Kontakt Berlin Woodwinds

All the instruments in Berlin Woodwinds can be found in one or other of Vienna Symphonic Library's Woodwinds I & II collections (total 86GB installed) along with extra ensembles, additional instruments and all the articulations you'll ever need, albeit at a significantly higher price if you splash out on both volumes' extended versions. A less costly alternative is Cinesamples' Cinewinds Core and Cinewinds Pro libraries (estimated total size 31GB), which collectively feature a complete set of orchestral solo woodwinds and a selection of ethnic and period winds (some of which play phrases), all recorded from five mic positions. However, the Cinewinds libraries lack played octave runs and their articulation menus are fairly restricted.Also offering five mikings, a complete orchestral line-up, many articulations and a not-too-scary price tag, EastWest Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds (133GB installed) provides 13 solo instruments, including alto and bass flutes, a second concert flute, all four members of the clarinet family and a contrabassoon.

Kontakt Berlin Woodwinds Hotel

Neither HOW nor Cinewinds (both of which will be reviewed in SOS soon) includes ensembles, and neither matches the Berlin and Vienna libraries' option of second instruments for divisi part writing. While all these high-end libraries feature true legato intervals, only Berlin Woodwinds offers phrase-building capabilities. BWW's Articulation Performer is a comprehensive multi-switching function that gives immediate access to most of an instrument's articulations within one instance of Kontakt. To activate it, simply load the Kontakt multi with the prefix 'AP' for the instrument in question. This loads the switching script, along with all of the instrument's available articulations, with the exception of the Octave Scale Runs and Runs Builder: since those patches have their own elaborate set of built-in keyswitches, they have to be operated independently of the AP multi.The AP window has 24 sound slots arranged in two rows of 12, each of which can hold a different patch.

You can switch between patches on the fly: a set of 12 keyswitches controls horizontal switching, while a MIDI controller of your choice can switch between the upper and lower rows. (Vienna Symphonic Library's Vienna Instrument uses a similar horizontal/vertical navigation system, albeit with a far greater number of slots.) The AP keyswitches can be globally re-positioned to match your existing orchestral template.Vertically-aligned slots may be used for layering. If you put (say) a staccato articulation in the upper slot and a sustain in the lower, you can layer the two by clicking on a small 'Stack' button placed below the top slot. Each slot has its own velocity range, so you can create simple velocity-switch instruments by setting one slot to a range of (say) 0-60 and the other to 61-127.

(The GUI doesn't display which of the pair is currently sounding; you have to use your ears to determine that!) A minor hindrance is that velocity settings are depicted as small, white numbers on a light-grey background and their mid-range values are partially obscured by a vertical white line, making them hard to read by anyone with less than perfect eyesight (such as your myopic reviewer).By clicking on the small 'Morphing button' to the left of the Stack button, you can crossfade between two sound slots using the MIDI vertical controller. A cool application of this is to morph between non-vibrato and vibrato articulations, a musically elegant way of adding expression to a part. Having all these switching, layering and morphing options available within one Kontakt multi makes the Articulation Performer a handy, flexible and powerful tool for MIDI mock-ups. SummaryOffering 11 solo woodwinds, two woodwind ensembles, a comprehensive range of articulations and a full complement of octave runs and mini-phrases, Berlin Woodwinds is a leading contender in the new breed of woodwind libraries. Although it currently has a few gaps in its instrumentation, the library is thorough and logical in its presentation, and its instruments are among the most playable and expressive out there. Although beginners may regard it as too specialised or over-priced, its excellent performances and deep musicality represent a great investment for pro users. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2019.

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The Berlin Series BERLIN WOODWINDS v1.1 KONTAKTBerlin Woodwinds is the first sample library to offer a complete orchestral woodwind section allowing the composer to write for up to woodwinds in 2s (meaning 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and 2 bassoons), with doubles (Piccolo and English horn).