Stereo Snare Drums

Stereo Snare Drums The advantage of recording a score in a scoring stage versus playing a “regular concert” with an orchestra is that you can alter the setup of each cue (within reason). For instance when you want a really large snare drum sound, let’s say...

Microphone Spill

Microphone Spill When recording a real orchestra, unless isolated in separate booths or recorded in several sections, you will basically hear every instrument on every microphone. This goes particularly for loud instruments like percussion and brass in forte or above....

Rhythmical “Engines”

Rhythmical “Engines” Particularly in action and adventure scenes, the scoring usually relies heavily on pushing rhythms and lots of rhythmical activity. If you do not want to fall back to using percussion all the way through or even a drum kit in such sequences, you...

Glockenspiel Orchestral Use

Glockenspiel Orchestral Use The Glockenspiel is a fantastic instrument to highlight soft chords or double a melody. It works especially well to play the highest note of a pointillistic chord or line on the Glockenspiel. However, when doubling very active melodies on...

The Orchestral Percussion Section

The Orchestral Percussion Section The use of the orchestral percussion section has become twofold in the last couple of years. In trailer music and modern Hans Zimmer inspired scoring, very often its function has become to mimick a drum set, basically providing a...