Artists I’ve worked with in the last 18 months include TechN9ne, Killer Mike, Tobe Nwigwe, Kem, Busta Rhymes, Ledisi, Sia, Dua Lipa, Sophie Hunger, Guster, Parkway Drive, Big Sean, Joe Bonamassa, Ibrahim Maalouf, the Metropole Orkest, and the BBC, Detroit, Kansas City, and National Symphony Orchestras.

These days, there’s a lot more to working as an arranger than just knowing how to voice a chord. With this post, I hope to pass on a lot of tips, tricks and treats from my experience.

Pre-production

First thing after getting the call

ChatGPT the artist. Ask for a bio, list of best-known tracks, tracks that show off their style, set lists, links to the YouTube videos of live versions and album versions on your streamer of choice.
See if they have done anything with orchestra before. Look out for any Tiny Desk concerts or acoustic shows. This helps to see if they can play in a stripped-down way with no tracks or big production.

Questions for Orchestra/Employer

• What is the orchestra? Size, Type (regular or pickup)
• What are the doubles available?
• Is this a one-off or will it be used again?
• How many rehearsals?
• One or Two sets? (if you are putting together a whole show)
• How extensive will the amplification be?
• Who is copying?
• Budget?

Questions for Artist/MD

• Is the band from the artist or orchestra?
• Backing Vocals?
• Tracks? If so, ask for them.
• Request live versions that match the form they currently use.
• Does the artist talk a lot in shows? (Helps to know how many charts you need)
• How open to being creative are they? Intros? Codas? Interludes? None or reduced band sections? Re-harms?
• Do they have any lead sheets or existing charts?
• Who reads and who does not? You never want to put anyone on the spot, so important to know.

Takedown

Tools- Digital Performer, Transcribe, Moises

First, load everything you have into DP. If you don’t get stems, split the mix into your own stems using Moises or something similar.

Put it on a grid, it will save time later.

You can search for any existing sheet music or midi files, but be careful; most of it has mistakes or might not match what the artist now does, so this is often pointless. For most of the work I do, there is none anyway. I have done several gigs where I was given existing arrangements to build from, and every time there have been so many mistakes that it would have been faster to start from scratch.

Take it all down, everything, you never know when you will need it. If the rhythm section is from the ‘orchestra’, you will need much more detailed parts. This is quite often the case with the Metropole Orkest. If the artist has a band that knows their parts, you will still want all of the bass, chords and any important lines you might need to double or avoid. Grab all of the bass and some other parts, even if you don’t need them (this helps your writing process). As you work, you will want to play back your score to check things out, so you need to have some bass and rhythm parts to know if it is all going to work. Another thing to be sure to do is to paste out the bass through the whole chart, even if it is covered by slashes, so you can hear it all the time when working. Just remember to mute any of the parts for the demo if you are playing it back over the original artist files.

If it is a Hip Hop track, it is often much easier to take things down from the original samples, or at least reference them. www.whosampled.com is a great place to look. I used this a lot on the J Dilla Detroit.

If you can’t hear the bass properly, even if after splitting it out, try putting it up the octave.

Process

I play the track and start singing or jamming along, coming up with ideas. I never create any grand outlines or plans before I start; I let it evolve organically as I work from left to right. I let the song inspire me. A little dirty secret: I’ve done many charts where I haven’t even listened to the full song before I start writing. While I used to do all my own takedowns, these days I don’t, so sometimes the first time I hear the full track is when I already have the sketch open in my template — and I can’t help myself, I start putting ideas in right away at verse one.

I find this part of the process the most exciting, so I tend to fill it up, overdo it. For strings, I flesh out the full section as I go, but for woods and brass, I sketch on fewer staves. I get to the end, step back, and look at what I have. Sometimes, what I have in the first verse might get thrown out — maybe it is not needed. For verses, I tend to do different things each time; conversely, choruses are often similar to each other. To achieve a nice shape, you don’t want each chorus to be exactly the same — you want the first to be a little less, with each subsequent chorus getting bigger. I often fill that first chorus up, then paste it to the rest as I work through, then go back and strip things out of the first. The second is often what I originally had for the first, and so on, until I get to the last, where I add or change things enough to take it to 11.

You do not need the orchestra to play the whole time. It is totally OK to have a verse or two with them all resting. Don’t feel you need to justify your existence by filling every bar with unnecessary notes.

A lot of the artists I work with still use tracks. I have them mute anything orchestral— legit orchestras don’t take kindly to “playing along,” it’s a bit disrespectful. I might leave other elements in the track, double with the orchestra, or completely redo. Sometimes we leave bass and drums in the track. There are no hard rules, but everything should be considered carefully as you work through the arrangement.

For Big Sean, we decided to keep the bass and drums on track. I just conducted Nas: Illmatic—the show that pretty much changed my career 11 years ago—and it is entirely live, everything is played by the band, orchestra or the occasional sample trigger by the DJ.

Easy Creative tricks

While it would be great to just be given the name of the song and the key and be told to go for it, that is pretty rare these days. Most gigs I do involve adding an orchestra to an existing arrangement. The form and harmony are already set and not easily going to change. If this is the case, what are some things to do that show off your work and the orchestra, but don’t make life hard for the artist?

• Add an Introduction. I will do this after finishing the chart as you can often use material you already have written for it. Even if I don’t use any existing material, doing it last means I know the song much better and will be more ‘inside’ it so my ideas will be more related. Writing an intro gives you a chance to feature the orchestra and not make the artist worry too much about learning a new version. Just make sure it flows easily and obviously into the normal start of the song.

• Add a Coda. This comes with similar wins as the Introduction, but runs the risk of being drowned out by the crowd who will still usually clap at the end of the song as they know it!

• Add an Interlude. This can very rewarding for all, but means the artist and band have to learn a new arrangement. It might scare them, or there just might not be enough time for them to rehearse it and feel comfortable.

I am not suggesting you do all three on every chart. Sometimes you don’t need to do anything extra; there might already be space in the song that will give the orchestra some time. I also often put together whole shows and you don’t need everything to be a huge orchestra showoff piece; I can plan it out over the show.

I find there is a good balance to be had with most artists. If a show has 15 charts, make 10 of them easy, without any changes or things to remember, so they can sing the song as usual and the orchestra is there to enhance. For the rest, add some intros and then, with the artist’s consent, pick one or two that you can open up a bit and be creative. Think of the show as a whole, don’t think every chart has to be your magnum opus.

Broad strokes win in most live situations where there is a full band and PA. Small details are just lost.

Easy rookie pitfalls

• Be sure not to make this about you, it is about them. It is not a chance to try out some crazy texture that needs an explanation more than 3 words on the part, do that with your own orchestra!
• Understand the band is going to be loud in most cases. Think about what you write, will it be heard?
• Always think twice before having the orchestra low end double the band low end. Of course, in a big tutti, go for it, but they do not need to do it in the verse just for the sake of it. And make sure you have the right notes!
• Thinking that everyone has to play, and play a lot. This is not high school, players are quite happy to play one passage or none. They will enjoy that more than mindlessly doubling stuff that is not going to be heard, or sound like a concert band if it is. As already mentioned, you can leave the orchestra out of whole sections of a song, they do not need to play the whole time. Space will give you more impact when you do have them play.
• Unless you know the orchestra and band, think twice before having the orchestral percussion section play groove/rhythm parts. Do not write things just for the sake of giving them something to do.
• Not understanding that this might get just one run-through before the show and that is for the artist. There is no time to experiment or change things on a pops gig. Best case you get a rehearsal, then a sound check/show run with no stopping. I have done many shows where there is just one one run-through on the day of the show, which means everything must play down perfectly with no or minimal questions. Recently, with Detroit and Big Sean, the only rehearsal was the afternoon of the show and I also had a 10-minute, never-before-played overture to get through. You must know what works and sounds impressive but is not hard for a professional orchestra. They are NOT going to look at it ahead of time. Principals might give it a glance, but that is it.
• Not having the melody, lyrics (at least the first line of each section) or band guides in the score for the conductor to see.
• Have the orchestra sing, hum or clap. Hard no for professional orchestras.

Post-production

Keep a list of places that the artist needs to pay attention to. If there are tracks, work with the MD on muting any orchestral elements or things the orchestra is going to play. On several recent gigs, I have gone as far as recording slates for myself, or the conductor, if it is not me.

Score

• Be sure to have lyrics in the score. I often just have the first line of each section in a font that can easily be read by the conductor. The whole melody will be there of course, or slashes if it is a rap.
   
• Make sure the layout is logical and easy to follow. Fit the pages to phrases. You can often fit 8 bars on a page. If you have to have four bars on the next page, move the right margin over to compensate. Don’t have a really widely spaced page after tight ones, it looks amateur.
   
• Rehearsal letters are a must. Some people label Verse and Chorus, I don’t bother with this unless I am helping out on a team that is all doing it, then I play nice. But if the gig is all me and my team, we never bother and have never had an issue.
   
• Make sure you have guides for what the band will play or for anything on a track.
   
• Use proper stave numbers. Double winds can use 8 staves, triple winds also use 8 staves unless the music is too complicated and will be messier if condensed. Horns use 2 staves (if I see 4 horn staves in a score, I assume you either don’t know what you are doing, you are lazy, or some combination of both and you will be judged!). This will give you a nice visual balance in your score with things in predictable places. As a conductor looking at brass where every part has it’s own stave is irritating as it leads to more space the eye has to look at and osten means what is there is smaller to fit all of the staves.
   
• Trumpets: put 1st on its own stave, and 2nd and 3rd on another. I know this goes against the tradition, but it makes life much easier. Who plays any solos? Who rests, getting ready for the big bit while the others play? Grouping 2 and 3 just makes way more sense. Trombones: 1st and 2nd on one stave and Bass on another.
   
• Put the Vocals and Rhythm section above the strings, below Harp and Piano.
   
• To transpose or not to transpose, that is the question. Check with the conductor, it depends what world they are coming from. The default in this world is transposed, but people like Jules Buckley and myself prefer concert scores. I have spent my whole career looking at concert scores seeing the part transposed in my head. For others their brain works best the other way. That said, anyone working as a professional can read and work with both.
   
• Use key signatures.
   
• DO NOT hide any staves/optimize. Leave the whole orchestra showing, it makes it much easier for the conductor to follow.
   
• Large time signatures always help a sight reading conductor, but not too big that they become a focus. Check out this page on how big is just right!
   
• Large numbers on every measure at the bottom of the score.
   
• Text and tempo information goes above the top stave and Violin 1.

