About a year ago, I got an email from Jack Hughes, founder of the Northern Film Orchestra, based in Manchester. Following my Soft String Spurs project and my Isolation Collaboration, he proposed we do a similar thing but on a grand scale, with a full orchestra. The resultant library features over 600 combined recordings from over 40 players, in the shape of a Kontakt 5 and DecentSampler virtual instruments.

To get the ebb and flow that I wanted for this library, I decided to instruct the players to perform swells for Strings and Winds, and Accents for Brass. This allows the orchestra to perform as a cohesive unit. There are 5 dynamic layers which can be faded between using the Dynamics knob, MIDI Learn-able to any CC (my preference is the Mod Wheel).

The Northern Film Orchestra are a fantastic set of musicians who specialise in recording music for Film, TV & Video games. They have a wide range of recording packages from an Intimate 14 piece ensemble through to an epic 69 piece orchestra with 5.1 surround, photography and filming available. They even support shared sessions to record alongside fellow composers.

You can book them here: https://www.northernfilmorchestra.com/

Watch my walkthrough and behind the scenes film here: