The title says it all.

I am using Cubase 13 and Kontakt 7. Since we are talking about scoring and orchestral stuff, more than 90% of the sounds I have are in Kontakt, and the remaining 10% are independent VSTs that I hardly use anyway.

I'm just trying to figure out how to go about making the perfect template. There are too many instruments, sections, articulations, libraries, microphones and so on. And the videos on YouTube aren't particularly helpful either. Making templates seems to take a long time, and honestly, I would be up for downloading some, except it's hard to know which one's the right one for me. I mean, so many of them have like 500 or 600 tracks. Also I don't know where to download templates from.

Basically I have an overload of information and I am not able to use any of it. Where do I begin? I can't compose till I have a template set up. Please help me get started. Thanks in advance.

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2024

That's a question that is very open-ended. It does have simple answers, thouhg time-consuming to setup. If you are looking for a quick method, it does not exist unless you buy premade templates.
I will bullet-point. If you do it properly you only have to tweak after this.

Create the folders for the sections

• Strings
• Brass
• Woodwinds
• Percussion
• Solo instruments (if any) Piano, Classical guitar etc

Create expression maps for the KONTAKT libraries you intend to use. If you do not know how to do this, then before you try to make a template for your libraries you need to know how to do this first. THere are plenty out there. Here's one to get you started if not.

• Then Create MIDI files inside the folders that match all the orchestral instruments.
• Then load each instrument, assigning to MIDI files you created and either assign expression maps to that MIDI loaded or create one.

You might need multiple versions of KONTAKT vst loaded if you wish to do an entire score properly with only KONTAKT because the 16 available MIDI channels are only per port instance. So if you envisage more than 16 instruments, one instance may not work as well as intended, even with the separate ports available in KONTAKT. Your system will tell you whether one instance or more instances it likes best. You also will need to work out legatos etc etc etc

That should get you started.

The alternative to expression maps is to simply create 100s of MIDI files inside the folders, one for each articulation.

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2024

That is an awesome response, I appreciate it. It does give me something to start on, but then again, there's still a bunch of information that is tough to figure out. Like for instance

1. For strings, should I do normal strings and chamber strings, just to cover all bases? I'm thinking yes, but don't know if there are any negatives to that.
2. For strings, brass and woodwinds, which articulations should I cover? Legato, long sustains, shorts? Or more than that? Again, all libraries have different articulations, so it is tricky figuring it out.
3. Percussion is the most complicated part of the orchestra for me, because while the other three sections have standard instruments, percussion is very vague. Big bass drums, timpanis, even tonal percussion like xylophone and glockenspiel fall under that. How do I deal with that bit?
4. For all the folders, am I just getting the different sections within them? Like under strings, we'll have first violin, second violin, viola, cello and bass? And then under brass we will have french horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba?
5. Why expression maps as opposed to different tracks for different articulations? Sure, I do prefer fewer tracks because that can look cleaner, more easy to follow, more organized etc. But doesn't Kontakt take a few minutes to load up samples from different articulations when you switch?
6. I have many different libraries for the same thing. Like I have 5 chamber strings, 7 strings libs, 4 woodwind libs, many other all-in-1 libs and so on. Choosing between them is very tough. If I end up choosing one at random, how do I know that I made the right choice? What if I could have picked another one and that would have sounded better?

Pretty sure I will have more questions, but those are some of the confusions I have to begin with. But at least I have something to start with now. Thank you so much for this answer. I am really sorry if my questions are annoying. I am just a beginner who is fed up of not being able to start.

 

I am not sure if templates are useful for you. If you already had a fixed way of working it is pretty logical to set up a template for that. But if you are still figuring things out you have no idea how to set it up so it supports you and not hinders or confuses you. I would only put in a template what you know you use almost always.
So in my case I would set up:
4 to 6 Kontakt instances
My go to master strip plugins
2 reverbs and 2 delay types
And of course that is not worth the trouble cause that is not to much work to load as I go along, but writing this I might set it up anyway, just to see if I like it.
Maybe if you take notes on what libraries and articulations you use and like, after a while you can set up that as a template?

 

Your questions are not annoying.

Only you know your audio interface and what it is capable of, your instrumentation choices which you have named, your mixing choices and what you wish to hear as the end result.

A lot of online YouTubers even the very good ones like to use MIDI channel creation names matching the articulations and balk at expression maps - e.g. - Staccato, Marcato, Spiccato, Legato, pizzicato for strings... cup mute, harmon mute straight mute for brass etc etc...

I am not saying this will not work because it definitely does. What an expression map does is mainly for instruments that have a lot of keyswitches - This is where expression maps shine, because you can save them. Even if you lost your template, if your expression maps are saved, they can be easily recalled. This means it is write once reuse many times. If you lose your manual template like many YouTubers recommend, you have to recreate it from scratch.

