The Berlin samplemeisters link up with a Hollywood film composer to create two major string collections.
Speaking in a video in November 2023 [https://youtu.be/qVvV3Hxq1q0], British film composer Benjamin Wallfisch cheerfully observed: “I spend way too much of my time sitting here playing string orchestra samples. [Join the club, Ben.] We’re very lucky to have amazing libraries now of gorgeously recorded string orchestras from around the world, but I’ve always been slightly underwhelmed at the final result. Of all the sections of the orchestra, the strings have the biggest gap between what we’re able to do using samples and the finished final performance if we’re lucky enough to record with a live orchestra. And for years I’ve been thinking, why is that?”
Why indeed? Within weeks the question was addressed when Orchestral Tools announced the release of two standalone string collections, Benjamin Wallfisch Strings (cinematic ensembles and divisi) and Stringscapes (orchestral string effects and textures). Created in close collaboration with the Hollywood composer and billed as OT’s largest sampling project to date, the project aims to give users (in Wallfisch’s words), “something that gets as close as possible to having a scoring session on your keyboard”.
The libraries feature identical line‑ups of 14 first violins, 12 second violins (different players), 10 violas, 10 cellos and six double basses recorded on the main scoring stage at Berlin’s Teldex Studios. They are not small: Benjamin Wallfisch Strings (BWS for short) weighs in at a hard‑drive challenging 501GB and Stringscapes eats up 129GB. Happily, you don’t have to download all of their numerous mic positions in one go; you can also hedge your bets by buying individual BWS and Stringscapes instruments for as little as €65 and €42 respectively.
Benjamin Wallfisch Strings and Stringscapes run exclusively on the latest version of Orchestral Tools’ Sine player, which works standalone and as a VST, VST3, AU and AAX plug‑in. You’ll need least 8GB of RAM, and as with all large orchestral libraries, the makers strongly recommend SSD storage for best performance results.
BWS and Stringscapes are among the very few string libraries to offer loop‑free sustains; instead, the players hold their long notes for 23‑25 seconds, which should be enough for most musical situations.
Breaking Convention
It transpires that one of Mr Wallfisch’s complaints about today’s string libraries is the routine use of sample loops. While looped long notes can be sustained indefinitely, the composer feels that interrupting the players’ expressive performance mid‑flow with a relatively short looped section has a de‑humanising effect. Hence, BWS and Stringscapes are among the very few string libraries to offer loop‑free sustains; instead, the players hold their long notes for 23‑25 seconds, which should be enough for most musical situations.
The Sine player’s Benjamin Wallfisch Strings GUI, showing three of the available mic positions.
BWS’s other deviations from the norm include true divisi sections, separate patches for upbows and downbows and five dynamic layers for all straight bowed artics and legatos. Another distinctive feature is a huge Atmos‑ready microphone setup comprising Decca Tree L‑R, Decca Tree centre, close, wide, A‑B (an alternative wide position), outrigger, surround, immersive front and immersive mid mic positions. Each of these has a raw and processed version, the latter featuring Ben Wallfisch’s dedicated EQ and processing effects. Designed to give you “the Hollywood sound right out of the box”, these positions include an LFE mix for the basses.
The libraries’ nine mic positions are presented in raw and processed versions, the latter featuring Ben Wallfisch’s dedicated EQ and processing effects.
Obviously having 18 versions of every sample hugely inflates the size of these libraries, but you can easily get by with just two or three positions: a mix of the default Decca Tree and close mics sound great, and if you want more room ambience you can add the distant outrigger or surround position. Personally I liked the subtle brightening effect of the processed versions, so they would be my starting point with these strings. If your project involves a large number of mic positions, you can use the Sine player’s mic merge feature to bounce them down into a single stereo mix.
Orchestral Tools’ long history of recording string orchestras at Teldex Studios has reached a zenith in BFS, one of the most sonically impressive string orchestras I’ve heard in recent years.
