SPITFIRE AUDIO APERTURE ORCHESTRA The Black Edition 2020 User Manual

SPITFIRE AUDIO APERTURE ORCHESTRA The Black Edition 2020

INTRODUCTION

We have harnessed the power of four different orchestral sections to release the beastly power of strings, brass, and woodwind. Move seamlessly from a quintet of solo players performing at the softest level, right up to a full symphonic orchestra playing at full pelt — all in the same instrument. Featuring 30 essential articulations, the library ~6GB enables you to achieve new levels of expression by controlling dynamics and the number of players simultaneously, giving you incredible focus, texture, and magnitude — an imagined aperture in sound.

Instead of mapping the dynamics according to sound level, Aperture’s dynamics are focused on timbre. Starting with a small String Quartet, opening the Aperture allows you to widen the lens to a full Symphonic Ensemble- producing a roaring sound with the addition of Brass and Woodwinds.

• 1ST LAYER STRING QUARTET (P)

• 2ND LAYER CHAMBER STRINGS (MP)

• 3RD LAYER SYMPHONIC STRINGS (MF)

• 4TH LAYER SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA (FF)

QUICK SPECS

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.13 – OS 13
Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core), 8GB RAM
Recommended: 2.8GHz i7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

32-bit DAWs not supported

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows 10 and Windows 11. (Latest Service Pack, 64-bit)
Minimum: Intel Core 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core) or AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM
Recommended: Intel 2.8GHz i7 (six-core) or AMD R7 2700, 16GB RAM

32-bit DAWs not supported

• Download Size 6GB
• Disk space required during install: 12GB
• 6378 samples
• Kontakt Player (AU, VST2, VST3, AAX)
• Deep sampled: multiple instruments, techniques, dynamics, round robins and release triggers.

DOWNLOADING & INSTALLING

Thank you for buying Aperture Orchestra. If you are new to Spitfire Audio, you can get up to speed here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/about/

First though, grab the ‘Spitfire Audio App’ from this link, this app will enable you to download the library: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/info /library-manager/

THE SPITFIRE AUDIO APP

When you launch the app you will be prompted to login using the same details you use at our site. Then you’ll see the page pictured below:

1. TABS the default tab is My Products, which shows all of the libraries on your Spitfire Account. Downloads will show currently downloading products.
2. FILTERS Clicking these filters will quickly display products you’ve yet to install, those already installed, and any available updates. Clicking again will remove the filter.
3. LIBRARY All libraries and plugins in your collection will appear with their artwork on the My Products tab. Clicking this artwork will open the product page. This is a great place to find information such as system requirements and instructions as well as  Reset and Repair options.
4. INSTALL/UPDATE buttons allow you to quickly start a download directly from the My Products tab, instead of clicking through to the Library. Next to the button the size of the download is shown.
   

THE SPITFIRE APP PREFERENCES

If this is your first time using the Spitfire Audio App for a download you may wish to first navigate to the Settings tab. Here you can set the Default Content location for where you wish to download your libraries. You can also you can set the default VST2 install location to the folder where your DAW expects to find VST files.

Here you can also enable Auto Login to save time in future.

Once you are happy with your preferences, simply click the Install button for the library. This is either directly on My Products tab under the library artwork, or it can be found by clicking on the library image and clicking the install button on the page that appears.

Clicking either of these will prompt you for a location, the default content location in your preferences will be suggested but you can select any suitable location. If installing from a hard drive, ensure that you choose the drive as the location.

Once you are happy with the location click Download.

After clicking install you will be directed to the Downloads tab where you can watch the progress if you like. You can of course leave the Downloads tab and start other downloads but at this point you should leave the Spitfire App open until the download completes.