Demo

• Demos are a must on 99.9% of gigs these days.
• Using the stems you have, lay the orchestra demo over the artist and make a mix that works well to give the artist an idea. DO NOT mix the orchestra too loud, this will lead to more questions and gives a really false impression of what it will sound like. Of course, you want them to hear what is going on, so it will be a little louder than the live balance, but don’t have it dominate.
• Depending on budget and profile of the project, this could be NotePerformer, a hybrid, or a fully programmed demo. If you have a good relationship with them you might get away with something very basic. If it is your first gig with a new client and you find you have to apologize for the demo, then you need to make a better one if you want them to love you!
• Sometimes you need to flatten the tempo of the demo if it is from a live recording. This will make it easier to put a NotePerformer demo back over the top of it without too much editing.
• I like to make a score video for the artist. They always enjoy seeing the score and it gives them a reference if they want to give you any notes, even if they don’t read music. I used to use dropbox capture for this but it was recently discontinued and after a lot of searching I have settled on a program call Zight.

Here are some examples of demo videos.

Woodwinds

• Avoid mindless/pointless doubling. It leads to a very traditional sound, which is fine at times but there are so many other creative things you can do to make it your own.
   
• Try the arpeggiator approach or dovetailing with delays and overlaps.
   
• Know if and when they need to breathe and write accordingly.
   
• Be careful with doubles, even standard ones. The more famous the orchestra, the less chance you have of anyone doubling, always confirm beforehand what you can do.
   
• Most concerts you will get double woods. It is rare to have triple woods on a pops show, and you don’t have to use them all either way!
   
• Bassoons are not bass guitars or trombones and I often leave them out on loud hip hop gigs.

Here are some examples of my favourite woodwind techniques. I like to create interesting textures. Also notice that all the breathing will now be spread out and predictable and will be unnoticeable.

Brass

Horns

• Unison is awesome.
• Avoid low if you want clarity and focus.
• Use them for Epic counter lines in the upper register so they cut through and lift the orchestra. Awesome for the last chorus.
• If you have four horns and only need three notes, double the top one, this gives it a smoother tone and makes the section sound bigger.
• Use key signatures. It is an age old question and debate, but I am right, as usual.
• Interlock them as that is what a legit section is expecting.

Trumpets

• Will overpower if you are not careful.
• Keep range in check unless you need it to sound like James Bond. If not, don’t go too high (past C). You risk them missing or picking up a piccolo and no good can come from that.
• Be careful with Harmon mutes, they can be very hard to blend and lines are often uneven.
• Check if they are using the orchestra’s 1st player or bringing in a lead player.
• In the US, Australia, and Europe, most orchestras will use C trumpets. If you have a scratch band with show players or a lead player brought in, they will play Bb. In London it is all Bb. I hate C trumpets, and, unfortunately, it does not matter what part you make, C or Bb, they will play C most likely and annoy me to no end.

Trombones

• Great for filling out the ‘pad’.
• In a legit orchestra it will be two tenors and a bass.
• The tenors will have triggers, but make sure you know what you are doing if you go low, past E.

Tuba

• Be careful in a hall, don’t go too high, it does not blend well.
• It is not a trombone.

When writing big tutti’s, think about the impact of entries and how people will breathe. You don’t need to tell them when to breathe, that is usually obvious, but knowing when they will do it will help your writing.

Percussion

• Timpani is very effective, great for adding drama or filling into a new section. Don’t overdo it, it will diminish it’s impact. Think of it as a turbo boost. Don’t underestimate their pedaling skill, but don’t tell them when to do it. Write the notes you want, they will work it out.
• Bass Drum and Suspended Cymbal are good for bridging sections. Don’t go overboard or they lose their effectiveness.
• Chimes and Glock work well and cut through.
• Vibes are very versatile. They can play tunes, chords or riffs.
• Xylophone, be careful, pretty loud and dated sound. I avoid.
• Marimba, often not heard and if it is, sounds awful. I avoid unless I am forced to use it. There is something weird about the sound of it at the back of an orchestra in a concert hall that has always bugged me.
• Be careful with adding shakers, congas, tambourines, etc. Does the music really need it? Can these players and the hall make it work?
• Do not think you are going to be cool and have the orchestral percussion play as a split up drum kit, hard no. It never works. If you need a kit, have a kit.
• I always use a five-line staff, it makes it easy to notate multiple instruments at the same time and also cut down on labels.
• Legit orchestras in general prefer one part per player, not a percussion score. That said, if I have three players and one is on mallets the whole time, I will give them their own part and the other two I will put together.

Harp

• Always consider if the part will be heard, and if it is, will it sound any good?
• All notes in a phrase will ring unless you tell them otherwise, that is the default.
• Write full durations where it makes sense, as opposed to short notes and ringovers. It makes more musical sesne.
• Glisses are effective and cut through.
• If it is loud or a large crescendo, they will add to it using both hands and a few swipes. If in doubt, I just say ‘swirls’. There is no need to get carried away with lines all over the place, do you really think they don’t know how to play a big gliss?
• Don’t make glisses too short, they need some distance to be effective. Some harpists will sense your incompetence and add an octave or two, but some will play your one-octave gliss and it won’t be heard or have any impact.
• For glissandos I use a pedal diagram. Apart from that, nothing else is needed. They will work out and write in their own pedals. You will either fuck it up, or put them in the wrong place, so just leave it to them!
• It is not a piano.

Piano/Keyboards

• Piano is often not needed if there is a full band.
• Celeste can be effective in places. I prefer them to use a keyboard /sample for it as it will be easier to make it louder. A real celeste is not loud.
• Every orchestra these days has a keyboard with piano, celeste and organ sounds or a controller and MainStage.
• I like to use synth bass at times. If you have a section where the band drops out, you need to fill the low end, the orchestra basses just won’t cut it. Adding some synth bass really helps. It is a bit like having the organ pedals but easier to do and will be in time.

Strings

• Avoid too much divisi, it will thin out your sound. You may get 22 violins on the first show, but 11 years later you hear it with 13. This just happened with Nas and Illmatic.
• If there are only 2 parts going in the strings, have all the violins on one and viola and cello on the other. The more the better on everything.
• If you have a small violin section, have them all up on the high line.
• Avoid pizz unless there is nothing else going on around it or you have lots playing it. Even then, be careful; it can’t compete with a band in most situations.
• Same for Col Legno. They are not going to smash their instruments so it has no chance of being heard in 99.765% of cases.
• Avoid too much bass doubling for the sake of it, and don’t think it will be cool to have them play along pizz, it is not….
• When writing motor rhythms, be careful with rests, accents or tricky syncopations as they can kill the groove. Continuous, even bowing is the easiest and often has the most impact, the accents can come from other instruments.
• Avoid artificial harmonics.  It might look like a flex in the score, but it won’t sound like one; more like a train going around a tight curve, but worse.
• Basses are not cellos.
• Mutes are a great sound, but will it be heard?
• Do not write the bowings in your score.

For All

• Keep the notation language simple. They will be sight reading.
• I never use descriptive text for anything. Just get the dynamic and articulation right and you are good to go. I don’t even put a description at the top, just the tempo.
• All orchestras can play swing from regular quaver notation. You just say ‘Swing.’ They can do it. Will it sound good? Maybe not, but it will be no better or worse than had you written it all out in triplets.
  

For more info on how I write for strings, check out my Error Code 7 post.

Rhythm Section

This needs its own whole article! I am often surprised by the lack of knowledge that even experienced arrangers and orchestrators have when it comes to writing and notating for the rhythm section. I don’t even know where to start, I am just going to say get your shit together people and leave it at that for now.

Parts

• If you look at legit parts, things are jammed up and pretty small. Studio parts are spread out and big. Pops parts should be somewhere in the middle. The orchestra is going to be sight reading, so you don’t want to make it too small.
  
• Make sure the layout/measure per system is helping with the form and not hindering it.
  
• In the studio you need measure numbers on every measure but don’t need rehearsal letters. In pops parts you don’t need numbers on every bar (unless it is for a workshop, or you are going to make a lot of changes) but you need rehearsal letters and do your best to have them at the start of a line. Also include the measure number range on the multi-measure rests.
  
• Don’t make multi-measure rests too long, break them in places that help feel the form.
  
• You need page turns. You don’t have 12 first violins to have 6 of them stop on that big run up into the chorus because you did not consider page turns. They need to turn on 1/3/5 etc. While in the studio you can shuffle pages along and have 4 or 5 open, you can’t do that live. Parts are always booked. If it is a 2-page part, you need to make a blank title page. Don’t question it, just do it, or you will have unhappy librarians doing it and we like happy librarians. Commercial copying is traditionally 8 lines on page one and 10 after that. With A4 you can often have 9 and 11. Any more than that and it is too small.  It is OK to have an incomplete page if it makes the page turns work. If you do this, DO NOT let the notation program spread the remaining systems out to fill the page. There is not a world known or unknown to man where that helps, or looks good.

Rights

You have none as an arranger! Just accept it. If you want control over your work, or royalties, change to being a composer. Depending on the use, you will either be working for the artist or label that owns the publishing, or the orchestra that hires you is responsible for securing any permission. Your creative work, the files and the paper it is printed on are all owned by the publisher, not you, not the orchestra, unless someone did a deal to secure further permissions, which has never happened in my career! Until recently, you could not sell any arrangement legally unless you got a deal directly from the publisher, which was tricky, if not impossible, in many cases. Now there are services like arrangeme.com where you can get permission to sell the arrangement. The catch is that they and the publisher take most of the money. There are also steps in place to make sure you do not use it as a workaround to do a one-off deal, so don’t get any ideas. Let’s say the MSO asks you to arrange a song for a tribute show to John Farnham. The work is done, the show is over and you want to sell your chart, or someone asks for it. You could put it on arrangeme.com.  How does this look to the orchestra? Even though they do not own it, they tend to feel a sense of ownership as they paid you to create it. Is it worth the potential bad blood from the orchestra to make some pocket money? If you really want to sell it, I would ask the person that hired you if they mind. Of course, people make up with all sorts of dodgy arguments for breaking copyright law: it is an orchestral school concert, it is for a school, it is educational, no one is making money etc. None of them hold up legally. This all came to a head in the States a few years back when a company called Tresona started to threaten schools, orchestras and artists with lawsuits if they did not acquire the permissions. Of course they were there to help! The catch and the ultimate undoing was that they were a middleman, not a publisher, and, when a big case finally made it to court, they were found to have no standing and the suits were thrown out. The actual publishers were not that happy with them as well as it made them look bad. Tresona has since gone back to their core business of being a middleman, a place you can go to to get permission for one-off arrangements. This is a much bigger industry in the States with all the marching bands doing custom shows every year etc.

The post Orchestral Arranging Tips, Tricks and Treats appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

I won’t go into exhaustive detail about the range or intricacies of each instrument; there are plenty of books and websites that cover that thoroughly. A resource to dive deeper into those specifics is the Vienna Symphonic Library’s Academy and I will link to that where possible. Please note that when I do link, it is for the description and audio examples. I am not endorsing the notation; in many examples, it is not how I prefer things to be done. In fact, just looking at them makes me ill.