BWS Overview
Orchestral Tools’ long history of recording string orchestras at Teldex Studios has reached a zenith in BFS, one of the most sonically impressive string orchestras I’ve heard in recent years. The cello long notes are a thing of beauty: their hushed, breathy quiet deliveries, rich and vibrant mp range and majestic loud performances show off the library’s dynamics to great effect, and their generous C1‑G5 span means you can use them as a sketching tool. Having used the cello sustains to create a chordal passage, I doubled the chords’ root notes with basses in the lower octave and was knocked out by their tremendous low‑end presence — instant orchestral grandeur and gravitas.
The cello long notes are a thing of beauty: their hushed, breathy quiet deliveries, rich and vibrant mp range and majestic loud performances show off the library’s dynamics to great effect...
Another standout feature is the beautiful transparency of the high strings’ upper register. It’s unusual to find violins sampled beyond a top note of C7 (three octaves above Middle C) — these players go up to E7, maintaining pristine tone and perfect tuning all the way. Consequently, chords and melody lines sound fabulous across the violins’ entire register, with no weak spots.
BWS lacks the vibrato control of other OT string libraries: rather than providing an on‑screen slider to switch between vibrato styles, it follows the example of Pēteris Vasks Strings by linking vibrato intensity to dynamics. The quieter layers use a light, restrained vibrato which becomes more pronounced in the mp dynamic and reaches full force in the loud deliveries, enabling you to program dramatic volume swells accompanied by emotive vibrato surges. This effect works particularly well with the violas, who step up with some impassioned loud sustains.
So, do upbow/downbow variants and unlooped sustains make a difference? I’d say definitely yes. To my ears, keyswitching between the two bowing styles at strategic moments sounds more natural and realistic than sticking with one or the other, and I felt that the somewhat gentler upbows are a better starting point for quiet romantic music. The loop‑free samples are a revelation: each note in a chord develops naturally at its own pace without a loop butting in, resulting in a notably more organic sustained timbre.
BWS Tutti & Divisi
Each of BWS’s five string sections was recorded with its full complement of players (referred to as the ‘tutti’ sections), then twice more with each section split into two half‑size groups called Divisi A and Divisi B. Rather than dividing ‘at the desk’ in traditional style, the violins and cellos were split into front and back groups while the violas and basses divided left and right — this maintained a distinct physical separation between the divisi groups (good for panoramic mixes) while enabling players to stay attuned to their desk partner’s performances (good for musical cohesion and intonation).
The advantages of divisi writing are well documented: you can boost orchestral realism by distributing the notes of a chord across separate divisi sections (thus adding voices without increasing the virtual player count), split cello parts between melodies and bass lines, and achieve a more intimate chamber sound simply by using the excellent half‑size sections. While this is not the first library to offer real divisi, it’s good to see it cropping up in a contemporary release.
The Sine player’s Mixer view. You can save screen space by using the Mic Remote button to collapse the individual mic position channels into a single master channel.
BWS Articulations
Legato patches are supplied for all the tutti and divisi sections’ downbow and upbow sustains. Performed at five dynamics, the legato transitions maintain Orchestral Tools’ high musical standards and sound superbly expressive when you introduce dynamic movement with the mod wheel. If you prefer, you can assign dynamics to key velocity — either way, it’s essential to overlap notes slightly to trigger the smooth inter‑note transitions.
The remaining BWS articulations feature the standard trilogy of marcato, staccato and spiccato short notes along with pizzicato, tremolo (four dynamics each) and three‑dynamic tone and semitone trills. The marcatos last just over a second and boast a scintillating loud layer; the staccatos are sufficiently short and tight to use for rhythmic ostinatos, while the ultra‑short, briskly brushed spiccato bowing sounds great on rapid‑fire lines and arpeggios. Surprisingly, these artics are only played by the tutti ensembles — the divisi sections perform only sustains and legatos.
Stringscapes Tutti FX
BWS’s companion library Stringscapes is an expansive set of string effects and textures inspired by the composer’s scores. The collection divides into live played effects written and orchestrated by Wallfisch and his team, and cinematic hybrid sounds created by Orchestral Tools’ sound designers using the raw material from these sessions.
The Stringscapes GUI.