REGISTERING WITH KONTAKT PLAYER

If you have never used one of our libraries before and you don’t own a copy of Native Instruments Kontakt, you’ll need to download the free “Kontakt Player” via the Native Access App here: https://www.native- instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/

If you would like to find out more about the differences between Kontakt and Kontakt Player) go to Appendix A

If you would also like to know what we recommend as an optimal set up please go to Appendix B

For a video tutorial, go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPIClox3ZmE&t=192s

1. Install Kontakt Player via the Native Access Application (skip this step if you already have it)

2. Once you have finished installing Kontakt, go to Add Serial in the bottom left of the Native Access Application.

3. Enter the serial number in this format:
   
   Serials can be found in your ‘ready to download’ email and at the following link: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/my-account/serial-numbers

4. You will then be prompted to navigate to the ‘new’/’available’ products in Native Access. From here, add library for Aperture Orchestra. Browse for your downloaded Spitfire Audio – Aperture Orchestra folder and select this to complete the authorisation.

5. Your library is authorised.

If you have never used Kontakt before we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the basics of patch (or instrument) loading, multi management, outputting and midi routing detailed in the Kontakt user-manual and native instruments website: https://www.native- instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7/

If you are an established Kontakt user please make sure you are running version 5.6.8 or later.

For more information about NKS and integration with Native Instruments hardware controllers and keyboards please checkout their online support content: https://support.native- instruments.com/hc/enus?_ga=2.14557879.1664369915.1595258679-1014426992.1588239468

FOLDER STRUCTURE

INSTRUMENT
The Instrument folder contains all of the files. In the first layer of this folder structure, you will find the two main instrument .nki files (Raptor and Dreadnought) as well as the sub folder for Individual Articulations.

SUB-FOLDERS

Within Individual Articulations, you will find two folders (Raptor and Dreadnought). These pertain to the articulations found in each of the main patches. To navigate to the full list of individual articulation .nki files, click on one of these folders.

INDIVIDUAL ARTICULATIONS

When the sub-folders are selected, a full list of the techniques found in the main patches can be found. These individual .nki files can be loaded into the Kontakt window, and allow you to save Memory, should you only wish to use one specific technique.

OPENING YOUR FIRST INSTRUMENT.

Double click an ‘.nki’ file to load a patch. A patch has a file .nki extension and a little keyboard icon. Alternatively drag the instrument from the left pane into the right pane.

If you can’t hear anything double check first that the midi channel you are transmitting with your keyboard is the same as the one in the Kontakt Instrument and that the output is connected to an output you have selected in your Digital Audio Workstation.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

SWITCHING VIEWS

When you first load a standard GUI patch you’ll be greeted with the Simple View. This is one of 3 pages that you can switch between using the panel switcher.

ASSIGNING MIDI CC

All GUI controls can be assigned a unique controller number so you can adjust via an external controller. To assign, un-assign, or just to see what CC number is assigned to any control, RIGHT or CTRL CLICK.

MIDI CC can also be manually assigned in the Automation Window within the Kontakt Plugin. From this window, simply drag and drop the MIDI CC Assignments over the controls you wish to assign.

If you wish to map your MIDI device to Spitfire Libraries, a full list of our standardized MIDI CC Mapping can be found here: https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013834018-MIDI-CC- Chart-for-Spitfire-Audio-Libraries

THE SIMPLE VIEW

1. TECHNIQUE INDICATOR
   The text here informs you the name of the technique you have selected from the Technique Selector.

2. APERTURE
   The Aperture graphic opens and closing according to the dynamic you are playing.

3. CONTROLLERS
   DYNAMICS – Moving this crossfades the different dynamics between loud and soft. (CC#1)
   REVERB- Toggle switch for reverb. Increase the reverb amount by turning to the right. (CC#17)
   RELEASE – Increase the decay time of the notes across all of the techniques. (CC#16)
   EXPRESSION – Instrument trim that adjusts the volume within the dynamics. (CC#11)

4. TECHNIQUE SELECTOR
   Switch between the different techniques (playing styles) by selecting the panel for each technique.
   These can also be switched using the Keyswitching functions detailed in the Expert View.
   

