Synchron Mallets I

Synchron Stage Xylophon, Glockenspiel and Celesta

The xylophone, an Adams Artist Alpha, has resonator tubes for each bar and a range of four octaves. In orchestral arrangements, the instrument commonly emphasizes certain parts of a melodic line in forte or fortissimo. We’ve recorded single notes in eight variants and eight velocities as well as various tremolos and glissandos. The instrument was played with hard and soft mallets and with a double bass bow.

The glockenspiel (Yamaha 2500) is very popular and frequently used in majestic brass fanfares. The sound is piercing and can be heard clearly even through a full orchestra playing in “tutti”. We’ve recorded single notes as well as tremolos and glissandos at various speeds, with plastic and metal mallets. We also captured the eerie effect of the steel bars played with a bass bow.

Being a “keyboard glockenspiel” the celesta has a range of five octaves with an interesting dual character. The way its sound is produced makes it a percussion instrument, but it is usually played by a pianist. Its sound is soft and “heavenly” (in French: “céleste”). Sychron Stage’s very own instrument (by the renowned manufacturer Kolberg) was played using a sampling robot, which captured the nuances of its heavenly sound at 36 velocity levels.

3 Instruments – 12 Microphones

Every instrument was recorded using 12 microphones. You may select from four microphone positions (Standard Library) or seven different microphone positions (Full Library) and mix them to your liking, directly in the Vienna Instruments player, or using our mixing hosts Vienna Ensemble and Vienna Ensemble Pro.

Use the included and perfectly fine-tuned presets as a starting point for your own sonic creations. The natural ambience of Stage A was captured in stereo using a Decca tree, and additional microphone arrays were utilized for 5.1 surround and Auro 3D 9.1.

Microphone Positions of the Full Library:

• Close Mic – Mono
• Mid Layer Mic – Stereo (L/R)
• Main/Room Mic  – Decca Tree Stereo (L/R)
• Main/Room Mic  – Decca Tree Mono (Center)
• Main Surround – Stereo (L/R)
• High Stereo (3D) – Stereo (L/R)
• High Surround (3D) – Stereo (L/R)

Microphone Positions of the Standard Library:

• Close Mic – Mono
• Mid Layer Mic – Stereo (L/R)
• Main/Room Mic  – Decca Tree Stereo (L/R)
• Main/Room Mic  – Decca Tree Mono (Center)

Library Content

• Standard Library: Samples 121.544 | Download Files Size 32,8 GB | Installed File Size 72,4 GB

• Full Library: Samples 212.702 | Download Files Size 68,5 GB | Installed File Size 143,6 GB