My orchestral film scoring template

It is very hard to find detailed information on what kind of studio setups film composers have. I've tried to find them from magazines, websites and DVD extras, and I've been able to cobble up some info. After watching this Mike Patti's great video about his setup, I decided to write about my somewhat similar setup. I hope it sheds some light into the technical side of composing orchestral music for films, and maybe gives ideas for other composers who are updating or building their own setups and templates.

The main requirements for the setup are that I am able to write orchestral music to a moving picture, export an audio track for directors approal, and be able to export a midi file that makes sense for the orchestrator. For me, I want to have a very diverse and large palette of instruments and articulations at hand all the time. If I want a suspended cymbal roll played with drum sticks + flute flatterzunge + sul ponticello tremolo in strings, I can write/play/edit the music directly to the already created midi tracks and hear the result. This means that I need hundreds of midi tracks in my template open when I start a new cue. My sequencer is Digital Performer 7.01, and the current working template has 250 midi tracks (click thumbnail for full size image):

My studio setup consists of one host computer and three slave computers:

Host: Mac Pro, 2 x 2.8 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 12 GB RAM

Three identical slave computers: Dell Studio XPS 435, Intel i7 2.67 Ghz, 12GB RAM

Audio interface: Motu 828mkII

Midi Interface: Motu Midi Timepiece

Midi controllers: Kaway ES4 Keyboard and M-Audio Trigger Finger

Bulk of my orchestral sounds are from Vienna Symphonic Library and they all reside in the 3 slave computers. I have the extended cube, which is a very large library with incredible amount of different articulations for each orchestral instrument and the very best sound quality. The samples are dry so I apply reverb and ambience to them, depending on the sound I'm after. Usually I use the Altiverb with Todd AO impulse response.

The sounds are loaded into Vienna Ensemble Pro instances in the slaves. These instances are connected to my host via ethernet. One instance in my setup can have up to 32 Vienna Instruments, but even more can be loaded. Almost every VI (like Piccolo Dynamics) has multiple articulations, like 2 second crescendo, 4 second crescendo, 4 second crescendo-decrescendo, sforzando, etc. I choose the articulation with my M-Audio Trigger Finger pads, that are programmed to apply keyswitches to the VI:s. It also controls dynamics with expression and velocity crossfade faders.

In DP, the only instrument plugins that are loaded are Omnisphere and Trilian. All the other plugins (including VE Pro plugins) are loaded into a standalone Plogue Bidule, and connected to the DP via rewire. This has been a revolutionary little piece of software for me. Since all the sounds are automatically loaded in the slaves when I open them, and the plugins are loaded outside DP, it makes it very easy for me to open and close different projects and cues. I don't have to waste time waiting for all the sounds to load every time I open another DP file. DP only handles midi, audio routing and applies Altiverb to the sounds. In the Bidule template, I have seven VE Pro:s, two Kontakts, one PLAY (StormDrum2), one Omnisphere (for basic sounds I want to use regularly), Garritan Steinway Piano and Stylus RMX. Bidule is very easy to use modular software, especially if you have experience with Max/MSP. Here is my Bidule Template:

A recap of the work method: I record and edit midi in DP. The midi is sent to Bidule's midi ins. VE Pro plugins can receive max 16 midi channels, so all the Vienna Instruments past that get the midi through MidiOverLan. In Bidule that midi is sent to VE Pro Plugins, which go through ethernet to Vienna Ensemble servers in slaves. The audio is then sent back through ethernet to Bidule, and directed through ReWire to Digital Performer. Here it goes through some auxes and buses (Altiverb), and ends up to a stereo audio track. If I'm sending the stuff to 5.1, I apply a 100% wet Altiverb track for LSRS channels. Works like a charm and is very reliable. Bidule doesn't crash even with PLAY, which is notorious for crashing.

If you have questions about this setup/template, leave them in the comments.

www.lasseenersen.com

Latest orchestral film music demo of mine: