Songwriting with Neural DSP Nano Cortex: Orchestral Arrangement Guide

[00:00:00]All right, everyone. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. And today, I'm super excited to talk about a brand new piece of gear from Neural DSP. It is, of course, the Nano Cortex.

[00:00:18]So, let's dive right in and check it out. And you know what? Let's write a big riff with it. So, let's get right to it. So, firstly, I want to say big thank you to Neural DSP for sponsoring this video. What we're going to do first is quickly check out the Nano Cortex, what it's all about, give you a quick overview of some of my favorite features, and to be honest, let's just dive right into creating something really cool. So, what we've got in the Nano is this tiny little beast that's sort of packed into a really small form factor. And some of the standout features straight away for me are the fact that it is an interface. I think it's a 4 in, four out interface. and it has the same capture technology as its big brother, the Quad Cortex, which are two huge pluses for me. So, to be honest, I've spent about a week playing with this thing now before this video is being filmed. And I've been making a bunch of really cool captures with some of my favorite sounds that I've got from some of the plugins as well. I've been capturing a few plugins. And one of the last features that really stands out for me is the fact that you can control the Nano with your phone and talk to it via Bluetooth. It was a super easy setup.

[00:01:20]you literally hold um the capture and the exit buttons down for 1 second and it found my Nano instantly. So, really quickly, what we've got on the phone app is the top view of the Nano and you can literally control the dials on your phone screen like I am doing right now.

[00:01:38]And as you can see, it changes everything on the actual front of the Nano, even the level. And you can even change patches and everything. So, the way that I've got this set up right now is the first two on the left foot switch. These are all captures that I have made and they're all available to download. So, if you're interested in any of these sounds, by all means, feel free to grab them. So, this is the default sound, literally the default sound out of beer. I captured it dry without a cab and just going straight into the Nano. So, what's happening here is I'm using the delay and reverb from the Nano and it sounds a little bit like this.

[00:02:21]Super ambient stuff. The Plax Super Clean is this like split coil sort of intended sound. It's got no cab on it.

[00:02:30]So, it sounds like this.

[00:02:34][Music] [Applause] Now we're on to the right foot switch.

[00:02:45]So, if you didn't gather already, what you can have is four presets at once, and it's seamless transitions between the presets as well, which is super sick. I'm so glad that they included that. Um, so this is a capture of the Noll X. Kind of the default sound, but I made a few tweaks. Um, it sounds so good.

[00:03:03][Music] Yeah, it does the thing. And then the grano is the granifier. And then a bit more of a saturated tone with some reverb and delay.

[00:03:26]I've got this set up with four really usable sounds, sort of four go-to sounds. But the really cool thing is if we scroll a little bit down uh on the app. So, if I go back to my like main rhythm sound using Noll X, as you can see, I've booted up a few extra captures that I also made. So, what I've got here is I did a capture of the Nameless. So, you can literally just swap out your captures on the FL using the phone app, which is kind of crazy. So, uh once again, this is the nollie.

[00:03:54]And then I did a capture of the Nameless.

[00:03:58][Music] [Applause] And then we've got Grano with the plumes IN FRONT.

[00:04:03][Music] AND THEN WE'VE GOT A slightly more scoop sound on the GRO where with a tiny bit less gain.

[00:04:23]So this was a sort of like topline info.

[00:04:25]There's going to be so many videos that have released around this similar sort of time, if not already, that will be covering in granular detail all of the specs of the Nano and what it can offer and how it differs from the quad. So, I'm just going to dive right into, you know, using it in real time so you can see how I would use a pedal like this and write a cool little riff and maybe see what happens. So, yeah, let's dig right in. So, with some of the tone demo things I was just doing there, I've been sitting on this idea that goes around like the second fret. I'm in drop C sharp and again I'm on that nolly X main overdrive channel which is again it's the Noll X uh 5150 with the green overdrive pedal with the new high boost um in front of it and then I've just captured that without a cab and it sounds again just like this. This is what I've this is what I've got. Okay, so this is what we're going to try and figure out. I have an idea of what I want to do. I'm going to try and do some implied metric modulation.

[00:05:24]Let's see if that happens.

[00:05:35]So, let's put that on the left channel.

[00:05:37]Let's redo that.

[00:05:41][Music] What I want to do is have that go round uh once more. So, literally just going to copy paste that because what I want to do is have literally the guitar is the same part. Like it is the copy pasted part. Everything else is going to change and it's going to completely change how this riff feels. Uh which is fun. So, let's do it. Uh so, let's get that sorted first.

