds great!! Can I ask you, how did you handle the orchestra seating issue? Do you have a standard protocol for that or does it vary depending on the project?

1. The abrupt endings are just excerpts of full compositions :) This is also an older piece now, check out my soundcloud for more recent template examples - thanks for watching! :D

Do you have your, for example, Violas "A B C" legs play the same notes but slightly different velocity or your A B C playing different notes?

Blakus - awesome! very well-done videos, absolutely great sound and just wonderful music you compose!!! - A question from a newbie to virtual sound: what's the deal with all the little short fragments at the beginning of each instrument, even before the left locator? What are they supposed to do? - Hope you'll post more of your music soon!!!

How long does it take cubase to save? Hosting in VEP solves this, but it's so much more convenient to host instruments directly in cubase!

Good idea actually, that might be my next vid!

You must have some type of rig.... I just tried the demo for the reverb you're using... and jesus, it had my cpu jumping up to 70-80 just playing 2 solo instruments that normally don't push it past 5-6..... xD

Hi Blake, have you experimented with more/other settings for the early reflection in B2? I just got B2 and have tried the settings shown in your video (early + Berlin).

Well...i was thinking about many things you mentioned in video. Thanks for answering in advance :P It's true not many people on youtube do what you do. Now...new question. Do you quantize iterative or maybe straight is more natural for orchestra? (maybe on ensembles) It seems they are relatively not straight...although attack maybe differ. Also...could you tell me about the limiter and stereoenhancer in your inserts? Thanks.

Thank you Blakus...this is all amazing. I want to ask a pretty basic question which I am struggling right now. Are you putting the reverb on each instrument separately or on a send channel with different mixing value? Sorry if I have missed it in the video. Thanks in advance

Very informative video, Blakus! I was thinking of purchasing the 'Sample Modeling Brass Bundle' and was curios how to get the best out of it using reverb, hence why I found your video. With regards to reverb, I noticed you had the Berlin Hall impulse on a bus but did you put your custom algorithm directly on the channel? Or was that on a bus, too? Sorry if this is a stupid question... I'm not familiar with your DAW (Logic Pro User).

Your videos are very informative but here is a few tips to make them more enjoyable : 1. Reduce the dynamic between your voice and the music. The music level is so weak that I have to crank up the volume when you play a music part, then suddenly you start to speak again and it just explodes my ear because your voice is very loud compared to the music. 2. You move your mouse around all the time, even when you don't have anything to point and it makes me dizzy and it's hard to follow at times :)

Love your vids. I am using LASS 1.5, however I am not entirely happy with the tuning, so I spent a whole night micro-tuning my patches. It has improved a bit but alot of the tuning issues are just on the attack. I am also a cellist and although I do like a 'human' element, I do find my ears get tired very quickly of the intonation problems. My question is - is there a markable improvement to the tuning in LASS 2.0 ?

Hello, Blakus great sounding, do you use a wind controller for the brass & woodwinds tracks or are they sequenced by keyboard exclusively, if it is on keyboard, do you use the controllers in live time or editing the piano roll afterwards? Thanks a lot! Go on great performances and compositions!

Hey Blakus. I was curious, what screen capturing software are you using and how are you able to get both a mic and the sound from your DAW to record at the same time??

Thank you

Blakus, how do you keep your VST performance down with so many instruments? I get lags after 12 tracks...

6:43 I guess you changed your mind about this, judging by your more recent videos showcasing crazy EQ cuts!

When you demonstrate the sample modelling horn at 10:20ish. DO you have a mute applied the patch?

Also I notice you have an Australian accent. Where in OZ are you from? Did you know that Cinematic Strings was recorded at the Verbruggen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium? Have you tired CS?

What kind of lag are you experiencing (stuttering/delay)? And what instruments are you running? Some are much more hungry than others. I also run one of the latest i7 processors to try and run larger amounts of VSTs.

Awesome setup! About how much ram is being used by this template?

Play is far more power-hungry than most of the libraries you see in Blakus's template. Samplemodeling and LASS are very light, not sure about Cinesamples by comparison though.

nice video. You should check out Daniel James. I think his mixes/mockups are about the best I have heard

Has your template changed that much since this vid? Love your stuff dude

Nice Piece!!! Looking forward to "many" more of your videos.....if your wife let's you! :) :) :) It's GREAT to have a new guy on the "KZfaq Orchestral Scene"!!! I've learned a LOT!!! I know your music is just a "cue" for some future movie. I doubt that your music is headed for a CD for sale. But that is MY goal, and if you know someone that Mixes and Masters Orchestral music, it would be GREAT to add someone like THAT to the "KZfaq Orchestral School" as well THANX!!

Great stuff Blakus. I am using Albion 1+2, BWW, and CineBrass Core as my main libraries and it would be awesome to know more about these frequencies from the patches that you have tweaked. I do not know anything when it comes to EQing so if you have any resources that help you out please pass them on, I would appreciate it. This is one of my favorite pieces of your's, I hope you finish it soon. Take care.

that would me u supreme when u do :)

Are you Aussie?