THE EXPERT VIEW

1. KEYSWITCH EDITOR
   The ‘Expert View’ has some additional functions compared to the general overview page. This includes the Keyswitch Editor, as detailed below.
   
   1a. “KEYBOARD SHIMMIER” – This shifts your bank of key switches left or right on the keyboard. Not applicable to this library as there are no articulations to switch.
   1b. “KEYSWITCH TO CC SELECTOR” – Use this to assign a CC controller to act as articulation / keyswitcher. Right Click on “CC” and move the hardware controller you wish to use in order for the instrument to “learn” how you’d like to select articulations. Also not applicable to this library as there are no articulations to switch.
   1c. “ARTICULATION LOCKER” – This selection allows the user to lock the technique switching method.
   UNLOCKED ARTIC’ – Is the standard setting, select articulations via the front panel or associated keyswitch.
   LOCKED ARTIC’ – This locks your articulation so it doesn’t change either via front panel or keyswitch.
   LOCKED KS – This locks your articulation via keyswitch but you’re free to switch via the front panel.
   LOCKED TO UACC – This standard was developed by Spitfire and more information is found here. The default controller channel is #32 but this can be changed by right/ CTRL clicking on the CC (1b)
   LOCKED TO UACC KS – The functionality of UACC triggered via KS. When activated, a single keyswitch is available. Pressing this key at varying velocities (according to UACC standards) changes articulation. Learn more about UACCKS here.
   SHARED KS – This setting allows you to spread keyswitches across multiple articulations and multiple patches.

2. TECHNIQUE PURGE
   This small button under each technique allows you to remove each technique from memory. This will reduce the overall memory (RAM) used for the library.

3. GENERAL CONTROLS
   OPTIONS
   PRESETS – This allows you to load predetermined sets of articulations. Use this to optimize your system quickly for essential articulations or to start building templates using empty “shells”.
   PURGE UNUSED – This control keeps unloading any samples you are not using to keep your memory usage as low as possible.
   TRANSPOSE – Toggle this on and tweak the number to the right to transpose your instrument. Note this is not the same as tuning, the instrument will actually offset the samples to the selected pitch.
   CC MAPPED VEL(OCITY) – For short articulations only, click this to control note velocity with the Dynamics slider.
   ROUND ROBINS & LEGATO
   NO EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY (NEIGHBOURING ZONES) – Next to this lies a drop-down menu with the round robin options, which allow you to double up using neighboring zones to create more Round Robins per note.

4. CONTROLLERS #2
   DYNAMICS – Moving this crossfades the different dynamics between loud and soft. (CC#1)
   REVERB- Toggle switch for reverb. Increase the reverb amount by turning to the right. (CC#17)
   RELEASE – Increase the decay time of the notes across all of the techniques. (CC#16)
   EXPRESSION – Instrument trim that adjusts the volume within the dynamics. (CC#11)
   

THE OSTINATUM VIEW

1. SETTINGS
   MODE – Selects how the Ostinatum will interpret your playing. Ostinatum will sequence a maximum of 10 notes (one for each of your fingers). It needs to arrange them into a note order “1-10” and this determines how it does that.
   OFF – The default position, in this position the Ostinatum remains dormant.
   ORDER PRESSED – This will organise the notes in the order you pressed them.
   ASCENDING – From bottom to top.
   DESCENDING – From top to bottom.
   CONTROL KEYSWITCHES – Allows you to set up a section of the keyboard that controls the state of the ostinatum. These keyswitch let you turn it off, or set the Mode.
   SOLO KEYSWITCHES – Allows you to dedicate a section of the keyboard to keyswitches that solo each ostinatum track. The first KS turns all tracks on, the following KS solo each individual track.
   CHORD MODE – This ignores any note order and simply plays everything polyphonically, great for measured term style effects.