As with the rest of this blog, my goal is to share the insights and practical tips that you won’t find in the orchestration manuals, things I have learned from doing and experimenting. Some things stick to traditional methods, others I have tried to improve. I know not everyone will agree with me on everything, so I have tried harder than usual to explain why I do things and what might be different and why. Putting this together has made me think even more about how I notate and why – some of it was quite hard to put into words as it does not all make logical sense! But here it is, my thoughts in 2025 and how, and why I do things the way I do.

Staves

Many people use single-line staves, one for each instrument, with the label at the beginning of the system. Historically, this has been done by many publishers and many of my colleagues, so I can’t say it is wrong. However, in my opinion, even though it can be easier for the orchestrator, it can easily become messy and difficult for conductors to sightread. I advocate for using a standard five-line staff for all percussion. Most studio percussionists I have spoken to also prefer a five-line staff.

By consistently assigning noteheads and staff positions, you can minimize the need for excessive labels. Another advantage of this method is that it allows you to place multiple instruments on a single staff while keeping them easy to distinguish. 

For all metal and wood instruments, I use x and diamond-shaped noteheads. Drums with heads are written with standard noteheads.

Notation and Organization

In film scoring, the percussion section typically plays from a “percussion score.” This provides a lot of flexibility since exact parts for each player don’t need to be worked out in advance and the players can share things around. For example, if we add something at the session, the players can easily work out who will do it and can shift parts around if need be. However, it’s still good practice to think through who will play what and to make it easy for them by being consistent with what staff you put things on throughout the cue. Remember, if you’re using the correct staff positions and noteheads, you can also put more than one instrument on each staff and save space. But also keep in mind that when I or my colleagues are working, we know that our copyists will take a close look at what we have done and improve the layout if necessary. So don’t assume that score you found on the internet is exactly what the players saw.

In the studio, there’s no need to direct the player on which instrument to play next or what mallet to grab, as is customary in the concert hall. Studio sessions are always fluid, with changes and additions happening constantly. Your careful planning is often outdated after one or two takes, so it’s best to leave it out!

On a recording session in LA, once a cue is called, the percussionists will huddle at the back to work out their plan. They then move to their stations and ensure they have everything they need. Meanwhile, the stage runner adjusts the microphones to ensure everything is captured properly. Afterward, they will write or print a list for the engineer detailing which microphone corresponds to which instrument.

For the concert hall, there are many differing opinions online about whether you should prepare a score, individual parts, or both. In my experience, players always prefer individual parts, and that’s what I’ve been doing on all of my pops arranging and never had an issue.

Save the Boxing for the Gym

While the choice of a single or five-line staff can be argued either way, I am struggling to find a reason for the practice of putting a box around the instrument name, other than that it is a holdover from handwritten scores.

If you look over published scores, you will see plenty of single line percussion staves, but you won’t see boxes! With modern notation software, I don’t see how a box makes any difference to the readability. The text ‘SD’ is just as legible and means the same with or without a box, so I say ditch the box and keep it clean. I have heard people say it helps it stick out, as it is the most important information. I would argue that if you have so much text on the staff that you need some to jump out, perhaps, you need to question why there is so much text! It is my goal here to show you that you probably don’t need that text anyway, problem solved!
Because it is the current practice of all the Hollywood music prep houses, nearly every up-and-comer sees it and seems to be following suit, to my annoyance! And while my style is not always in agreement with Gould, as we are coming at it from different places, there is no mention of boxes in Behind Bars. Of course having a box does not harm your music, it is just one of the long line of things I question the actual need for.

To Ring or Not to Ring—That Is the Question

In many scores, the decision to let an instrument ring is left entirely to the players. For familiar works, established performance practices will guide their decisions. But for a new composition, what’s the best approach?

Percussionists are skilled at interpreting your intentions and will likely figure out what you want quickly. However, like in all of my work, I prefer not to leave such decisions to chance. In the chaos of a recording session, where I might be focused on other things, I could miss whether, for example, the bass drum is ringing when it shouldn’t. So I make my preferences clear.

The easiest way to indicate that something rings is with what we call the ringover articulation in LA. The more traditional term is laissez vibrer, often abbreviated as l.v. What really bakes my noodle is that many people—even some very famous and experienced ones—use the ringover symbol and text at the same time!

Also, please don’t be lazy and use a tie. A tie often ends up stretching out and looking wrong—because it is wrong.

1. The ringover, perfect!
2. Lazy ringover, a tie, gets the point across but technically the wrong ‘character’ as it is too long.
3. Abbreviation for laissez vibre, nothing wrong with it, but more ink than using the ringover.
4. Why say the same things twice?

Now, wouldn’t it be a simpler world if, in the absence of specific instructions to let it ring, players would just choke the instrument, and not let it ring? Unfortunately, that would make far too much sense. I know there were a few hundred years when it was all left up to the player, so I realize I’m fighting an uphill battle with something that no one else seems to care about or be bothered by but why do most orchestrators go out of their way to say when it rings but then also when it does not. What is the default? Is it lost with the ark somewhere?

I have been experimenting with this for the last few years and have simplified my approach. The best way to show this is to look at each instrument individually, as their unique qualities and traditions influence how I notate them. As I have found with notation in general, some traditions make sense and are worth keeping, while others make no sense at all, then or now, so I have come up with better alternatives that make more sense and are often easier and quicker to notate.

