Layer 2x Round Robinson

The first method is built into all BML instruments and is accessible from any articulation that contains multiple round robins. If you take a look at the ROUND ROBINS  menu (you may need to open the 'Advanced configuration panel' by clicking the    button) you should see an option that reads . Clicking this provides you with a drop-down menu (shown to the right). You're looking to pick one of the Layer x2 values.

Layer x2 round robins tells the instrument to layer 2 round-robin alternations every time you press a key. Each time you play a note, the instrument progresses 2 round-robins. For example, the first press will layer round robin 1 and 2, the next plays 3 and 4 and so on. You're effectively sacrificing half your round-robins in exchange for twice as many players.

Layer x2 with no skip provides the same functionality above, but without jumping two round-robins each note. The first press will layer 1 and 2, the next 2 and 3, the next 3 and 4 and so on. This retains all the round-robins but can potentially lead to the machine-gun effect if not used carefully.

It's worth remembering that this technique will only  work with articulations that provide multiple round-robins and its effectiveness can vary from instrument to instrument. However, it can be a quick way to thicken the sound of your instrument with very little effort required.

The Transpose Trick

When you don't have any round-robins to use the previous technique, there is an old trick to thicken the sound a little using the tuning and transpose options available within Kontakt.

If you're ever tried to make an orchestra section sound bigger by loading multiple instances of the same instrument and playing them simultaneously you'll no doubt have noticed that it doesn't really work. When there are no round-robins you get a horrible phasing effect because of the way that the instrument is playing back the same sample overlayed (with miniscule differences in timing).

To get around this phasing you can utilise an old trick whereby you transpose the instrument down  or up  so that you're triggering a different sample, while you tune the opposite way to restore the pitch to the original note. First lets look at a way to manually achieve this technique in Spitfire instruments to simulate 3x as many instruments playing:

• Load three instances of the same instruments into Kontakt and set them all on the same Midi channel using the dropdown in the instrument header ( ).
  
  
• In the second  instance of the instrument you want to set the Kontakt Tune  setting to -2 semitones and the Spitfire Tranpose  setting to 2
  
  
  
  
• In the third  instance of the instrument you want to set the Kontakt Tune  setting to 2 semitones and the Spitfire Tranpose  setting to -2
  
  

In more recent Spitfire BML instruments this can be automatically achieved in a much simpler way (this will be available as products are updated):

• Load three instances of the same instruments into Kontakt and set them all on the same Midi channel ( ).
• In the second  instance of the instrument click    and select    from the drop-down menu.
• In the third  instance of the instrument click    and select    from the drop-down menu.

You should now have three instruments on the same Midi channel, one of which has the keyboard transposed up  two semitones but the tuning shifted down (so playing a C will trigger the D sample, pitched down to be a C) and one of which has been transposed down  two semitones and tuned up (so playing a C will trigger the A# sample, pitched up to be a C). Because three different samples are now being triggered, and minimal pitch shifting has occured, you should hear no phasing while hearing what sounds like a slightly bigger section.

Note that if you simply wanted to double the size of the section, ignore the third step and simply load two instances of the same instrument, transposing/tuning only one of them. This technique is also supported in all other libraries utilising the standardised Spitfire UI (BML Flutes, Horns, Low Brass, Albion, etc.).

There are downsides to this technique. For one, you lose some of the range of the instrument where you're transposing up and down. The tuning does also affect the sound of the instrument, especially when it comes to the hall and preserving its ambience.