2. RHYTHM COMPUTER
   NOTE MENU – Click these to place a note into the computer at the length you desire. Click the trash can to delete, or choose a preset from the drop down on the right. The cog allows you further fine tuning and configuration tools.
   LENGTH – This displays the note lengths in sequence that you have selected from the Note Menu. Drag down here to create rest versions of the note length.
   KEY – Under each note you can then select which key (displayed in real time in the Transport) this note is attached to. Scroll up and down to select.
   LEVEL – Adjust these bars up and down to adjust the velocity levels of each notes, this will bring your rhythm sequence to life and provide you with all sorts of surprising syncopated accents.
   LOAD/ SAVE – Allows you to store your previously made Ostinati.

3. PATTERN SELECTOR
   With the Ostinatum machine, there’s a dropdown on the rhythm computer allowing you to switch between (and create) up to 8 different patterns.
   By default these layer on top of each other, but you can also configure them to be solo using either the Ostinatum track options:
   
   Or using the ‘solo keyswitch’ option. With Solo Keyswitch, 9 new (customisable) keyswitches are added to the keyboard:
   
   The very first one unmutes all tracks so that they play together. The next eight solo each individual track respectively. When you press them, everything but that keyswitch’s track is muted.
   You could programme crazy 16ths on track 1, lazy halves on track 2, and then keyswitch between them in your DAW.
   

APPENDIX A – KONTAKT vs. KONTAKT PLAYER

Kontakt Player is a free version of the Kontakt sample playback engine available to download: https://www.native- instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7/

It works with libraries that the developer has paid a license fee for. Essentially, you’ve bought this playback engine along with your library.

The Kontakt player gives you full access to all the sounds and all the editable parameters on the front panel. Also, unlike non-Player libraries, these libraries will also have a banner that appears on the Kontakt Libraries pane

If you want to go deeper into editing you’ll need a full version. As you will already own the free Kontakt player and have bought one of our ‘player’ libraries you will be eligible for a discount upgrade to Kontakt via the NI website. See here for more details: https://www.native- instruments.com/en/pricing/kontakt-7/crossgrade-offer/

APPENDIX B – RECOMMENDED TECH SPECS

RECOMMENDED SPEC:

The better your computer, the better the performance of any Spitfire module. But not to worry if you’re not spec’d up to the hilt. All programs are provided with a set of parameters that enable you to dial back the CPU demands of any given patch. But moving forward, we’re confident this module will keep your computer busy for many years to come! We recommend a combination of high processor speeds, a good chunk of memory and a devoted SSD eSata, USB3, or Thunderbolt drive. The more memory you have, the less demand placed on your drive, and having a totally devoted drive gives you the chance to load less into memory and reduce load times. The higher the speed of your CPU, the more capable your computer will be to deal with some of the amazing, but complicated scripts we’ve written.

PCs: We recommend Windows 10 or later (latest Service Pack, 64 Bit), Intel Core 2.8Ghz i5 (quad-core) or AMD Ryzen 5 with 8GB RAM as a minimum. spec, Intel 2.8GHzi7 (six-core) or AMD R7 2700, 16GB RAM preferred.

MAC: We recommend Mac OS X 10.13 – OS 13
Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core), 8GB RAM
Recommended: 2.8GHz i7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

DRIVES: USB3, Thunderbolt, or eSata SSDs, formatted to the computer (on Mac this should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or AFPS, on Windows this should be NTFS). Ex-Fat formatted drives are not supported.

Ask your dealer for drives that are suitable for “AV use”. If you use an SSD drive instead of HDD, this will massively increase the power of your system. Instead of 7-9ms seek time, the usual seek time is <0.1ms. These are fast enough to run a patch ‘Purged’ of all its samples, and they can load on the fly as you play the notes. You can also reduce your sampler’s “pre-load” buffer tenfold meaning you’ll be able to load enormous orchestral palettes into a single machine.