Rolls

All percussion instruments can sustain sound by rolling. Different instruments use different techniques to perform rolls, but these techniques do not require specific notation; players know what to do based on the instrument and context.

Rolls are notated similarly to string tremolo: three slashes (indicating 32nd notes) represent unmeasured rolls, regardless of tempo. A lot of people seem to just add three slashes to everything, this is grammatically wrong and can look weird as it lengthens stems.

1. The total number of lines/slashes should equal three which is 32nd notes, the accepted shorthand for unmeasured tremolos or rolls.
2. Adding three slashes to everything is just not correct.
3. Adding four is not needed, even at slow tempos. The 32nd note ‘rule’ is a shorthand for unmeasured, it is not based on tempo.

The one difference in how I notate percussion rolls is that I use ties, whereas for strings, I do not. Years ago, I asked a few percussion players about their preference, and they said they preferred it this way. Historically, ties were not used for either string tremolos or percussion rolls. Both are interpreted the same way and are not broken or articulated unless specifically indicated. I know if you are not experienced and or in front of an orchestra every week, your brain and 90% of the people on forums will try and tell you otherwise, but it is just not the case. That said, using ties is by far the most common way to do it these days.

There is another tradition of notating rolls for percussion as a trill, with or without ties. However, this practice is now considered outdated and is not recommended by anyone I know.

You’ll also notice that I tie all rolls over the beat. While it doesn’t make a practical difference whether you do this or not—the outcome will sound the same—this is simply my personal preference. If a roll is tied onto a beat, the player will time their hands to ensure the final stroke lands precisely on it.

• How I do it.
• Old School, will sound the same.
• Older Schooler, will sound the same, but avoid it these days.

I realize this contradicts how I write for tremolo for strings. Maybe one day I will change that, but for now I am sticking with it, even though it is illogical!

Rhythmic Spelling

Since percussion instruments are most often struck just once—setting aside sustain and rolls for a moment—this has led to a style of notation similar to that of pizzicato. Short notes are typically rounded up to fill the beat, while longer notes are rounded down to just a beat. This approach is generally applied to un-pitched instruments and is how I like to write. Traditionally, many pitched instruments were written the same way, for example Timpani. For pitched percussion, however, I usually write proper durations. I will address this in more detail when I cover those instruments in Part 2.

1. Round down to the beat, traditional and how I do it.
2. Will sound the same, but not how un-pitched percussion has traditionally been written. The dotted crotchet in measure two is a toss up, I would not do it, but some on my team would not bat an eyelid at it.
3. For shorter/faster notes, round up to the beat as it is cleaner.
4. I see a lot of contemporary composers writing like this, but as the instruments are just struck, the note length should be in its simplest form.

Un-pitched Instruments

Snare Drum

The Snare Drum is written with regular noteheads on C5. Since it doesn’t ring, there’s no need to indicate damping, but it can sustain through rolls.

Apart from rolls, rhythms should be notated in their simplest form, as explained above.

You can ask for different types or colors of snare drums. I feel that it is best to use words like high or low/deep as opposed to small or large as not everything is determined by the size of the drum. The type and tension of the head and the snare wires have a lot to do with the sound and percussionists are masters of these aspects, so give them an idea of the pitch or tightness you are after and leave the rest to them.

I’ve noticed a trend among orchestrators of adding staccatos to snare drum parts (and other non-sustaining instruments like wood blocks). While some may argue that this has an impact, in 99.9999% of cases, it does not. Instead, it tends to give the impression that you don’t fully understand how the instrument works.

Bass Drum (Gran Cassa)

The Bass Drum is written with regular noteheads on F4. Since it rings, it’s important to notate whether it is to be dampened or not.

• A short note, is a short note! Just like on the piano, the instrument is dampened at the end of the note length. If you are worried, a staccato dot will clarify you want a short note, just as it does for the rest of the orchestra. However, in most cases, the staccato is redundant if you are clear and consistent.
• If I want it to ring, indicate this explicitly with a ringover marking.

If you are going to try this approach, make sure you are always consistent or you might sow doubt.

Rhythms should be notated in the same style as the snare drum, but now taking into account when a note should ring.

1. How I like to notate the snare drum, simple rhythm.
2. Note that the roll on the 8th only needs two slashes as the beam is counted as one and you only should have a total of three. This follows the same rules as string tremolo.
3. As the snare has no sustain, writing a half note does not make sense and is not traditional.
4. Example of an incorrectly notated roll as there is one too many lines.
5. GC notation: I want the 1/4 to ring so I add the ‘ringover’. Beat 4 does not need it as the drum will be struck again on the next beat. As I was clear on the first note to let it ring, I feel that beat 4 of the 2nd measure is equally as clear that it should not ring. This is a place where I am changing the traditional and just being literal, as it is for every other instrument in the orchestra.
6. Even though the bass drum could be written as a dotted half note here, as it would imply to sustain, I stick with the traditional way. I don’t really have a good reason for it!
7. This is one way many would write that the drum should not ring. Some might say dampen, or choke, use the caesura (see suspended cymbal example below) or the string dampening symbol used for the harp. First of all, no need to say the same thing twice, but isn’t the way I did it in measure 2 cleaner, more to the point and faster to write?

In the United States, this instrument is referred to as the Gran Cassa, while in most other English-speaking countries, it’s simply called the Bass Drum.

In both the concert hall and the recording studio, the bass drum produces a large, booming sound. Overusing it can diminish its impact and clutter the low end, creating challenges for the mixing of the music. To address this, when a score requires more rhythmic clarity in the bass drum range, I use two instruments:

• The traditional large bass drum, written on F.
• A smaller, less resonant bass drum, written on A.

