Marc's Template

In Depth

WHAT WILL I FIND IN THIS CLASS?

Here, we'll see how to create your own template, step by step and for this, we'll divide the video into two parts.

We will focus on the Front End' 'Back End' and 'Routing'

FRONT END

Sketching (Fast Action) Patches. (quick overview) 80/20
Rest of tracks (real real quick)

Then, let's explain the Back End:

BACK END:

Groups
Stems
Reverbs

Finally, we'll go on to explain the entire routing process.

Violin I long
Epic Horns
Sub Boom

Let's pause for a moment to clearly explain the differences between groups and stems.

We begin with tracks, which can range from a few to hundreds. These tracks, such as Violins I legato/staccato, Violins II, Violas, etc., with their different articulations, form groups.

Typically, these are organized by families: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, etc. However, you can organize them in any way you prefer.

It's within these groups that mixing occurs, and understanding this is crucial.

If you put the whole orchestra in one group, you'll achieve more simplicity but less flexibility. This means you can't work with different pans or reverbs. However, if you work with smaller groups (e.g., strings high leg/str low leg, str stacc high/str stacc low, etc.), you can have more control over the mix. Sometimes, it's even necessary to separate articulations within the same families because you can work with different reverbs as needed.

Generally, we'll need more reverb for long notes than for short and mid-register notes. This is why separating groups with fewer instruments helps us achieve a more effective mix.

After grouping the instruments, we must move on to the stems, which are still groups but include more instruments. Once we have set up the groups with their reverb and pan settings, we will route the pre-mixed families to the stems. In the video, the stems are: Orchestra, Percussion, Synths, Pulses, Bass, Sub Bass, and Others.

The number of stems can vary; sometimes, you may need to generate key stems or others. Ultimately, the number depends on the project, but it usually averages around six or seven stems. Finally, the stems are routed to the master.

We also have a track set, which Marc refers to as 'FX groups,' where all the reverbs will be applied, and they are routed to the master bus.

TO RECAP:

A track goes to a group, the group goes to a stem, and the stem goes to the master.
The FX group is also routed to the master and will contain all the reverbs.

Once this is understood, let's see what needs to be worked on in each of these steps before the master:

ABOUT TRACKS:

The track, in addition to housing the instrument, is the appropriate place for work with:

Balance
Equalization (frequency stacking)
Tape saturation
Panning

BALANCE

Here, we are talking about balance in terms of volume between instruments and orchestral sections. We must listen to each track in comparison with the others, taking into account the natural balance and volume projection of the instruments.

EQUALIZATION:

The equalization process in this step involves cleaning up the frequency stacking that occurs when working with virtual instruments.

Every time we play a single note, we hear all the extra sound that a recording contains.

If we were to play two different notes from the same patch, then we would be duplicating all that extra noise. When we play three notes, we will be tripling the extra noise, and so on.

At first, you might not hear it, but when you start stacking instruments and patches, all the noise from all the libraries will add up, ultimately disturbing the final sound of your orchestral mockup.

This process, we'll address it track by track because this approach will result in a cleaner final sound.

TAPE SATURATION:

Tape saturation adds some noise, which is pleasant to hear. It adds warmth to the timbre and brings the sound a little closer to analog.

On the other hand, a touch of saturation helps to unify all the instruments, which results in a good cohesion between them

This step is not mandatory; however, it's recommended, as it will improve the final sound.

PANNING:

Finally, after having worked on the three previous points, we will model the position of the instruments.

This will allow us to create a space where the instruments are placed according to their distribution in the orchestra.

Creating this space is also part of each composer's creatDividerivity.

ABOUT GROUPS:

Once the tracks are ready, we must send them to the groups where we will mix.

There are two important points to work on here:

Compression & FX
Reverb sends

As with tracks, the goal is to balance and clean up annoying frequencies (frequency stacking). Here, we are going to mix the music.

To do this, we will explore effects and reverbs.

COMPRESSION & FX:

While there may not be many things we need to add or change at this point, it's important to note that we'll be using compression for percussion, perhaps adding some extra tape saturation or tube saturation, a little bit of extra EQ to add some extra brightness, among other things.

Our goal is to improve the sound. Essentially, what we aim to do is to add definition and color.

SENDS

Here, we will send some groups to specific reverbs, and these will then be routed to the master. Later, we will clearly see all these processes step by step

ABOUT STEMS

Just as the instruments are on the tracks, which will be mixed into groups, in the stems we will master our music

Here, we´ll work with:

Compression
Saturation
Brightness

In the mastering process, we add color, timbre, some more sound space, etc.

We'll take a look everything related to Marc's template in detail later on. But before that, we'll explore some details of the FRONT END that we mentioned at the beginning

FRONT END

Regarding the FRONT END, we will quickly say that having fast action patches is very useful.