HOST: The Kontakt 7 platform should work comfortably on most commonly found platforms and DAWs. As always make sure you’re as up-to-date as you can afford! If your main DAW is not a newish machine, or has a limited spec, and you’re planning on building or adding Spitfire to an already large orchestral palette, you could consider running your library independently of your DAW, either on your host computer (e.g. via Re-Wire) or on a slave device (e.g. via Midi or MOL). This will assist your loading times, and will allow your DAW to do what it does best, sort out all your note ons and note offs.

APPENDIX C – FULL TECHNIQUE LIST

• RAPTOR
  COL LEGNO
  COSMIC SHORTS
  EXTRA MUTED
  MONUMENTAL SHORTS
  MUTED
  OVERBLOWN SHORTS
  PIZZICATO & BRASS
  PIZZICATO & WOODS
  PUNCHY LONGS
  PUNCHY SHORTS
  RAPTOR LONG
  RAPTOR SHORTS
  SPICCATO & BRASS
  SPICCATO & WOODS
  TITAN LONG
  TITAN SHORTS

• DREADNOUGHT
  FLAUTANDO CLOUDS
  FLAUTANDO RIPPLES
  HARMONICS & BRASS
  SOFT BRASS SHORTS
  SOFT GRAINS
  SUL PONT BENDS
  SUL PONT CLOUDS
  SUL PONT PULSES
  SUL TASTO CLOUDS
  SUL TASTO RIPPLES
  TREMOLO FLUTTERS
  TREMOLO RIPPLES

APPENDIX D – FAQS & TROUBLESHOOTING

Q: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KONTAKT AND KONTAKT PLAYER?
See appendix A

Q: HOW CAN I REDOWNLOAD A PRODUCT?

With the continuous improvements to our Spitfire App, we have incorporated the ability to reset your own downloads, be it the entire library or the most recent update.

To reset your entire library download or the latest update; Open up the Spitfire App and log in with your account email and password.

• Select the download you wish to re-download
• In the cog menu choose Reset Download > Entire or Latest Update

You can repeat this process for any of the libraries you own.

Note that there is a limit to how many times you can reset your downloads in a certain time frame. If you do exceed your reset limit please get in touch.

Q: DIFFICULTIES IN DOWNLOADING / INSTALLING

Customers may find that they have some difficulties in the downloading process. If you find that you are having some trouble, please check the list below for possible causes.

• The formatting of your drive, if it is FAT32, will prompt an error in our app and you will not be able to install.

To solve this problem, reformat your drive to a more modern format, or use a different drive. We recommend NTFS on PC, and Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) or AFPS on Mac.

The formatting of your drive, if it is EXFAT, will prompt an error in our app and you will be given a choice to accept the install.

We do not support EXFAT format as it is not optimized for sample streaming.

Free space on your hard drive, ensure you have more than double the library size free. The app will block the install if you do not have enough free space.

For other issues such as:

• Spitfire App freezes in the “Unzipping” stage,
• Spitfire App freezes logging in,
• Spitfire App won’t connect to the internet,
• Spitfire App says “install error”,

Please contact us with the lm.log file. Locations for lm.log:

Mac OS: User/Music/Spitfire Audio/Settings
Windows: Application Data/Roaming/Spitfire Audio

Q: I’VE LOST MY INSTRUMENT FILES
In some cases, instrument files may get lost when transferring libraries from one place to another, or if an update has gone wrong.
If this happens, the best way forward is to re-download the library in question. This will ensure you will get all of the content you are missing.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR REFUNDS / RETURNS POLICY?

If you have NOT completed the download / installation process, then we CAN refund/return your product within 14 days of purchase, please contact support with your account email address and order number.
If you HAVE completed the installation process (even if you’ve not yet registered your serial number), we do not accept refunds and returns. Please see our EULA.
We can refund hard drive orders up until the point when the drive is dispatched from our office. This is usually 1-2 days after you order.

Q: I’VE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD?

If you have forgotten your password, please click on this link, enter your account email address and click on ‘Send Password Reset Link’.

