Orchestra Tips - Tech post
I'm back from vacation in Europe and back to the serious grind. Its all good, my batteries are recharged and I'm feeling great. I saw an orchestra perform in Bern, Switzerland while i was overseas and i wanted to blog a little bit about it. Here's a picture of the orchestra Hall....
Click on the pic to enlarge
Its a beautiful Hall and I'd guess it to have a reverb time of between 1.5 and 2 seconds of decay. I wanted to get a pic with the whole orchestra seated but i would have gotten kicked out. Anyway. How many up and coming musicians, producers, artists, engineers, etc... have been to an actual live orchestral performance? if you havent, YOU OWE IT TO YOUR CAREER TO GO!!!!! Especially young producers. This was a small orchestra, about 33 people, but i've seen orchestras with over 100 performers and its a magical experience. But as a learning experience, its priceless!! Here are some thoughts as to why....
1. you get to hear what a real hall reverb sounds like instead of a digital simulation.
2. You can visually see the interaction of the players, which will help train your ear to which instruments sound like what.
3. Its simply awesome to sit and watch a stage full of players play for 2 hours completely in tune, in time, and together.
How many of you know the difference between what a viola sounds like and what a violin sounds like? Do you know what an Oboe sounds like? how bout a Bassoon? French Horn? Then you NEED to go see an orchestra perform.
Can you distinguish between what the 1st violins section is playing and what the second violins section is playing? Did you even know there were 2 different sections of violin in an orchestra? Do you know what Pizzicato sounds like? How do the horns and woodwinds layer with the strings?
Why does any of this matter??? Well, on one level it doesnt i guess, but strings are often a big part of alot of productions in any genre and knowing how they really sound live, how they really perform together and against each other live might just help you to improve your own string writing or open you up to new ideas to try with your own work. It certainly has that effect on me. When the Bern Orchestra was playing, at one point the flute was doubling the strings which was a sound i hadnt really heard before. It was really nice to hear how the trumpets and French horns held long notes while the strings wove around them, and the dynamics!!! WOW THE DYNAMICS!!!
There were over 1,000 people in the concert hall and at times the orchestra played so quiet you could hear yourself breathe, and at times when the whole orchestra would get really quiet then pause, 1,000 + people were so quite you could hear a pin drop on stage, then the orchestra would roar back to life in a wall of sound. And the reverb floating thru the concert hall when the orchestra did big stop hits. You could really hear how the natural sound of the hall reinforced the instruments and added to the entire experience. Can you tell i liked it? you should go to a performance for yourself!
-Ken Lewis back in the USA
Click on the pic to enlargeIts a beautiful Hall and I'd guess it to have a reverb time of between 1.5 and 2 seconds of decay. I wanted to get a pic with the whole orchestra seated but i would have gotten kicked out. Anyway. How many up and coming musicians, producers, artists, engineers, etc... have been to an actual live orchestral performance? if you havent, YOU OWE IT TO YOUR CAREER TO GO!!!!! Especially young producers. This was a small orchestra, about 33 people, but i've seen orchestras with over 100 performers and its a magical experience. But as a learning experience, its priceless!! Here are some thoughts as to why....
1. you get to hear what a real hall reverb sounds like instead of a digital simulation.
2. You can visually see the interaction of the players, which will help train your ear to which instruments sound like what.
3. Its simply awesome to sit and watch a stage full of players play for 2 hours completely in tune, in time, and together.
How many of you know the difference between what a viola sounds like and what a violin sounds like? Do you know what an Oboe sounds like? how bout a Bassoon? French Horn? Then you NEED to go see an orchestra perform.
Can you distinguish between what the 1st violins section is playing and what the second violins section is playing? Did you even know there were 2 different sections of violin in an orchestra? Do you know what Pizzicato sounds like? How do the horns and woodwinds layer with the strings?
Why does any of this matter??? Well, on one level it doesnt i guess, but strings are often a big part of alot of productions in any genre and knowing how they really sound live, how they really perform together and against each other live might just help you to improve your own string writing or open you up to new ideas to try with your own work. It certainly has that effect on me. When the Bern Orchestra was playing, at one point the flute was doubling the strings which was a sound i hadnt really heard before. It was really nice to hear how the trumpets and French horns held long notes while the strings wove around them, and the dynamics!!! WOW THE DYNAMICS!!!
There were over 1,000 people in the concert hall and at times the orchestra played so quiet you could hear yourself breathe, and at times when the whole orchestra would get really quiet then pause, 1,000 + people were so quite you could hear a pin drop on stage, then the orchestra would roar back to life in a wall of sound. And the reverb floating thru the concert hall when the orchestra did big stop hits. You could really hear how the natural sound of the hall reinforced the instruments and added to the entire experience. Can you tell i liked it? you should go to a performance for yourself!
-Ken Lewis back in the USA
posted by Protools Mixing at 10:30 PM
1 Comments:
Excellent advice. Half (or more) of the job of the conducter is the same as the engineer: mixing.
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