This approach provides the accents and hits needed without overwhelming the mix or losing definition in the low frequencies. As this is not a traditional approach, I will need to explain to the percussionists what I am after, or make sure a note is put in the score if I am not going to be there.

And finally, like for nearly all percussion instruments, size is not everything. Next time you’re in a studio or concert hall, take note: the bass drum is often not as big as you might think it could or should be. Many factors contribute to the pitch of a drum—or cymbal, for that matter—and the diameter is not the be-all and end-all. The depth, the tuning, the type of heads, and the space it is being played in all play a role.

Just know that when you ask for a bass drum, that’s what you’ll get. Asking for the “largest bass drum in the world” or the “bass drum of doom” will likely only earn you a few laughs from the section and maybe make you “Insta-famous” for a moment. Also, be sure not to regurgitate patch names. Quite often samples with a little processing have catchy or silly names, when it is really just a bass drum. I have seen scores where from the instrument name, no one has a clue what the instrument is as the orchestrator just pasted it and either did not listen, or could not identify the sound. If in doubt as your local friendly percussionist.

It’s also important to note that the sound the player hears and the sound heard in the hall—or on tape—will be different. Be sure to consider these perspectives when requesting changes in pitch or tone.

The staff positions of the Snare and Bass Drum are not really negotiable, given the long tradition behind them. That said, from now on, we really just get into personal preference.

Suspended Cymbal

Suspended cymbals use x/diamond noteheads on E5. The positioning of the cymbals in the upper parts of the stave comes from the drum kit world.

The same ringing rules apply as for the bass drum. I often see scores with markings like a caesura or the word “choke” to indicate the cymbal shouldn’t ring. To me, this approach is unnecessarily complicated and redundant. Why say the same thing twice? If you want to clarify that it shouldn’t ring, just use a staccato marking, as you would with any other instrument.

The most common use for suspended cymbals is the crescendo roll. With cymbal rolls, the most critical element is the ending—specifically, how loud it should be and whether it should ring. Over time, I’ve realized that specifying a starting dynamic for a suspended cymbal roll is unnecessary. The standard practice is to start softly, warm the cymbal up, get it vibrating, and finish at the desired final dynamic, regardless of what the start dynamic is. It’s rare to need a roll that starts audibly, so, for the typical effect, save yourself a few clicks and leave out the starting dynamic. The most common thing people say to justify over-notation is that they want to avoid wasting time with questions, but I guarantee this will not get a question. My whole reputation and career is based on what results I get from an orchestra either at a session or doing a show on one rehearsal. If someone asks about this one, DM me and I will send you $100.

1. No need for a start dynamic, it is redundant.
2. Here we have a redundant start dynamic and redundant text saying the same thing as the ringover.
3. If I don’t want it to ring, I don’t put the ringover, common sense! Write the cut off as a short note, to reinforce the idea.
4. I see this so often, the caesura and the word “choke”, and why do people put the exclamation mark? Is it funny, or is it pointing out the irony of their incompetence?
5. If you do wish the keep it simple, but ensure they choke/play short, I suggest using a staccato. It works for every other instrument in the orchestra, is clean, and doesn’t require text to explain it.

Sounds and Mallets

You can request different types of sounds from the suspended cymbal, but keep the descriptions simple. Terms like dark, bright, high, or low can be useful, while references to size should be avoided—size doesn’t always correlate with the sound characteristics. That said, 99% of the time, there’s no need to specify anything. The players will intuitively choose the right cymbal for the context.

For both the bass drum and suspended cymbal, unless you’re an expert seeking a specific effect, there’s no need to indicate what mallets to use. You can trust the players—they know what works best.

Clash Cymbals (Piatti, Crash Cymbals)

Clash cymbals are written with x/diamond noteheads on G5. If you want them to ring, indicate it explicitly. If not, write them as quavers to show a short duration. I put Clash as the main name here because, when I studied in Australia, our teacher was from Britain, and that’s what we called them. Plenty of people, especially in the concert band world, call them Crash Cymbals, and in the United States, they are referred to as Piatti in orchestral situations.

Tam-Tam

The Tam Tam uses x/diamond noteheads on D4. Its immense sustain means that even when you mark it to ring, players will likely dampen it slightly to manage the resonance. For rolls, I follow the same principles as with the suspended cymbal: typically, no starting dynamic is required.

While the default is to hit it with a large mallet, it can also be played by scraping. To notate this, simply write ‘scrape’. Players will default to using a metal stick or comb. Other options include:

• Superball: Write ‘w/superball’. The player will rub the Tam Tam with the superball for the duration you notate. If you don’t like to live as dangerously as I do, you could always say ‘rub with superball’
• Bow: Write ‘arco’. 

Tam-Tam vs Gong

What most non-percussionists refer to as a gong is actually a tam-tam. A tam-tam has no definite pitch, whereas a gong does. While there are many styles and cultures that use gongs, the Indonesian gamelan is likely the context where most people have encountered them.

Another visual distinction is that tam-tams are flat and usually have a curled edge. There is a variation called a flat tam-tam that has no curled edge. In contrast, a gong typically features a raised dome in the center, often referred to as the dome or nipple.

These distinctions are independent of size. However, in an orchestral setting, it is assumed that when you ask for a tam-tam, it will be large.