[00:06:18]Okay, drums time. What I'm using today is P5. I'm using the really high tuned snare today. So, let's dive right into it. And I'm going to show you what I mean with this like implied metric modulation thing. So, first, let's just get um a little bit of a groove going in this first time through. And then once we've put it through on the repeat, it's going to be a bit different. So hopefully you'll see what I mean. So for today's video, I've got um Oh, I've got a bit of a franking kit going on. Once again, similar mix template to last video actually.

[00:06:55][Music] Yeah, this should not be too difficult.

[00:07:00]So let's just listen for the kick pattern and then once we've got that, we'll add the snares in. Uh, but because I know that this first time is like a triplet feel, uh, let's do something like that.

[00:07:17]Yeah. So, you're basically trying to listen for like bigger accents that you want on this. And then I think I just want my snares like that.

[00:07:28]Yeah, that that will definitely work.

[00:07:30]So, you're just really trying to accent the fact that there's 16th note triplets going on.

[00:07:36]Yeah. I mean, the drum part basically writes itself because I had a very strong idea of what I wanted to happen.

[00:07:43]Uh, which is sick. This is going really well. Maybe we could do some sort of accent thing here. Like, you know, with the high notes. So, use the kicks as to accent like these high notes I'm doing on this riff.

[00:07:55]Yeah. So, it's like every every second note [Music] [Music] Sounds pretty good. Sounds pretty good.

[00:08:21]So, what I'm going to do now is make this all probably hurt in the brain a little bit whilst we figure it out.

[00:08:28]You're going to keep the triplets, but now what I'm going to do is I'm not I'm going to pretend the triplets are now uh like 16th notes. So, you're going to completely change the feel of the riff.

[00:08:40]So, they're no longer triplets along the bar. So, what you'll get is like three times round instead of four times round.

[00:08:49]Uh let's figure that out. I think it's that you can already hear like what it's going to sound like.

[00:08:57]Oh, it's going to be weird.

[00:09:03][Music] Yeah, [Music] this going to be Let's just take a quick listen to that and see how that sounds.

[00:09:23][Music] [Music] Hell yeah. All right, cool. Let's do some bass and then uh figure it out.

[00:09:42]Okay, I took like a 3minut break to go and get a cup of tea. As I was doing that, I totally heard some orchestra over the second half of this riff. Um, which is handy because I have orchestra in this mix template. So, I wasn't really planning on adding orchestra today. Uh, but this is why like having a mix template with stuff in is really, really handy because I have everything that I need already rooted to an orchestra bus that's the right levels to match the drums and stuff.

[00:10:21]and everything is already rooted out.

[00:10:24]So, I personally never touch ensemble patches. So, um, in orchestral terms, what an ensemble patch is, you might just literally have strings and you might play a very large chord and what the strings uh, well, whoever's designed that particular patch like the low part of that chord will be handled by cello, double bass, and then the middle will be viola. Then you've got like violins like one and two handling the higher end.

[00:10:57]Personally, I think that's a little bit uninspired. I mean, it's great if you're trying to write something very, very quickly and you want the sound of the strings. Uh, same goes for woodwin and brass. Like, yeah, I fully get that, but I just like to have a bit extra control.

[00:11:14]Sometimes I like to really be in charge of what my first violins and second violins are doing. Uh, in comparison to my violas, um, you know, the cello with the bases as well. I am just really hearing a simple stab. Well, not stab, more staccato. Um, held pedal note. Well, it's not held.

[00:11:36]It's just stacato um over the top of this riff that really accents this new sort of um meter as it were. I'm always using Spitfire for my orchestra and at the moment I'm using the symphony orchestra and I'm using the core version. So, what I've got is a load of articulation. So, I can do stuff like [Music] so obviously legato you're only going to get single notes. What I want today is uh stacato uh actually spicato. Um, so instead of a held note, I think I'm going to do spicato on the higher strings. See, this is why ensemble patches don't work for me personally. I'm going to do spicato on the higher strings, which just means a very fast attack. I might do bartock pits on the low strings. And bark pits is essentially slap on strings. So, it's kind of like my second favorite articulation. Uh, just behind floutando.

[00:12:49]I don't really see myself doing a lot of articulation switching today. Um, which uh some of you who use like Yansky bass, that sort of stuff, you'll know uh using uh key switches to change articulations.

[00:13:04]I'm just going to have it in normal mode. So, what I'm hearing is [Music] [Music] sounds pretty decent. So once you've got your like top line of one of your families for the orchestra, what I like to do is build the rest at one time. So I typically will just copy paste the first violin part for the second violin.

