CHAPTER 1 – HOLLYWOOD FANTASY STRINGS
Hollywood Fantasy Strings is the first iteration of Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra, putting 5 of the most iconic instruments from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras at your fingertips alongside brand-new stylized recordings from modern-day orchestral musicians. It includes true legato, diverse articulations, everything you need to produce the perfect fantasy cue to the highest professional standards. We infused it with the same power and flexibility as Hollywood Strings, with the same microphone placements, in the exact same studio, tailor-made to mix perfectly, so you can rest assured that your string libraries are all up to the task.
EPIC STRING ARRANGEMENTS OF OLDE
Traditional celli are replaced with a viola da gamba ensemble, violins are replaced with a hardanger fiddle ensemble. Lutes and dulcimers are recorded in trios, creating a beautiful sparkling stereo image that cuts through any mix. It also includes hurdy gurdies and massive sounding traditional string ensembles, recorded in octaves for those moments when you need bombast to round out your fantasy sound. Every instrument is mic’d the same way as the Hollywood Orchestra series and recorded in the same room – Studio One – the site of countless film, television, and game soundtrack recordings.
SETTING THE SCENE
Fire-breathing dragons. Epic battles between kingdoms. Ancient untold magic, casting 1,000 years of darkness upon the land... No matter how grand the scene you need to set, Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra is equipped with everything you need to make it happen right out of the box. If your arsenal is missing the ancient and traditional folk strings needed to give your orchestrations an authentic edge, your collection will finally match the limits of your imagination.
3 Hardanger Fiddles
Perhaps Norway’s most prized musical contribution, the hardanger fiddle is similar to a violin but with a more vibrant, brilliant quality owing to its body construction and doubled strings — it often sounds like two violinists playing at once! Some of its most stunning uses in modern music are in Howard Shore’s Rohan theme from Lord of the Rings and Bear McCreary’s traditional string arrangements in God of War. Try it out on brilliant, lyrical melodies and sub it in for violins when you need to add in a Viking flair.
3 Lutes
The lute is famous for its role in Renaissance folk music in the hands of troubadours and singers, functioning much like the 12-string guitar with a greater midrange emphasis and gentler character. It’s been used in countless soundtracks, including The Tudors, Whisper of the Heart, Only Lovers Left Alive, the popular roguelike game Hades and much more. This 10-stringed instrument is equally adept at both virtuoso passages and providing a smooth chordal background for the viola da gamba and hardanger fiddle.
3 Viola Da Gambas
If you’ve ever listened to sonorous, non-vibrato Baroque bowed string music, you’ve probably had a taste of the viola da gamba’s vibrant quality. Similar in shape and sound to a cello, this lush full-spectrum instrument is an ancestor of the modern string ensemble. It remained in relative obscurity until the film Tous les Matins du Monde brought it back, featuring a traveling viol virtuoso, and has made appearances in scores like Austin Wintory’s soundtrack for The Pathless. Try it out in place of a cello, especially if you want to add in a Baroque chamber feel!
Low Strings
6 Celli and 4 Basses
These modern day strings are present for one reason: Power. Before the string bass, there was very little low-end energy in ensembles — energy that modern soundtracks simply can’t live without. This is the perfect way to support your fantasy strings with a consistent style and timbre, extending the range of your entire ensemble instantly.
High Strings
8 Violins and 6 Violas
Low strings wouldn’t be complete without their high-end partners, so we’ve also included violin and viola in the mix. They blend perfectly with the other stringed instruments in the collection and provide a strong backing so the other pieces can shine through; no layering or complex production techniques required.
3 Mountain Dulcimers
The true origins of the mountain dulcimer lie in the Middle East, after which it evolved in Europe and was brought to the Appalachian Mountains by early Scottish and Irish settlers. It's now a staple in tons of folk music and has been used by some of the biggest musicians in modern-day history such as The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles. Its character is similar to the mandolin, and it boasts a rich combination of warm body and a bright, twinkling high end. This is perfect for fast virtuoso passages and doubles beautifully with the hardanger fiddle and lute.
