Recording Session: Part 3 - Comparing the Tracks
It’s been more than a month since the recording session, and I’ve had time to mix the audio from the session. Now is the perfect time to look back at both the original mock-ups of my music, and their brand new live orchestral versions. My plan for this blog is to look for key takeaways:- What orchestration techniques worked well? What might I have done differently? How can I improve the accuracy of my mock-ups?
This is the 3rd part of a series on these recording sessions. Check out the other two blogs here:
Before We Begin
I knew I would have 30 minutes of recording time, so the plan was to write three cues roughly a minute long. This gave me around 10 minutes a cue. I intentionally chose three different styles of music to explore multiple orchestral textures. The key intention behind this experience was to build upon my knowledge of orchestration, to back up my theory with practical experience.
For each of the three pieces, I will give a small note about my compositional thought process, and then some reflections about how the live recording went, and what I can learn from it. I’m going to be giving timestamps for each point I make; these timestamps always relate to the live version of the composition. Finally to listen to these pieces side by side I used Dom Sigalas’ referencing tip, a super useful trick for any Cubase users out there!
For reference, here was the Orchestral Line Up for the recordings:
Call To Adventure
This is a John Powell inspired fantasy style piece. It was fun to be able to play around with a classic ABA structured melody. I was excited to see how this was going to turn out and it didn’t disappoint. The structure and style allowed for a lot of solo parts, and it was great to be able to hear all 4 woodwind players individually in this piece.
Analysis
0:00 – The Harp has a lot more detail in the opening spread chords than the mock-up.
0:14 – The Cor Anglais blends beautifully with the 2nd Violins and Violas. However in my original mock-up you can see that the Cor Anglais sticks out far too much at this point.
0:22 – The decision to double the Horns with Bassoon and most of the Celli section pays off. The theme stands out well and has real body to it.
0:29 – The Trumpet entry was a bit of a problem here. In hindsight, I think it would have helped to have something else doubling the Trumpets, such as Woodwinds before their run. What is particularly tough for the Trumpets is that this is their first involvement in the piece. So another solution would have been to involve the Trumpets in some kind of accompanimental figure before this entry.
0:33 – I really like how the Woodwind run came out. What is particularly encouraging is the similarity with the original mock-up.
0:38 – This section where the Strings and Woodwinds take over the melody, is my favourite part of the cue. Compare in particular the Strings here with the Strings in the mock-up. The live performance brings a real sense of longing and expression to this moment.
0:44 – The ending of this section is particularly effective, with first the Trumpet solo, and then the Flute and Harp soli that transitions back to the A section. (See screenshot)
0:48 – Compare the Clarinet and Bassoon solos in the live version to the mock-up. There is a huge difference in quality. Live players are awesome!
Starry Skies
This was a piece I wrote at night (surprisingly…). Throughout my life whenever there has been a big change coming up, I have found it peaceful to go outside, and spend some time looking up at the night sky. This track comes from that headspace. I remember it being late at night in my studio, I just hit record, and pretty much played the whole piece there and then. When orchestrating the piece, I wanted the music to expand outwards. I achieved this by limiting the overall range of the piece, and every 4-8 bars adding an octave. The piece begins with a range of just a 10th, but when the climax hits at 0:40, it has expanded to a range of 5 octaves.
At the recording session, we did a few takes of the track, and then tried a take with no click (as mentioned in the previous blog). This ended up being the take I’ve used for the final version! However unlike the other two cues where I’ve been able to do a little comping in places (combining multiple takes), here that wasn’t possible. So there are risks to the no click take, but when it goes well it adds real life to the performance.
Analysis
0:00 – The con sord (with mute) sound for the Strings has a lot more expression in the live performance, compared to the mock-up.
0:39 – The Timpani roll into the climax came out quite differently to what I was expecting. That is because I hadn’t factored in that the roll ends on a different note, thus a different drum. The way the performer played it actually added impact to the moment, so I will be looking to incorporate this into how I program the Timpani in future mock-ups.
0:40 – My initial worry for this section was that the Woodwinds would be drowned out here, and in my original mock-up you definitely hear a bit of fight going on between the different sections. However the live take blended well together, highlighting perhaps the biggest advantage of recording a whole orchestra together in one room: every player is able to listen to each other – as a result a natural balancing takes place by the performers. With sample libraries, you just don’t get this. Each instrument has to be finely tuned and has no awareness of anything else playing at the same time.
0:40b – One of the limitations of the recording session was having only 1 Percussionist. For this part I wanted to use the Suspended Cymbal at the start and end of this section, and a Crash Cymbal in the middle. This meant the Percussionist was having to make fast changes between instruments, which ultimately resulted in a slightly less full performance.
0:50 – The bar of silence in the live version sounds much better than in the mock-up. In the mock-up it is dominated by the suspended cymbal. This effect was also helped by playing with no click. The Conductor was able to choose the perfect time for the Orchestra to come back in.
A Storm Is Coming
This piece is a very descriptive. We start with light rain that becomes heavier. The sky gets darker, and then we hear thunder and lightning. A lot of this was exploring different instrumental choices - for example combining the Glockenspiel, Harp Harmonics, and Violin Harmonics together. I wanted to get across the idea that the instruments within the orchestra were communicating with each other.
Analysis
0:00 – Out of all the cues that needed recording, I was probably most nervous about how the opening of this piece would turn out. The Woodwinds did a fantastic job, particularly from 0:09. I had wondered how many takes it would take them to get the part done, it turned out just to be 2!
0:18 – The sul pont Celli and Double Bass tremolo was more effective than I expected. In the mock-up the sound was much cleaner, but in the live version you can really hear the instability that this technique creates. I had also wondered about doubling the low Timpani pianissimo roll with the Bass Drum, as in the mock-up it had lacked body. But in the live version it sounded great.
0:21 + 0:26 – If you listen to my mock-up, the low harp accents really stand out and are quite aggressive. In the pre-mixed version of live recording they lacked the same presence. This could have been my fault, as I marked these notes forte with an accent, and really they should have been marked fortissimo. After playing around with them, in particular boosting them in the mix, they still carry the same sinister feel I was looking for, but with a little less aggression than expected.
0:32 – I am particularly pleased with how the dynamic effect came out in the Woodwinds (see image). Also I played around with natural dynamics here: the opening motive is played by solo Clarinet, then Clarinet doubled by a single Horn, and finally Clarinet doubled by all 4 Horns, the 2nd Violins, and Violas. The effect resulted in a smooth transition into the next section.
0:54 – In the mock-up I clearly made the Bass Trombone and Tuba too aggressive here, it almost sounds marcato. The live recording shows clearly how these instruments should sound at this dynamic.
Overall I’m really happy with how these three pieces came out. It’s all very well knowing the theory of how the instruments should work together, but until you get the practical knowledge, you can never be 100% sure about whether your understanding is correct. This experience has really shown the importance of listening to as much live music as possible. Being surround by sample library sounding orchestral music, it is easy to get wrong impressions.
That’s it for today!
Dan
Here are the links to the previous two blogs in this series: Part 1 – Preparation - Part 2 – The Experience