The Tutti FX are musical events performed by the full string orchestra. Prosaic patch names belie their complex nature: the subtly menacing ‘Atmosphere’ combines gently accelerating minor third trills with a mournful lower semitone motif, while the unison of ‘Spreads’ disintegrates as low and high strings gracefully slide off in opposite directions in a series of tritone steps, only to see them slowly return to unison after hitting their outer pitch limits. In the same vein, major and minor chord glissandi slither up three octaves to a high triad before descending to their starting position. Another highlight here is ‘Trills’, a mini‑composition which gradually builds trills of various pitches into a shimmering chordal latticework.
For pads, I can recommend the majestic ‘Chords’, and ‘Longs’, which weaves multi‑octave unisons into lovely shifting soundscapes. I was also impressed by the Tutti Horror FX’s nerve‑jarring atonal material, which comprises some terrific risers, suspense textures and the alarming ‘Stabs’, a sforzando accent followed by a hurtling glissando reminiscent of falling down a lift shaft.
Stringscapes High & Low Strings Effects
The spirit of Bernard Hermann’s iconic Psycho score lives on in Stringscapes’ high and low string effects. The high violins’ creepy ‘Aleatorica’ evokes the tormented workings of a fractured psyche, with the basses’ dark, grumbling version warning of something nasty lurking in the cellar. ‘Chatter Pads’ runs the gamut from high‑pitched teeth‑on‑edge screechiness to psychotic low strings improvs, while ‘Spreads’ re‑emerges in useful high and low formats. All great stuff, but in my book the standout here is the versatile ‘Glissandi FX’ category, which features some stunning atonal material.
Hermann fans will appreciate the high strings’ slashing staccato accents, which the low strings bring up to date with a tremendous array of visceral atonal stabs. These effects are augmented by straight col legno and Bartok pizzicato performances, which really should have been in the main library — the latter artic is played with mind‑boggling force, and will easily hold its own in a rock mix.
User tip: all the above mentioned effects have a ‘Rev’ reverse playback option which is well worth exploring. Many of them start very quietly, fade in slowly and are very long, so keep holding down the key!
Stringscapes Sound Design
Though less startlingly original than the live effects, Orchestral Tools’ hybrid processed sounds contain some bangers. I’ll pick out some favourites... I liked the Hellish descending cacophony of ‘Aurora’ and the sinister supernatural ring of ‘Bloody Spring’ (which sounds like ring‑modulated alien church bells). ‘Distorted Strings’ and ‘Space Port Atmos’ are similarly unsettling, respectively evoking the buzzing of a giant wasp and the fearsome hubbub of a crowded deep future Tokyo Metro station. To soothe the troubled soul, there’s ‘Infinity Strings’ (serenely symphonic crescendo‑diminuendo major and minor chords) and ‘Ascending’, a blissed‑out ultra‑slow build to a high‑pitched timbre suggestive of distant choral voices.
Sci‑fi and horror are covered by the ominous ‘Lift to Hell’ spaceship lift‑off noise and ‘Manic Riser’, which one can imagine to be the cries of a swarm of malevolent flying creatures. I also enjoyed the unhinged electronic pitched pulse of ‘Needles’ and chuckled at ‘Infrared Resonances’, which sounds like a clumsy replica of a Caribbean steel drum built by a race of dim‑witted giants. Meanwhile, ‘The Transformation’ is a remarkably unpleasant category‑defying racket spanning horror and comedy. All in all, a healthy collection of noises to disturb your listeners’ equilibrium.
Conclusion
This project arose from a mutual admiration society: Orchestral Tools CEO Hendrik Schwarzer is a fan of Wallfisch’s soundtrack work (in particular his powerful score for the 2017 film of Stephen King’s It), and the compliment was returned when the composer singled out Orchestral Tools as a potential collaborator. Both say they’re delighted with the end results, and a spokesman confirms that the composer is now using the strings to write with — no doubt the results will soon be booming from an immersive cinema sound system near you.
...a star attraction in Orchestral Tools’ sample catalogue.
Since Schwarzer and co already have several strings collections in their locker, the question “What makes this one special?” arises. Hopefully, my reviews of OT’s most directly comparable products Berlin Strings and Berlin Symphonic Strings (SOS August 2014 and April 2021 respectively) may help you decide. My personal view is that its combination of excellent performances, brilliant tone quality, loop‑free long notes, switchable upbows and downbows, divisi sections and imaginative musical effects mark out this collaboration as a star attraction in Orchestral Tools’ sample catalogue.