2 Hurdy Gurdies
Perhaps the most unique instrument in the collection, the hurdy gurdy is played via a crank that drags a wooden wheel along multiple felt-coated strings for a thick, layered drone with melodic accompaniment. It’s been utilized in a number of games, movies, and shows like The Witcher, Fringe, The Conjuring, and tons more, but one of its most distinctive uses was in Black Sails — its jagged, “broken” quality is a perfect way to offset the mellow quality of the other pieces in this collection and incorporate a folksy character into any piece.
CHAPTER 2 – HOLLYWOOD FANTASY BRASS
Hollywood Fantasy Brass puts the grandeur of some of history’s most iconic brass instruments at your fingertips, complete with a broad articulation set and true legato for maximum realism and authenticity. Everything you’ve come to expect from our Hollywood series is here: multiple mic positions, custom effect chains, lush ambiences... but this time, with a collection of brass instruments used in some of the most famous fantasy scores in history. If you’ve tried to recreate the feel of your favorite scores countless times but something is still missing, the fix could be as simple as using the right instruments for the job. And as you’re about to hear, Hollywood Fantasy Brass will help get the job done every time.
ASSEMBLE YOUR MIGHTIEST ARMY
In the stead of trumpets, you’ll find flugelhorns; rather than French horns, Wagner tubas and alpenhorns take their place. The result is a majesty that modern day orchestras can’t quite replicate, but with the power and conviction demanded by current movies and games. Each of these core instruments is recorded in ensembles of 3, giving you a far more cinematic quality than solo instruments can achieve alone. As with Hollywood Fantasy Strings, the entire brass collection was recorded in the same soundstage as our acclaimed Hollywood Orchestra, providing a cohesive sound between all the elements together. Whether you need bold fanfares for distant kingdoms; sonorous melodies for heroes, villains, and magical creatures alike; or a rich, mellow tone to evoke the mystique of castles or scrolling landscapes — Hollywood Fantasy Brass has you covered.
COMMAND THE MOOD
Every instrument in Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra is programmed with 3 moods, on a scale from most authentic to most cinematic: Classic, Soft, and Epic. You can rotate through these different qualities to suit your needs (the choice will typically be a no-brainer) and fill in the exact fantasy orchestra sound you hear in your head. You have individual control over the level and pan of four separate mic positions: Close, Mid, Main, and Surround, giving you full control over the dimension of the sound.
3 Wagner Tubas
You can hear the Wagner tuba in the scores to Star Wars IV: A New Hope, the Lord of the Rings films, Jurassic Park, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, World of Warcraft and several other expansive scores that have helped define the modern fantasy sound across movies and video games. Imagine a cross between a French horn and a trombone and you’ll get pretty close, but this ensemble has something a little extra that effortlessly evokes fantastic and unexplored worlds.
3 Flugelhorns
This flugelhorn ensemble is an easy choice when you need majestic, mellow brass to carry a theme, especially for fanfares and “royal” settings. The soundtracks of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the original Final Fantasy VII, and L.A. Noire all make use of this instrument’s regal and haunting quality, and you’ll find it’s an easy way to accomplish the same in your own scores. Try substituting this for a trumpet ensemble and you’ll plainly see the fantastical character that these flugelhorns add to your scores!
3 Alpenhorns
In addition to its role in German and Swiss folk music, this elongated horn was traditionally used primarily as a tool for communication and as an integral part of ceremonies and festivals. Its sound is uniquely mellow and hollow, owing to its wooden construction and straight rather than wound piping — it makes for a great mellow horn melody, especially in conjunction with the flugelhorns in this collection. Think of this as a group of extra-long hunting horns ready to lead the charge.
