The
MIDI Orchestra
by Jerry Gerber and Michael Prager The
Unreal Orchestra
Software
instruments and ultra-realistic sample libraries are more than
the rage: They’ve revolutionized how symphonic music is produced
and delivered. Here’s a look at how top pros make the most of
their virtual symphonies The
Virtual Film Score
Whether comprised of racks of MIDI modules, stacks
of samplers, or gigabytes of software instruments, virtual orchestras
are an essential element of every composer’s arsenal. With mind-boggling
frequency, technological advances foster new sample libraries
that offer ever-increasing control of expression and realism.
You read about these in the pages of Keyboard
every month: the Vienna Symphonic Library, Quantum Leap’s
Symphonic Orchestra,
the Garritan Personal Orchestra, and other new virtual
instruments let composers get much closer to the ideal of a highly
expressive digital orchestra. They also make it easier to produce
great-sounding orchestral tracks in a phenomenally short amount
of time. As you might imagine, this comes in really handy in the
world of film and TV music, where it seems nanoseconds can make
the difference between a successful project and a missed deadline.
As
fantastic as these new tools are, ultra-realistic orchestral tracks
don’t just flow out the minute you install them. And even if they
did, there’s a big difference between a track that sounds like
a real orchestra and a cue that does its job in a film. There
are many paths you can take to learn how to get the most from
your digital orchestra and hone your chops at creating music for
picture, but all of them combine the knowledge of traditional
instruments and orchestration with a mastery of the technological
resources available to you. We’re here to help you figure out
how to do it. We’ve interviewed several highly successful composers
and orchestrators who make extensive use of virtual instruments. Based
in Northridge, California, Neal Acree is climbing the steps of
film composing success with work that includes music for the TNT
series Witchblade and cable feature films such as Deadly Swarm and Project VIPER.
Originally
from the United Kingdom, Jane Cornish moved to Los Angeles in
search of new challenges in film scoring, and has found them in
a big way. Her current projects include composing music for a
series of ESPN biographies, as well as a steady flow of work from
Ant Farm, one of busiest movie-trailer music companies around.
Getting
the Idea
Whether
the score is orchestral in nature or not, the process begins with
the same first step: watching the movie itself. This can sometimes
include a temp score, which is a compilation of music that the
director and music editor select to give the composer an idea
of direction in which he or she would like to see the music go.
In Christopher Young’s case, his score to The
Fly II served as the temp score to Jennifer
8, which subsequently resulted in his getting that gig, too.
“The director heard my score and really wanted to hire me,” he
says. “But the studio wasn’t keen on it, as I wasn’t a big name.
They ended up hiring someone else to do the score, but they didn’t
like it and threw it out. Then I came on board to replace that
score. “Before
starting the scoring process, I like to see the film as many times
as I can. That way, I’ll have a better idea of what I’m trying
to accomplish, and I can get a feel for where I think where the
music should and shouldn’t be. Then I begin the process of writing
the score out by hand on manuscript paper.” In
Acree’s case, his approach involves a little emotion and being
close to his keyboard. “The first step is watching the film and
reacting to it as an audience member rather than a filmmaker,”
he says. “I take those emotions or ideas I get while watching
and get to a keyboard as fast as I can to sequence stuff. I’ll
lay down as many thematic ideas as I can over the following two
or three days. Once I start to get an idea that will work as a
main theme, I’ll develop that and play it for the director.” The next step is the spotting session, which involves
the composer and director getting together to watch the film to
decide where the music should be and what kind of emotion is required.
Once that’s done and some music is written or at least sketched
out, it’s time to create a mock-up of the score, which involves
sequencing the score to make it sound as close to the real thing
as possible. This is where a little tech savvy and a solid grounding
in traditional orchestration comes in handy. New
Tools of the Trade
Jonathan
Price, a film composer himself in addition to being Young’s tech,
describes how they approach the mock-up process. “MOTU Digital
Performer (still under OS 9) is the hub of his studio,” he says.