If at some point in the past you asked us to merge two or more accounts but have since forgotten, you MAY find that the forgotten password isn’t working for the email address you asked us to merge FROM. In this case, please contact support with your name, and any email addresses you have used.

Q: I HAVE FAST INTERNET, WHY IS MY DOWNLOAD SLOW?

We have no direct influence on your download speeds. Our libraries are hosted on Cloud front servers which are normally very quick. At certain times of the day when traffic is particularly busy, your ISP may throttle your connection speeds. See this link to troubleshoot.

Q: CAN I INSTALL ON MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER?

Yes, with our products you have two installs. You are allowed to download and install on two computers you own,
The best way to get your library on both of your machines is to copy it from one to another via an external hard drive. See here for this process.

Q: CAN I TRY BEFORE I BUY?

No – it is not possible to demo our products. Our Youtube Channel has many walkthroughs containing detailed info about all our products — you can hear them being played in real time with no smoke and mirrors!

Q: HOW DO I UPDATE MY PRODUCTS?

To update one of your libraries, open our Spitfire Audio App. Navigate to the “updates” tab at the top of the window and select this.

This pane shows you all available updates.

Click update, then select your library folder, or the folder above.

Q: I’VE BEEN WAITING AGES FOR MY DOWNLOAD LINKS?

We run all our orders through a fraud checking process. The automatic fraud check takes 20 minutes.

If your order gets caught at this stage, we run a manual order check, and this can delay the processing of your order for up to 24 hours.

You will receive an order confirmation email IMMEDIATELY upon placing your order confirming that your order has successfully been logged in our system.

Please check your junk folders before contacting our support. The message will come from do_not_reply@spitfireaudio.com if you’d like to add us to your whitelist.

Q: CAN I DOWNLOAD ON A PC, THEN TRANSFER TO A MAC OR VICE VERSA?

Yes, all of our libraries are compatible on both PC and Mac computers.

You can download all of our libraries on either PC or Mac and they will work if you need to transfer them across to the other operating system.

We advise to do this by copying the library you want to move across to an external EXFAT formatted HDD and then copying it to your other machine.

Q: ‘SAMPLES MISSING’ ERROR MESSAGES

In some cases, samples files may get lost when transferring libraries from one place to another, or if an update has gone wrong.

If this happens, the best way forward is to re-download the library in question. That will ensure you will get all of the content you are missing.

For more information on how to re-download a product, please see the beginning of this appendix.

Q: HOW TO BATCH RESAVE A LIBRARY?

There are two main reasons to batch resave: It speeds up the loading of patches, and it can help you find missing samples and relink them to the patches.
See here to learn how to do this.

Q: I WANT TO BUY A COLLECTION, BUT I ALREADY OWN ONE OR MORE OF THE PRODUCTS IN IT?

Our cart will intelligently deduct the proportional cost of any products you already own from the total price when you get to the checkout.

Q: I’VE LOST MY SERIAL NUMBER FOR PRODUCT ACTIVATION.

The best place to find all of your serial numbers would be to log into your Spitfire Account HERE.

Under there you will find all of your serial numbers. If you find that the serial number you are looking for is not there, please contact us at www.spitfireaudio.com/support

Q: I THINK I HAVE FOUND A BUG

If you think you have found a bug, please contact us with all the relevant information;

• A description of the bug you have found
• A screencast (video) of the bug happening
• An audio example
• The exact patch name (or patches) in question and also the library giving us as much detail as possible will help us get to the bottom of the issue.

References

• . Spend less. Smile more.
• Spitfire Audio app — Spitfire Audio
• Support Centre
• MIDI CC Chart for Spitfire Audio Libraries – Support Centre
• Native Instruments | Page not found
• OVERVIEW Full Catalog of All Products | Native Instruments
• Kontakt 7 Player: Free sample player
• About Spitfire Audio — Spitfire Audio

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