The city of Vienna has always been famous for its exquisite string players and their fine instruments. On our own scoring stage, the string sections of the Synchron Stage Orchestra form a marvelous symbiosis with the large hall “Stage A” to create a shimmering, lush string sound that is now a cornerstone of the Big Bang Orchestra.

“Lyra”, the first Big Bang Orchestra module dedicated entirely to string ensembles, offers beautiful recordings of three string sections. With 14 first violins and 12 second violins playing in unison, and 8 violas playing an octave below, their captivating performances are perfect for those soaring melodies and prominent themes.

Recording all three sections playing together creates a homogenous, well-balanced sound, as the 34 musicians adjust their intonation, tone color, phrasing and vibrato instantly and instinctively with each other. It’s this exceptional coherency that makes these string performances so special and guarantees a beautiful, balanced timbre.

Articulations

The library offers a large palette of articulations that includes variations of short notes, long notes with two vibrato intensities, legatos, espressivo, sfz, sffz, crescendos and diminuendos, tremolos, fast repetitions, half tone and whole tone trills, half tone and whole tone slides up and down (glissandos), and pizzicatos. As with all libraries powered by the Synchron Player, the tempo of all articulations, e.g., repetitions and glissandos, can be easily adjusted using the integrated time stretch feature.

The string performances of BBO: Lyra are completely new recordings that blend perfectly well with the tutti recordings of the Big Bang Orchestra. The included mixer presets deliver a perfect sound out-of-the-box that integrates seamlessly with all the other modules of the series. Room Mixes feature an excellent blend of overhead Decca tree mics and surround mics mixed to a stereo signal that’s light on CPU and RAM. Other Mixer Presets offer a combination of mic signals that you can adjust to your needs and liking, masterfully crafted by Synchron Stage Vienna’s Chief Recording Engineer, Bernd Mazagg. These include “Stereo Decca Tree” and “Surround to Stereo” that feed the surround mics to the stereo signal for a richer and wider sound. Also included are “Surround” presets for 3D audio setups, as well as a “Processed” category with presets such as “Compressed”, “Sparkling”, “Wall of High Strings” and many more.