Only you know which KONTAKT instruments you are using as your toolset. My suggestion is to work out whether they are multiple keyswitching instruments that have all the articulations in one, or if they are all separate. If separate, go for individual MIDI tracks. If for example the String Orchestra you love has every articulation in one load, this is where expression maps shine. This is how you'll know if you made the right choice. Expression maps do not require the insertion of a MIDI note to trigger a keyswitch, they are a separate entity.

As for FX chains and engineering tools, sorry to the engineers, they are not a consideration until the template itself is setup because it is about the composition. The mixing and FX are the LAST steps. In mixing terms, the gain staging in this scenario is the instrument setup choices.

I hope that answers your questions.

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2024

Whenever I've done this, one of the more useful things I found was to create blank and clear (white or black/grey) divider lines between sections, making split between section easily identifiable when scrolling large projects. More of a little easy of life hack than anything.

Also, create views where you can to focus on specific sections, strings only, brass only, and so on.

And create the template, purge all samples from all Kontakt instances, and then disable everything before saving, which makes it load quicker and less CPU and RAM intensive once loaded, and you can then enable things as you go as they are needed.

For a comprehensive, one-stop big project template, I always split into these folders as a default (single Kontakt instance each, except synths that uses VSTs like Omnisphere, Zebra etc)):

• Sketching Orchestra (single instance of Kontakt populated with ensembles like Spitfire Albion or something like the free BBC Symphonic Orchestra)
• Strings Long (for articulations like legato per section)
• Strings Short (for articulations like staccato per section)
• Strings Solo
• Brass Long
• Brass Short
• Brass Solo
• Woodwinds Long
• Woodwinds Short
• Woodwinds Solo
• Percussion
• Keys and Mallets
• Guitars and Basses
• Ad Hoc Instruments
• Synthesizers (Omnisphere, Zebra, Diva, Serum, and Softube's Modular as default plugins)
• Choirs and Vocals (mixture of Kontakt choirs and audio tracks for vocal samples)
• FX and Hybrid (mixture of Kontakt and audio tracks as necessary)

When I start something, I try to only use the Sketching Orchestra

Then I set up VCAs for each folder above, as well as further VCAs for each section in totality as per below bus groups, and then I set up the bus groups as below, with all the preceding ones feeding into the "Full Orchestra" bus:

• Strings
• Brass
• Woodwinds
• Percussion
• Keys and Mallets
• Guitars and Basses
• As Hoc Instruments
• Synthesizers
• Vocals
• FX
• Full Orchestra

The VCAs I find crucial for my style of working, as they helped me a ton with mixing as I could focus on and balance the strings, for example, and then use the VCA for the entire strings section to move up or down when escalating to trying to mix the entire sections/orchestra, instead of trying to do it on a track by track basis after I'd already balanced them how I wanted.

And (almost) lastly, I would set up FX tracks for things like below, as you want, with all (or most) of the above bus groups feeding into the "Room Reverb" to put them all in the same space and glue them together:

• Small Reverb
• Large Reverb
• Short Delay
• Long Delay
• Vocal Plate
• Room Reverb

And then have a fille bus group called:

• Pre-Master

Where I run everything into and place any final touches and run things like final EQs, limiters, and so on, which then feed to final Master track, which only has Realphones on it so I can simulate different environments quickly and easily.

This is how I used to do it back in the day when I made orchestral and film score mockups using Cubase, but I'm sure there are various ways to achieve the above in probably more efficient and effective ways.

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2024

Don't let it go over 4gb or your project will get corrupted. Still.

 

When I start a template I don't think about legato short or anything else. Any song has its flavours. I work with Kontakt 7-Cubase 13 and Spitfire libraries, so I organize all this way: strings (1 or more tracks) brass (idem) guitar, piano (2 tracks at least with 2 or more piano presets or doubled live gtrs, violin) and so on (1 percussion, 3 drums - kick snr hh cymbals - 1 flutes etc). This way i can try within a song, all possible tones: legato short sustain bla bla. if you work with more than 24 tracks (on Cubase 13) you're gonna loose focus on the song wasting time on sounds. My 1 cent

 

here I see already many good helps to your questiong, but I would add: NOBODY can give you YOUR template. I also tried to buy some ready to use templates, ages ago, but it always ended that I had a quick look at it, extracted a couple of things and imported in my own template. So I stopped investing that way.

it may sounds harsh, apologize, but thats the best advice, there is no short way: BUILD YOUR OWN TEMPLATE, it will be something that will last the whole life, you will be updating it, changing it, even revolutionize it so many times, but FOLLOWING your own experience producing/composing with it