Benjamin Wallfisch - Music In The Blood
Born in London in 1979 to violinist mother Elizabeth and cellist Raphael Wallfisch, Benjamin Wallfisch’s paternal grandparents are concert pianist Peter Wallfisch and cellist Anita Lasker‑Wallfisch, a remarkable woman who co‑founded the English Chamber Orchestra after surviving the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Benjamin’s great‑grandfather was Albert Coates, composer and conductor of the LSO from 1919 to 1922.
An infant prodigy who could play piano and compose by the time he was three, Wallfisch junior grew up in a house full of music. He recalls: “I think my first memories with music were hearing Bach played every morning by my dad, my mum playing the violin and my grandpa playing the piano... music was always synonymous with family, and I guess to this day it just kind of feels like home.”
Film music also made an impression: “Growing up in London in the ’80s and ’90s I was always very interested in movies... those incredible scores of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and all the rest of that extraordinary period in film music. When I saw ET I was immediately taken by something I didn’t know how to describe, but it just felt so powerful. As a kid I was also fascinated with the process of film‑making, and with my passion for music it became a case of ‘I’m gonna find a way to bring those two things together.’”
The plan worked out. By 2005 Wallfisch had scored his first feature film, the crime drama Dear Wendy. The next 10 years saw a steady climb up the Hollywood ladder with scores for Hidden Figures (in collaboration with Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer), It, Shazam!, Hellboy, The Invisible Man, Mortal Kombat, The Flash and Blade Runner 2049 (another Zimmer collaboration). To date he has over 75 film credits, has received Golden Globe, BAFTA, Grammy (twice) and Emmy nominations and was nominated for World Soundtrack Awards’ Film Composer of the Year in 2019 and 2020.
Following in his 19th Century ancestor’s footsteps, Wallfisch also continued a parallel career as orchestral conductor and composer, performing live in over 100 concerts worldwide. He has received over 50 concert, ballet and theatre music commissions and collaborated with luminaries such as Adele, Herbie Hancock, Lang Lang, Pharrell and Yuja Wang. Hard working, you might say.
If this sounds like the CV of some snobby classical composer, think again. Refreshingly unpretentious, our man also took a strong interest in the electronic music and rave scene of 1990s London, waxes lyrical about Vangelis’ Yamaha CS‑80 sounds in the 1982 Blade Runner score and is well versed in analogue and soft synths, samples and sound design — all of which makes him an ideal collaborator for Orchestral Tools, and an inspirational role model for aspiring media composers.
Now based in LA, Ben Wallfisch works in his own composition facility The Scoring Lab, a state‑of‑the‑art Atmos mixing studio and writing room. Though his great‑grandfather might have found the technology bewildering, I’m sure Albert Coates would be proud of his descendant’s musical achievements.
Pros
- Both libraries sound fantastic and benefit from five dynamic layers, long unlooped sustains and admirable performance precision.
- BWS features half‑size divisi sections and separate upbows and downbows.
- Soundscapes’ generous menu of played string effects and textures contains some startlingly original material.
Cons
- BWS is expensive.
Summary
This collaboration with an award‑winning UK composer represents the acme of Orchestral Tools’ string sampling achievements to date. Performed by 52 players and recorded via an Atmos mic setup, the project comprises two collections: Benjamin Wallfisch Strings is a classic strings multisample library suitable for traditional, contemporary film and pop work, while Soundscapes’ imaginative effects and textures span an emotional range from beauty to horror. Taken together, the two are a knockout combination.
Information
Benjamin Wallfisch Strings: Full library €958.80, single instruments from €78. Stringscapes by Benjamin Wallfisch: Full library €298.80, single instruments from €50.40. Prices include VAT.
Benjamin Wallfisch Strings: Full library €799 (about $870), single instruments from €65 ($70). Stringscapes by Benjamin Wallfisch: Full library €249 ($272), single instruments from €42 ($46).