Low Brass
3 Bass Trombones, 2 Cimbassos, 1 Tuba
We’ve included a powerhouse section of select low brass instruments to help fill out the low end and achieve the growling, dark intensity that even Hollywood Brass doesn’t quite match. Rather than making massive EQ and reverb changes to another brass ensemble, simply add in this collection and you’ll have the perfect complement. Make no mistake, though: This brass section packs the punch and warmth you need no matter the task even on its own, making it a powerful asset for all your fantasy needs.
CHAPTER 3 – HOLLYWOOD FANTASY WINDS
Hollywood Fantasy Winds presents an array of ethereal, majestic woodwind instruments that transcend the modern orchestra, complete with true legato and a wide variety of articulations to command the realism and power you need in a cinematic ensemble of winds. With this collection, you can paint detailed images of Celtic highlands, sprawling mountain ranges, enchanted forests, and any other fantasy settings you can possibly imagine. These winds complete the core orchestral trinity with lyrical strings and brilliant brass, giving you the texture you need to complete a true melodic fantasy ensemble.
Whispers on the Wind
Many instruments in the Hollywood Fantasy Winds have no parallel in the modern orchestra: sonorous Uilleann pipes, mellow ocarinas, and brilliant Irish whistles to name a few. You’ll find they feel right at home even in the grandest settings though, and that they carry a rich, haunting quality that conventional sample libraries can’t touch. Winds are the lifeblood of fantasy folk music, adept at describing everything from crowded merchant streets to fantastic adventures across uncharted lands. The entire collection is deeply rooted in Celtic musical literature and is perhaps the most unique and evocative section in Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra.
2 Irish Whistles (High)
If you've been enchanted by Howard Shore’s melody for the Shire, you know the brilliant sound of the Irish whistle well. It’s a staple in Celtic folk music, and it’s extremely flexible as a topline addition to the melodies you create with other instruments in this collection. It shares similarities with a piccolo, but with much more expressive pitch bending and a dramatic contour between registers. Few instruments offer this rare combination of depth and dynamics in higher frequency ranges, and it will be a welcome addition to any fantasy ensemble.
2 Irish Whistles (Low)
The same mystical sound of the high Irish whistle, but with a lower pitch range and a deeper, rounder and more mellow sound quality. This is a great way to extend the range of a standard whistle and provide a richer, airier quality that translates even more smoothly to orchestral and cinematic settings. If you enjoy the sound of the bass flute and wish there was a variant with more of a folk quality, this should fill that position quite nicely. Try doubling it at the octave with the high Irish whistle and you’ll have a simultaneously warm and piercing melody that captures the most dramatic and beautiful landscapes you can imagine!
2 Renaissance Flutes
This flute has a similar smooth, breathy tone to the concert flute, but its wooden construction provides a rounder and more mellow sound similar to that of an ancient recorder. Its smooth, breathy quality is simultaneously intimate and regal and offers a more pure, gentle substitute for the flute for you to weave into the orchestra or balance out the brilliance of the Irish whistles. Don’t let this mislead you, though — these Renaissance flutes can stand up to scoring tasks of any scale, adding a fullness and mystical quality you’ll be hard-pressed to achieve any other way.
3 Uilleann Pipes
This Celtic classic from the 1700s has been used in countless scores like Braveheart, Titanic, along with Square’s classic game Xenogears. Its construction is similar to that of the bagpipes, but its quality is more lyrical rather than piercing, making these pipes the perfect choice for regal melodies that blend seamlessly with a full orchestra. Uilleann pipe sound libraries have been around for some time, but an ensemble was unheard of until now — layer this with strings or other winds, or let it shine on its own for rich melodic passages fitting for the soundtracks of any scale.
4 Ocarinas
Nintendo's iconic game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time brought this haunting, hollow-tone but long forgotten instrument back into the public eye. Think of this as a more agile folk complement to the Renaissance flute used more often in court music; it’s soft, flexible, and allows for beautiful trills and ornaments that add depth to anything you play. This ocarina ensemble is the perfect choice for soft, expressive passages when whistles and pipes cut through a little too sharply.