“It controls the MIDI, audio, and video. For mock-ups, we find
our Gigastudio system running the Vienna Symphonic Library indispensable. For synth and sound design,
Native Instruments Reaktor, Absynth, and Kontakt, as well as Spectrasonics
Atmosphere, get used constantly. “After
Chris composes a cue in the upstairs studio, he photocopies the
sketch and sends it downstairs to me with a tempo map. I’ll mock
it up with the Vienna Library. If there’s a synth in the cue,
I’ll usually start with a patch from Absynth, D’cota, or Atmosphere
and edit it until it sounds like something Chris would like. If
it calls for designing a sound from the ground up, I’ll turn to
Reaktor.” Sitting in front of an impressive arsenal of computers and a
large plasma screen, Cornish gives up the lowdown on her scoring
rig. “I’m using Emagic Logic on a Mac G4 for sequencing, with
the built-in synth plug-ins and the EXS24 soft sampler,” she says.
“I use up to four Gigastudio systems as well, for orchestral samples.
I have an orchestral palette template set up on the Gigas and
in Logic. I make careful use of MIDI controllers to get the same
kind expression a well-trained musician would provide. I mix entirely
in Logic.” Like
many composers, Acree’s studio is in a state of constant transition,
but he maintains a distinctly retro edge, at least in terms of
his sequencer. “I have a blue-and-white G3 that runs Opcode Studio
Vision,” he says, “and two PCs for Gigastudio. I have two E-mu
E6400 samplers, which I use to handle some of the overflow from
the Giga PCs, as I tend to max out the polyphony.” Once your parts have been written and sequenced following the
laws of orchestral physics, the next step is to add expression
and dynamics into your work. This is typically accomplished using
expression pedals, mod wheels, or MIDI sliders to control MIDI
continuous controllers. “I’m a big advocate of capturing
a real-time performance with MIDI,” says Price. “I try to use
controllers that are as expressive as possible. I use a Roland
EV-7 foot pedal for volume. Since I play saxophone, it was easy
for me to pick up the Yamaha WX-7 wind controller to play in wind
and brass parts, or at least to add expression. I also use the
Roland Handsonic to play in percussion parts in real time — it’s
an incredibly sensitive hand drum MIDI pad. The idea is that if
you capture real-time performances, the result will sound musical.
I play in every line of the score. If the strings are sustaining
a chord, I play in each line separately, rather than play all
the notes of the chord in one pass.” Pedal
controllers figure heavily into Acree’s orchestrations as well.
“Ducking the attacks of samples is important. Most sample patches
are created to be used universally for both fast and slow passages.
But if you want to use a string patch in a slow passage, you have
to compensate for the attack of the patch with the volume pedal.
The Study of Orchestration, Samuel Adler. The Technique of Orchestration, Kent Wheeler Kennan. Orchestration,
Walter Piston. Instrumentation and Orchestration, Alfred Blatter. Style and Orchestration, Gardner Read. Principles of Orchestration, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Anatomy of the Orchestra, Norman Del Mar. Orchestration,
by Cecil Forsyth. Do try this at home Learning the ropes and then finding success aren’t steps that necessarily follow one another smoothly. But there are things you can do to give yourself the best shot possible. Young’s outlook has always been very positive. “Becoming a film composer is a doable thing,” he says, “if you have the willingness to go the distance. It takes a lot of desire to get there, but if you have the talent, it can be accomplished over time.” In fact, Young will even offer you advice personally if you contact him through his website www.christopher-young.com. Price can also be reached via email at www.jonathanprice.com. Cornish offers this advice: “As long as you have focus and develop your talent, there is no reason why you shouldn’t
pursue a career as a film composer. It’s highly rewarding, though
it requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Meeting good filmmakers
and developing relationships with directors and producers is important.
Scoring a good film, even if it’s quite small, can lead to more
scoring work. And you never know when the film or the film’s director
may do very well on the next one.” Acree agrees and adds, “You have to be strong-willed and thick-skinned. Being a talented composer is a prerequisite, but there’s so much more that goes into getting jobs and dealing with criticism. You have to be prepared for the moment when what you think is the best thing you’ve ever written gets thrown out. You may often feel like you’re working on product more than collaborating on an artistic endeavor. If you want to make a living at it, prepare yourself for the fact that it’s a tough business to get into and just as difficult to stay in once you’re in it.