[00:13:42]And a lot of you who aren't like that savvy with orchestra be like, isn't it just the same sound? Well, a lot of higherend orchestra libraries, they're really not the same sound. So, typically what you'll have is your first violins or your best players. They're usually playing the most difficult, the highest parts. Uh, it's not a hard and fast rule. I'm I'm not part of an orchestra, but from my understanding, that's usually what happens. And your second violins are still incredible players, but what they might do is they play an octave lower, so it's not as insane.

[00:14:14]Sometimes they might play in unison, but I I I do usually like to put them an octave lower. So, you can hear that like this is a pretty high part. Um, but definitely doable. And then I'm also just going to put the second violins into spicato as well. And I'm just going to play you them soloed and you'll you'll literally be able to hear the difference. So, the first violin sound like this.

[00:14:42]And then um I'm going to do the second.

[00:14:51]So it's a bit more of like a harsh attack. So I'm going to put these down.

[00:14:56][Music] You can hear how it's already like complementing each other. the fact that they're an octave apart.

[00:15:14][Music] It's worth saying that like you don't have to add orchestra to this like second half of the riff. Like I just want to um you could literally just track your bass now and be done and it would sound insane. Um but I'm just trying something here and I think a lot of people don't know about orchestra.

[00:15:35]Uh, I think it's very scary. I think a lot of a lot of it is kind of gatekept.

[00:15:40]Uh, which is weird and it's a bit of a shame. So, let's hopefully demystify it.

[00:15:44]It's not even that scary. And if you're all curious and you want to get into this, you can literally get the discover version of this library that I'm using, which has got a lot more limited articulation, but trust me, that's a blessing in disguise because you don't want to be looking at all these because it's absolutely overwhelming if you're first getting into orchestra. Um, the discover version has got like four articulations for strings, which is still more than enough to overwhelm.

[00:16:11]And the discover version on Spitfire at the time of making this video is still completely free. And it's such a good entry. Like, it was literally like my gateway drug into orchestra. So, I would always recommend checking that out, downloading it, having a play, and seeing what the different instruments sound like and how they relate to each other. and listen to some orchestral pieces as well as some like cinematic pieces as well. Uh, some of that more modern orchestra sound. So, with that said, let's carry on. I'm just going to do violas. Now, I don't know why, but I remember hearing in like GCSE music that violas always played some form of harmony of the violin part. And I I don't know if that's like like accurate information, but it's what I'm still sort of doing to this day. So, what I might do is just figure out a way to get this in some sort of harmony [Music] as you go down. the way I've structured at least my mix template that as you go down um each instrument, you're going lower in um like range. So, I'm going to show you the sound of bartock pits. It's pretty intense. I would recommend you only use it on the lower stringed instruments. Um so, just so you can hear normal uh spicato And then this is normal pits. So pits is pluck.

[00:18:04]And even cogno is got a bit more of an attack to it, but it's quite delicate.

[00:18:12][Music] I do love carno bar pits is is more than the pluck. It's actually pulling the string away from the fretboard and letting it go so it slaps the fretboard itself and you get this really slappy attack.

[00:18:33][Music] It's basically metal on a cello as far as I'm concerned. So once you've got all of them together [Music] and then typically with the double bases as well, I like to once again go bartock pits. And the double bass sounds even crazier than the cello. So um let's just have And then what I might do with the double bass is just take out a little bit of [Music] So I I think the key thing that I've found when adding orchestra to metal is to not mix in solo. You kind of do it in stages. I I think you can mix the stringed instruments individually and get like a pretty harmonious sound, but what you might find that when you add it back into the mix, it's not even bass in this mix yet.

[00:19:55]Um, but what you might find is you're sort of rebalancing everything anyway.

[00:20:00]So, the best thing to do is to just play it on a loop and mix in things and see how they sound and then take a listen.

[00:20:12][Music] [Music] Heat. Heat.

[00:20:28][Music] [Music] Heat. Heat.

[00:20:51][Music] [Music] [Music] So, what I might do now is add some woodwind and then try and fill in any little gaps. I might even double up some of the riff parts on woodwwind so it feels a little bit more cohesive. Now the cool thing you can do with piccolo is you can do rips and can also do uh falls as well. And a rip is like this really sharp ascent to a target note.

[00:21:37]Think of it like a sweep pick but you're like really going for the one uh I mean rhythmically like not intervals wise.

[00:21:43]And then falls are similar uh a little bit different like um and then I'm going to find my target note and then add it in. And I'll do it just before this all hits. So you get this like and then it hits you in the face.