CHAPTER 4 – HOLLYWOOD FANTASY PERCUSSION
Hollywood Fantasy Percussion provides a full suite of thunderous, mystical struck and shaken instruments to complement even the most epic soundtracks. While they’re well-suited to most orchestral scores, they shine in combination with the rest of the Hollywood Fantasy palette. There’s no shortage of bombastic drum libraries available, but there’s never been a percussion library specifically designed for scoring epic fantasy soundtracks — so we created it ourselves.
Drums in the Deep
When scoring for fantasy, there are countless settings where conventional percussion simply doesn’t cut it: fiery iron forges, royal celebrations, traditional folk festivals, and that’s just scratching the surface. That’s when you need percussion that doesn't just carry the drama of the scene, but feels perfectly at home in the world you’re composing for. We’ve selected each instrument in this collection to span every setting imaginable so that no matter the scoring task, you have the tools to not only underscore the drama on-screen, but to wrap up the audience in an entirely new, fantastical world they need to hear to believe.
3 Bodhrans
If you’ve ever listened to Celtic folk music, chances are you’re familiar with the rich quality of the bodhran. This handheld drum is typically played with a two-sided mallet or by hand, offering a gentle but firm pulse to keep the music moving (and the ale flowing). Listen to how this delightful folk drum livens up the score to Braveheart and Titanic!
3 Gran Cassas
We also added a bass drum into this collection to help extend the low end of the orchestra, which is notably absent in many traditional ensembles. Rather than the rounded, mellow mallet hits in conventional orchestral playing, the gran cassa is struck in a much wider range of impacts.
3 Large Taikos
This drum likely needs no introduction due to its omnipresence in video game and film scores, but we recorded a tight-knit ensemble to provide the glorious bassy rumble these massive drums are famed for. Their ominous low end simply can’t be beaten. Okami, The Last Samurai, and countless other soundtracks have used taikos for their incredible tone and power.
600 lb Nagado Ensemble
Unlike other taikos, the massive nagado-daiko was designed for rituals and spiritual uses, and as such is a great way to underscore austere ceremonies with a single, haunting low impact. This drum ensemble especially shines in slow, quiet passages with little competition in the orchestra.
Ceng Ceng
These Balinese cymbals have a splashy, resonant character perfect for background ambience; they’re much softer than their Western counterparts and work wonders for broadening your palette of metals without the normal harshness of cymbals.
Crotales
Small chromatic cymbals that blend the quality of a glockenspiel and wind chimes — these are a great way to sustain a gradual, regal melody and offer a delightful contrast with wind and stringed instruments. James Horner used crotales to great effect in the 90s film Sneakers.
Cymbal and Gong Ensemble
A collection of assorted struck, rolled, and tapped metals for whenever you need a dose of inspiration. Inside this diverse collection you’ll find all manner of shapes and sizes (literally) you can use to brighten up your Fantasy Orchestra.
Goatnail Shaker
This unique shaker is a collection of hoof trimmings gathered by indigenous peoples while milking their goats. The result is a dry, brittle rattle ideal for underscoring eerie, mystical rituals performed by ancient cultures.
Goatnails and Ceng Cengs
A mixture of alternate performances of other instruments above, focused on ease and playability to quickly introduce a variety of timbres into your score. This is a great starting point when you need a little inspiration to move your ideas along.
Krakeb
North African castanets with a similar tone to the ceng ceng, but with a rounder timbre and lower in pitch. Their hollow quality sets them apart from other cymbals and adds a floating, soft feel to this percussion suite.
Metal Shaker
This shaker provides a soft, dispersed sound ideal for gently driving the rhythm; its airiness creates the perfect high-end complement to a drum ensemble without the splashiness of cymbals to round out the arrangement with a nice accent layer.
Nagara Rub FX
Imagine a deep, atonal bowed instrument howling in the night and you’ll arrive at a similar sound to this rubbed Indian drum. This festival and temple staple is evocative and mysterious, and a great tool for letting your imagination run wild.
