This Bonus Pack with beautifully enigmatic and quiet tutti performances is available as a free download for all registered users of Big Bang Orchestra: Black Eye. It includes a variety of runs and clusters, played very softly by the entire orchestra, in the range from pianississimo to mezzopiano. All string and brass ensembles play con sordino (muted), while the woodwind ensemble consists of different instruments to avoid the higher registers that would stand out from the ensemble. It includes two alto flutes, one bass flute, two English horns, one heckelphone, two bass clarinets, one contrabass clarinet, two bassoons and one contrabassoon.

A universe of new sounds at the touch of a single key

Big Bang Orchestra: Black Eye is the second in a series of tutti orchestra recordings for the Big Bang Orchestra. It expands the series with ready-orchestrated phrases and FX for modern effect-oriented composing, enabling you to create large-scale orchestrations from scratch – effortlessly, quickly, and with a massive sound out-of-the box.

Big Bang Orchestra: Black Eye provides you with all-new musical elements, such as hits, rips, runs, clusters, tension sustains, rhythms, arpeggios, grace notes, echo effects and more, all played by a large 70-piece orchestra at Synchron Stage Vienna.

From rhythmic textures to floating spheres

Hundreds of tension-charged clusters are available in several dynamic levels, short and long, with and without marcato, and as short and long crescendos. Sustained textures are grouped in several categories, some either slightly changing in pitch (microtuning) or gravitating slowly toward the root note (or vice versa). Others don’t change in pitch, but in volume, with different sections of the orchestra alternating their volume resulting in a sustained tone that’s constantly changing its colors.

A “seagull arpeggio” effect is created by flageolet glissandos played on open strings, with the accompanying wind instruments playing arpeggios that follow the overtone series of the strings.

The so-called Shuffled Sustains deliver some form of controlled chaos, where different groups of the orchestra play complementary rhythmic patterns. Due to its complex structure, this effect can be used independently of tempo and provides a propelling density that lends itself well to underscores, for instance.

Dramatic Accents

A special effect for dramatic accents is provided by the “Graced” patch, in which the instruments of the high register rip towards a target note, which is reinforced by the rest of the orchestra with a powerful marcato-staccato. The “staccato-sordino sustains” provide a special spine-tingling sensation – while the fortississimo staccato of brass and low strings rings out, a very soft high note played by the muted strings remains, illustrating the dynamic range of the orchestra in a split second. The Echoes and the Register Delay patches add even more variety to the category of Hits.

What’s more, Big Bang Orchestra: Black Eye provides a wide range of “classic” orchestra hits with all major, minor, open and diminished chords, octave grace notes, octave trills, a variety of short rips as well as longer major and minor runs in breathtaking tempos, where especially the instruments of the lowest register were deliberately pushed to their limits.