[00:22:02]It's sort of like a bit of a production tip but orchestra version. So let's go normal [Music] and then have this probably [Music] Uh depend. Right. Let's figure this out.

[00:22:21][Music] That'll do it.

[00:22:26]So now you just have to figure out.

[00:22:29]So that's a bit too early.

[00:22:33]Cool. So that's a piccolo part. I'm not lying. I think woodwinds could well just be a little bit too delicate for this.

[00:22:40]Unless they're playing exactly the same part as the strings, which to be honest they could do. Like you could lit like some orchestra parts and sections literally have them in unison. Like okay, you know what?

[00:23:00]You know what? That could work. So because what happens in an orchestra is like strings and woodwinds the tombbras are different but when they play together you do get this like like gorgeous wall of sound and things begin to meld together. So yeah let's give it a go. Like let's just literally take that put that there. And then again just remembering to change [Music] And then clarinets can have the viola part.

[00:23:41][Music] Yeah. And then the bassoons can have like the fat note at the bottom and then they can be on Yeah. Once again, stack artisimo.

[00:24:02][Music] So those sound like this.

[00:24:11][Music] And then with the strings, [Music] can you hear how loud the bars sound when it's just the orchestra? But when you put it in the full context of a metal mix, which is typically a load of low end and a load of high end, which is what a bar pits kind of sounds like, they have to be a little bit louder to kind of cut through. And the important thing to notice as well with a lot of the orchestra stuff that I use, there's panning baked in to the samples, which not everybody likes, but I find very helpful purely because it's one less thing to have to worry about when you're dealing with like 47 different instruments, if not more, if you, you know, break the rules of orchestra and double up on like different bassoon parts or whatever. like if you have groups of bassoons playing that just wouldn't be possible then you're dealing with even more stuff. So the fact that it's pre panned and it just like feels really good and everything works and it just sounds great from the box. That's one thing I just don't want to have to be doing for what I need to do. Like some people might want to pan their violins to the right. But typically you would hear them on the left uh as you go around and then you have Yeah. that that more stereo spread that's sort of baked in that that that kind of at least somewhat roots what you're doing in reality. Let's just have a quick listen to what that sounds like with the woodwinds.

[00:26:04][Music] You can hear how the woodwind is adding that mid-range uh and it's really feeling like it's more intentional that it's there. Yeah.

[00:26:13]Moving on to the brass. I'm going to go for my favorite brass. Doing a long, I believe. I think I just butchered that. Um, but yes, it literally just means brassy. So, it's brass.

[00:26:44]but it's like super brass. So, compare that with legato.

[00:26:55]Much softer sound. Um, both usable. Like I love using the softer brass. It's a really delicate sound. I've used that.

[00:27:02]Um, all these sorts of sounds on my album. Um, but the the ku kra um is just kind of in your face. The brass has arrived and it's playing very long notes at you. I like it. Uh, let's see if I can figure out some sort of part for it to play over this riff.

[00:27:39]That was bad, but that's okay.

[00:27:48][Music] All right. So, tennotron bones.

[00:27:55]We'll go on long coover again.

[00:27:58][Music] bit of a darker sound, but that's that's absolutely cool. The horns are where you get like a lot of that high-end sizzle.

[00:28:17]Um, so let's just go horns and then longer, which I'm still butchering how you say that, but that's okay.

[00:28:35]That'll do it. And then some trumpets for good measure. Probably playing a little bit louder. Let's have a listen.

[00:28:42][Music] It sounds pretty in your face.

[00:28:53][Music] Yeah, I'm just going to turn these two down a tiny bit. That mixing in the orchestra is very delicate. You have to have enough so you can hear it but not too much where it's taking over. Like it is doing more of a supportive role. And then I'm just gonna get my tune percussion out because I do quite like having Glock and maybe uh maybe some xylophone as well. I don't know. Let's give it a go. So, let let's copy the cello part. Put it on Glock and obviously make it way Oops. Make it way higher.

[00:29:44][Music] Do you see how that just fits in? Like, yeah, it's playing the same part, but it just adds that tiny little bit of high-end that the orchestra needs. So, like if I solo the orchestra now and then take this Glock in and out [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] just works, right? Well, in my opinion, I do quite like xylophone, you know.

[00:30:28][Music] And I tell you what I love doing is putting Celeste an octave down from Glock. It's something that I just [Music] So, as well as the piccolo rip that ascends, what I also love to do is add in a harp gly. Uh so you can have like really weird uh sounding ones, but if you go on to the variation.