Nagara and Ashiko
A combination of multiple folk drums evoking images of festivals, street performances, rituals, and any manner of other fantasy cultural settings. You’ll find a collection of hits, rolls, rim taps, and more to build your own robust drum ensemble. The nagara is often used in the popular dance form Ghoomar, commonly attributed to the 2018 movie Padmaavat.
Orchestral Bell Ensemble
We’ve also included chimes to help round out the collection and lock in with a more conventional orchestra, though they’re equally suited to adding the sound of church bells in a castle town or scoring joyous ceremonies that demand regal treatment.
Orchestral Metallurgy
A collection of large metals being grazed, struck, and beaten for a suite of heavy industrial sounds; if you need the sound of a forge or assembly line from a distant realm, this is exactly how to do it.
Snare Ensemble
No Fantasy Percussion suite would be complete without the sound of a traditional drum corps — when great armies are marching into battle, this snare ensemble is an essential tool to convey the grandeur and scale necessary to get the job done.
Toms
The deeper, rounder cousin to the snare ensemble, this creates a hefty lower-mid power layer for additional oomph in your drum core (or simply a nice thwack when needed).
CHAPTER 5 – HOLLYWOOD FANTASY VOICES
There’s a world of difference between a trained singer and a vocalist who has perfected true cinematic fantasy singing — and with Hollywood Fantasy Voices in hand, you can finally bridge that gap in your scores. We meticulously built this collection from the ground up, with multiple microphone positions, portamento control, mood (Soft, Classic, and Epic) and more so you can command the mythic fantasy vocals you need for your newest epic soundtrack. This is the authority that Hollywood Fantasy Voices puts in your hands — the ability to, with only a few words, make the audience feel on instinct: “I’m far away from home.”
Journey to the Elven Lands
Hollywood Fantasy Voices puts the power of singer Merethe Soltvedt’s majestic voice at your fingertips, along with full male and female choirs. Anytime you need ethereal, floating vocals to capture the essence of battles, lost kingdoms, or emotional trials, Merethe’s voice will sell the scene even when nothing else does the trick. She lent this library the same power and grace she brings as the lead vocalist for Two Steps From Hell. If you enjoy fantasy movies, you’ll love this: Every word she recorded for the Hollywood Fantasy Voices library comes directly from Tolkien’s Elvish language, allowing you to make your scores as authentic as possible!
Sustains
Forget complex CC automation; simply hold a single note and let Merethe’s haunting vocals do the rest! Switch between Lyrical (for dramatic, dynamic vowels) and Vibrato (for higher-energy sustained vowels) to instantly add a mysterious, regal topline to your scores (think Howard Shore’s Evenstar from The Two Towers). Every note is rich with emotion and magic, ready to add to your fantasy orchestra.
Legato
For more dramatic melodies that demand maximum realism and expression. These true legato passages are perfect for evoking images of rolling hills, distant castles, and all manner of fantasy settings — grand, expressive legato transitions were recorded both ascending and descending within an octave, allowing you to make even large intervals feel effortless with Merethe’s emotive voice.
Elvish Words
If you’ve ever wanted your own personal Elvish singer, you’re in luck — Merethe recorded 60 different words from Tolkien’s original language across a range of notes, which you can perform in isolation or chain together to create your own unique phrases and sentences. Even if this is only a subtle detail in an otherwise complex score, listeners will feel it — and this attention to detail will help set your music apart.
Phrases
Instantly set the mood for brooding, somber, and ominous fantasy scores. When you need a strong vocal line but don’t know what melody to write, and you want maximum realism and emotion, these ad lib phrases let you create the perfect part by playing a single note. All are organized into patches by key, so you never have to go hunting for the perfect vocal part when you’re deep in writing mode.
Choir
Hollywood Fantasy Voices wouldn’t be complete without a full choir to back up your solo singer, so we included ethereal male and female groups with different vowels to provide a rich palette to underscore the most gallant and potent moments in any project you’re writing for. The choir’s style has heavy traditional folk inspirations, making this the perfect fit when conventional “epic” choirs simply don’t do the job.