Let's see how they are organized:

FULL ORCHESTRA

Full Orchestra long note patch (sustain)
Full Orchestra short note patch (staccato)

FULL SECTIONS

String long notes (optional)
String short notes (optional)
Brass long note
Brass short note
Woodwinds long note
woodwinds short note

PERCUSSION

Orchestral/Epic Percussion (i.e Apocalypse)
Sub boom

OTHERS

Piano (Several midi tracks, One patch)
Choir(long notes)
Horns section legato (poly legato if possible)
Trumpets section legato (poly legato if possible)
Stingers

We have just seen the components needed to create the fast action patches in our template. Let's take a look at the basics needed for the Strings template:

TEMPLATE - STRINGS BASIC

LONG NOTES:

Ensemble Strings Sustain (EQ for Warmth)
Low Strings Sustain
Strings Sustain Sordino
Violines (I&II) Section Legato
Cello Section Legato
DB + Cello 8va Legato
DB Sustain

SHORT NOTES

Strings Staccato
High Strings Staccato
High Strings 8va Staccato
Low Strings Staccato
DB Staccato
DB Pizzicato
DB Sustain

OTHERS:

Cello Section Tremolo
Cellos section Divisi

Go ahead with orchestral enhancers

TEMPLATE - ORCHESTRAL "ENHANCERS"

HIGH:

Celesta
Harp Notes
Harp Gliss
Mark Tree
Cymbals Swells
Piatti
Shakers, Crotales, etc

MID and LOW:

Tam Tam
Snere (different sizes and panning)
Timpani Hits
Timpani swells (mf/f)
Timpani Roll
Gran Cassa (Bass drum)
Sub Boom
Drums

What we show here is merely a suggestion. However, to begin with, you don't need a big massive template.

The best approach is to create a small template with the instruments you have that fits your needs.

Here, Marc comments on the 80/20 rule, meaning that by loading 20% of the tracks, he can compose 80% of the music needed.

Now, we'll move on to routing and explain the signal flow. We'll take a look at:

Violins I Long,
Epic Horns,
Sub Boom.

VIOLINS I ROUTING:

This track is routed to "strings long high" and we'll add:

A little bit of Equalization
A little bit of Tape Saturation

ABOUT EQ:

A little work has been done in the 'muddy area' with a small dB cut, and the top end has been slightly improved. As you can see, the changes are minimal, but they significantly improve the sound.

ABOUT TAPE SATURATION:

Some tape saturation has been added to add warmth to the sound. Additionally, slight panning was also applied.

After this, the track goes to the String Long high group, where it will be worked with:

Tube saturation
Panning
Reverbs

TUBE SATURATION:

Adding Tube Saturation improves the sound, making it more natural.

PANNING:

Panning creates a more detailed sound space. While the libraries have some panning because they were recorded in a real space, sometimes it's good to widen the instruments' positions a bit.

Often, we use sounds from different libraries recorded in different spaces. This means the instruments will have different positions relative to each other and different responses to the space where they were recorded.

REVERBS:

Adding reverb will help create a unique space for all the instruments, generating a 'glue' that will unify the space in which they coexist.

It will emulate a room (scoring stage)

Finally, all of this is routed to the Master track, where a bit of tape saturation will be added again, along with other effects that will further enhance the sound quality.

EPIC HORNS ROUTING:

The trick of this patch is to create sound by layering several different instruments on a single channel. This approach not only generates a unique sound for each composer, but also takes advantage of the strengths of the libraries. In this case, Marc uses:

Symphobia staccato - marccato Brass Section
Cienbrass Horns Legato Section
Cinebrass solo trombone Legato

SYMPHOBIA STACCATO - MARCCATO BRASS SECTION:

This library provides the attack at the beginning of the sound and enhances its definition.

CINEBRASS HORNS LEGATO SECTION:

This is the one that gives the layering 'body'. The sound of a Real Horns ensemble.

CINEBRASS SOLO TROMBONE LEGATO:

The trombone will help create more definition in the higher register of the entire section.

The routing process is the same as seen in the Legato section of Violins I.

Subtractive EQ in the muddy area, some tape saturation maybe, etc. They go to the group, Reverbs and Master.

We will see it in detail later.

We will now move on to percussion and in particular to the Sub Boom.

SUB BOOM ROUTING

First of all, Marc uses a Sub Boom of 'Drum of War' by Cinesamples.

Let's see the order of the processes we'll do in the group:

Multiband Dinamic Compressor
Compressor
Lowender
Multiband Dinamic Compressor

As you can see, the trick lies in the compression; we've developed three layers of it.

This is crucial because low frequencies are difficult to control. We must ensure they function correctly, and through these processes, we'll achieve clear sound.

From here we will move on to the processes that we will add in the stem:

Multiband Dinamic Compressor
Shadow Hills
Tape Saturation
Soothe2

What have we learned

The template is an evolution; it should grow with you and improve as you become more efficient as a composer. It will also expand as you work on new projects and need more instruments. That's why Marc recommends starting small.

In the next lesson:

CREATE YOU OWN TEMPLATE

We will learn all about how to create your own template step by step.

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