[00:31:12]Oh, and the direction as well, like and that just you know when you hear things and they literally trigger an immediate memory. Does anyone else get that? Like when I hear certain sounds, they very vividly trigger memories. Like I don't know why, but that note I think it's because it's the same key.

[00:31:35]It sounds exactly like um Tomb Raider 3 um the OST um the song in the jungle. I'll put up like a 3se secondond clip so you can hear it. But I'm sure that's the same key in the same vibe like [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] anyway. Right, let's go the other way because we want to ascend.

[00:32:18]Um, and then we'll figure out if we want the weird or the major. But I think we want the weird scale, whatever this scale is. And again, it's a case of finding out where that last note is. I like to put on the one.

[00:32:30][Music] Oh, I'm on the right note. That very rarely happens. Okay, let's just listen to the harp so I can get it timed on the one perfectly. Let's just put our click on.

[00:32:43]So, that's a little bit behind.

[00:32:47]That'll do. So, now we've got a bit of a build into the orchestra coming in.

[00:32:55][Music] Yeah.

[00:33:10]Right. So, I've just written a real simple next section. I've just laid out the foundation of what I'm thinking. I want to break it down a little bit and kind of chill out.

[00:33:23]because obviously we've got a pretty like dense section here. So, I've just outlined some very basic chords using two layers from the nano and I've just written a real simple groove over the top of it. And what I'm going to do now is I'm going to track some bass the entire piece that we've got going on.

[00:33:41]So, just take a quick listen to what I've got next and then we'll go from there.

[00:33:45][Music] [Music] Sounds pretty cool. So, I'm going to do bass now. So, I'm going to track this through parallax and use one of my like go-to sounds.

[00:34:18]Oh no.

[00:34:22][Music] Heat.

[00:34:37][Music] Heat. Heat.

[00:35:02]All right. So, that's the bass track for the main riff. Now, what I'm going to do is just add like a little lighter gain sort of thing for this next section. So, I'm thinking what I'm going to do is something that sticks with the kick drum as much as possible.

[00:35:41][Music] [Music] I'm just going to add a quick layer.

[00:36:03]Like I have this uh Yeah.

[00:36:09][Music] All right. All right, I'm going to track a little bit of a lead here.

[00:36:28][Music] [Music] I realize when I stop playing, I always do that. It's just me turning the volume down, but I always go like, "Yeah.

[00:37:20][Music] All right. All right. So, now that that melody's tracked, I think the last thing that I'm going to do is add um just a little bit more orchestration. I'm thinking like some woodwinds this time.

[00:37:52]Um and maybe like Celeste. Oh, actually, I'm going to do Celeste first.

[00:38:00][Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I always love doubling stuff onto the harp. So, that sounds really nice. All I'm going to do with the Glock is I'm going to keep the like stronger accent notes.

[00:38:26][Music] Okay. Okay, so for the mix of this entire thing, it's really really similar to my previous video that I did in terms of the production and stuff. Instrument and the drum bus are once again the same. So yeah, if you want like a full rundown, I did that in the previous video, but I think this video's covered a lot of ground already. I don't want it to be like way too long. So if you're interested in like the really nitty granular stuff for the mix, go and check that out. But with that being said, I'll show you like I've tracked all of these nano rhythms and there is absolutely nothing on them at all apart from a little bit of EQ on the bus which is just a default and it's just to boost a tiny bit of high-end just to get it sat in the mix a little bit better. Um, but the bass again, it's just my usual sort of uh tone that I would go for. If you're interested in Parallax X presets, I've got a few in there that you can check out. Um, Eldrich Gain is probably similar to this sound. Like super mid-rangy. Um, just in your face, like just pure gain. Um, and I'll just give you a little listen to what the bass and the guitars sound like. And then I'll take the bass out and then you can hear like the amount of difference that the bass is making.

[00:39:50][Music] I think it's about time to give this thing a little spin and see how it came together. I've just quickly mastered it.

[00:40:06]So, um, yeah, let's go.

[00:40:27][Music] All right, everyone. Thank you so much for watching this video. So, I hope you all really enjoyed um what I came up with today and hopefully seen a bit more of an insight behind like my um orchestra brain. I know it's not realistic, but it is especially in this context like I think it adds a lot of unique dynamic to what would otherwise be just sort of like typical like bedroom instrumental stuff. So yeah, hopefully you learned a thing or two about the orchestra and how it can kind of lift your mixes and at least your arrangements and kind of give them that edge. So yeah, if you're interested in the Nano, please feel free to check it out using the link in my description and I'll see you all next week. Cinnab.

[00:41:36][Music] [Applause]