Keyswitch
We also included a keyswitch section to bring the rest of the instrument together into several condensed patches, allowing you to include all the fantasy voices you want with less tracks and menu diving. These include a full choir, men’s / women’s choirs, and Merethe’s recordings of sustains, phrases, and Elvish words. If you need to create a fleshed-out score quickly, this will give you the fastest path to bringing your own fantasy vocals to life.
CHAPTER 6 – HOLLYWOOD FANTASY ORCHESTRATOR
Create music in the style of Hollywood’s greatest fantasy film, television, and game soundtracks in seconds by playing a few simple chords with one hand and shaping expression with the other. Developed in collaboration with Sonuscore, Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator features hundreds of customizable presets built with the world instruments from the Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra series and allows you to create real-time arrangements based on your MIDI input with our Innovative Scoring Engine.
Compose Fantasy Scores in Seconds
With hundreds of customizable presets, you can instantly create music in the style of Hollywood's greatest fantasy film, television, and game soundtracks. While these presets were made with the fantasy genre in mind, they can easily be used across the genre spectrum including action, suspense, and historical dramas. Presets are organized into 4 categories, described below.
Ensembles
Ensembles allow you to quickly create rich orchestral arrangements with presets that combine instruments into various strings, brass, winds, percussion, choral, and full orchestra ensembles. For instance, loading the ‘Strings And Brass - Legato’ preset in the Strings and Brass Long sub-category will instantly load a string and brass ensemble consisting of 3 Flugelhorns, 3 Alpenhorns, 3 Wagner Tubas, 6 Low Brass, 3 Hardanger Fiddles, High Octave Strings, 3 Viola Da Gambas, and Low Octave Strings.
Ostinatos
Ostinatos enable you to build rhythmic tension in different meters or create moving melodic lines by only changing a few notes. Start by exploring the sub-categories that contain different note durations (quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, etc), then choose from one of the many preset variations, including those in different time signatures (3/4, 5/4, 7/8, and more).
Scores
Scores bring classic Hollywood fantasy orchestrations to life, bringing an endless source of inspiration to your compositions. Choose between a wide selection of themes in the sub-categories, each with lots of different variations, including alternative time signatures.
User
This is where your own presets can be stored by modifying existing presets or by building your own ensembles from scratch!
New Voices Instrument Section
Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator adds an additional Voices instrument section alongside the existing instrument sections to give you a total of 5 sections to create complex orchestrations: strings, brass, winds, percussion, and voices. Put the power of singer Merethe Soltvedt’s majestic voice at your fingertips, and add a full men and women’s choir to provide a rich, ethereal palette that perfectly underscores the most powerful moments of your fantasy scores.
Our Innovative Scoring Engine
At the heart of Hollywood Orchestrator is our innovative Scoring Engine, which produces everything from basic string arrangements to very complex orchestrations played by the full fantasy orchestra. This is where you can create new presets or alter any existing preset by changing the melodic pattern in each step sequencer or by completely switching the instruments and voicings of that preset.
Mix To Perfection
In the Mixer section, refine the final output of each instrument by adjusting the volume, pan, equalization, reverb preset, reverb send amounts, and other reverb controls like pre-delay, length, and filters.
Important Note
Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator uses instruments from all 5 parts of the Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra series, and is not a standalone product. It requires either perpetual product licenses for each of the libraries, a Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra bundle license, or a ComposerCloud+ subscription license. Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator is a separate product from the Hollywood Orchestrator product. They share many features, but only work with their respective library collections.
What Will You Create?
Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator is the perfect tool both for new composers who want to get that magical fantasy sound quickly and effortlessly, and for professional composers who need to produce large amounts of compositions on a deadline. Using the cinematic world instrument ensembles from Hollywood Fantasy Strings, Brass, Winds, Percussion, and Voices, Hollywood Orchestrator's innovative Scoring Engine will allow you to instantly create fantasy masterpieces of any size and scale!