The
Virtual Concert Hall achieve
the most musically expressive score with the technology you have
at your disposal. We’ll focus on some concepts and details which
can help bring expressiveness and intention to your music. As
with any medium, MIDI has its strengths and limitations. It takes
a bit of knowledge and experience to infuse a MIDI score with
musicality and expression. It means understanding your sounds
and samples, and exploiting all of the parameters that can lead
to a more musical result. The
virtual orchestra gives us options we don’t have with acoustic
instruments. We can use samples of acoustic instruments to orchestrate
our music, or we can use sounds that can’t be duplicated in the
acoustic realm. These sounds are often complex, often with built-in
rhythmic pulsations produced with sample-and-hold, LFO, or other
synthesis techniques. When using complex electronic sounds such
as these, listen to the harmonics and rhythmic patterns that are
present. This will give you a hint as to how to proceed to integrate
this timbre into an orchestral setting. In the electronic orchestra,
even just one synthesizer patch can be a complex texture in and
of itself, with multiple amplitude and filter envelopes, dynamic
panning, and modulation synced to tempo. Classical orchestration
know-how would seem not to help much when you’re trying to integrate
synth sounds and orchestral sounds, but the underlying principles
still apply. See “Texture, Not Conjecture” below for an overview
of some orchestration concepts that are equally at home with acoustic
and synthesized sounds. Unity
and variety are two of your biggest allies: Too much unity, or
too much repetition without variation, and you run the risk of
boredom. Too much variety, or a lack of structural cohesiveness,
you might get a kind of chaos that’s less than desirable. I strive
to create compositions that have autonomy, in which everything
seems to belong together, and that also have a sense of inevitability,
where the music seems rightfully determined to resolve the way
it does. This isn’t easy, as there are inherently contradictory
demands involved in the course of working with your virtual orchestra
that require much thought, patience and musical insight to solve.
In
your own music, pay close attention to the harmonics in your orchestrations,
listen to your sound deeply, and strive for clarity. Even if you
don’t want to sound anything remotely like a symphony orchestra,
there is still much to learn by understanding how to infuse gesture,
intention and expression in your work. Texture,
Not Conjecture
Mahler
said the essence of orchestration is variety, variety, and
variety. To me, that means that varying the texture is one of
our most important tools. One moment music is homophonic, the
next, it can be polyphonic. The winds can be playing in a choral-style
texture, followed by a monophonic tutti. Heterophony is commonly
used to create melodic variation: One instrument (or several)
can play the primary melodic element while another group outlines
that same melodic line by playing only notes which accent the
melodic curve. This can be done at the unison, at the octave;
there are countless variations. Closely
related techniques to this are join, drop-out, split and merge. A join occurs when an instrument
is playing a line and is joined by another timbre while in the
middle of a phrase. A drop-out is the opposite; several instruments
are playing a given part and one or more take rests, bringing
variation to the texture. A split occurs when two instruments
are playing the same part and suddenly one splits off and begins
playing another part against the first instrument. A merge is
the opposite: two timbres are playing two distinct parts and merge
to give more weight to one of the parts. How Should It Pan Out? You
can get an additional level of realism from your virtual orchestra
by carefully placing your instruments within the stereo field.
An orchestration reference book can be handy here, as it can provide
diagrams that show the standard orchestral stage seating arrangement.
With this as a guide, you can pan the violins and brass
to the left, the cellos and the low brass to the right, and violas
and woodwinds towards the center. Jerry
Gerber has a different take on panning as a tool for adding realism
to MIDI orchestra tracks. “Many musicians like to pan the virtual
orchestra by following the seating arrangement of the acoustic
orchestra,” he says. “But when you listen to music through two
speakers, you miss some of the sonic information that the concert
hall provides. So a technical compensation is required. The double
basses in the orchestra are usually off to the right side of the
ensemble. But with two speakers, the bass sounds best in the center.
I prefer panning the first violins hard left and the seconds hard
right, the violas soft left and cellos soft right, and the basses
center. This gives a full stereo panorama of the strings, and
when the violins play two distinct melodic lines, the stereo separation
helps create the illusion of a larger space. Making MIDI Tracks Expressive Just as you should keep in mind the various elements
of texture, there are six essential parameters that are involved
with each note you sequence: • Pitch • Duration • Timbre • Envelope (primarily amplitude attack and release) • Velocity • Time (location relative to the beat) To
create expressive phrases, satisfying legato passages, fast runs,
and other convincing gestures, you’ll need to pay attention to
one or more of these parameters. Attack and release times, note
length and velocity play a crucial role in the sequencing of a
fine legato line, and sometimes a very small adjustment of one
of the parameters does the trick. Even a loud tutti won’t cover
up these intimate connections between notes. In a fast passage,
for example, select every other note (or whatever group of notes
represent the weak pulse to you) and lower their velocity by 20%
or so. This helps shape the line by adding some variation.
|