Keep it straightforward. Some orchestrators write instructions as if they are inventing something groundbreaking and never done before when describing how to scrape or use a superball on a tam-tam—techniques the player has likely been doing their entire career.

1. No start dynamic needed (if it is obvious it comes from nothing/soft, which in this case it is). Ringover to tell player to let it ring.
2. No ringover and a short note = choke it.
3. Single hit with ring out, will be with a regular Tam Tam mallet by default.
4. Choked note, as this is not as common, add staccato to be clear.
5. Scrape, will be with metal by default.
6. Strike. As the default is a mallet, you need to say if you want something other than that, so I say w/metal.
7. Superball, default is to rub it, so just the duration is needed, no other funky lines or text required.
8. Arco, speaks for itself. Some might say bowed or with a bow, but that is more text than just saying arco.

Triangle, Wood Blocks, Mark Tree, and Bell Tree

Use x/diamond noteheads. I don’t adhere to a strict rule about which staff line to use for these instruments, but consistency is key. For rolls, follow the same conventions as for other instruments—three slashes for unmeasured rolls.

Triangle

Unless it is a ‘pop’ or ‘latin’ style part, the notes will always ring, but to be consistent with my other notation, I will add the ring notation. If it is a pop rhythm, with open and closed notes, use the + for closed/dampen and ○ for open/ring. These are universal symbols that require no text clarification.
I’ve noticed that some notation programs and publishers, especially in the band and education world, think a triangle notehead should be used for the triangle. That’s cute—it will obviously make it sound more like a triangle.

Wood Blocks/Temple Blocks

Similarly, use x/diamond noteheads and stay consistent with staff positioning for each piece/cue.

Mark Tree

The Mark Tree is straightforward to notate. Some scores overcomplicate this by marking rolls or adding wavy lines, and while this does look better on Insta, it is not needed. The default way to play the Mark Tree is to gently sweep the finger along the chimes, so simply notating the duration is sufficient.

While 99.5% of the time players will let it ring after the duration ends (as damping is impractical and not idiomatic), I’ve encountered one instance where a player tried to dampen it, so I add the ringover marking to stay consistent with other ringing instruments.

It is named after its inventor, Mark Stevens; however, it is known by several other names in different countries and contexts. In Australia and the UK, we call them Wind Chimes. Of course, there is another kind of wind chime—the ones that hang outside your house—but in the orchestra, pop and band world, if you ask for wind chimes, the Mark Tree is the default. In the US band world, they are often referred to as bar chimes, as they seemingly dislike both Marks and the wind.

Bell Tree

The Bell Tree is scraped with metal by default. If you write a note, players will naturally scrape it—no need for fancy arrows or arpeggio markings unless the direction is important. 

Additional techniques include:

• Sustained tinkle: Notate this as a roll. The player will continuously scrape the bells. This is a very cool sound, not often used, but if you want some magic, and not as cliched as a mark tree, this is a great alternative. 
• Individual bells: For striking individual bells, write separate pitches and indicate “individual bells” if needed.

1. Triangle, let ring.
2. Standard way to write open and closed ‘rhythm section’ style triangle.
3. Being lazy and assuming that, unless you say closed, it will be open, just like I write french horn stops for example. If I put the + it is stopped, if I don’t, it is not! No other text or clarification is required.
4. Wood blocks, will be a hard stick or beater by default.
5. Mark tree, the default is to swipe it with your finger, so you don’t need to do anything other than give duration and ring.
6. Example of a redundant line. Feed and water it and it might grow into an even bigger redundant line.
7. Bell tree will be a swipe with metal by default.
8. A roll, metal with be swirled up and down, often two sticks to create a more magical sound.
9. Pretty obvious here you are asking them to strike individual bells and a downward pitch direction. One could clarify all of that with lots of text, but…

Tambourine

The Tambourine is notated with regular noteheads. I don’t have a hard and fast rule on staff positioning, but I typically place it on C5 if there’s no snare drum in the way, or D5.

There are two main types of tambourine:

1. Traditional orchestral tambourine with a wooden frame and a head.
2. Pop-style tambourine made of plastic with no head.

The traditional tambourine is notated just like a snare drum. Rolls can be performed either by shaking the tambourine or using a thumb roll—where the thumb is slid around the edge of the head, causing it to vibrate. The musical context  will dictate which style of roll is required, and it could change from phrase to phrase so just leave it up to the player.

While the tambourine is frequently used in orchestral repertoire, it’s less common in film scoring. Aside from occasional use for pop tambourine parts or comedic effects, it’s rarely employed in its traditional form in modern film scores. In fact, I can’t recall using it that way in any recent scoring projects, it is a very ‘dated’ sound.

Tom Toms

Tom Toms are notated with regular noteheads and I like them in the spaces of the staff. While toms do sustain slightly, especially larger ones, this is not notated. They should be written in their cleanest rhythmic form, similar to the snare drum.

By default, toms are played with sticks, but can be played with mallets. 

One important thing to consider is that the lower the pitch of the toms, the more they tend to blend together and sound similar. If you want to clearly distinguish between 3 or 4 toms, you want to have quite a large pitch difference between low and high. The more going on, the more it will all sound the same.

1. Nice, simple notation, easy to read.
2. Same rhythm, but more complicated to read, avoid this type of writing.

Large Drums/Epic Percussion

There are many elements that fall into this category. When composers aim for an epic percussion vibe, they often copy and paste MIDI data to multiple instruments or use a virtual instrument (VI) that handles this internally, like Damage 2 or Action Strikes. How we approach this on a session varies from project to project and involves discussions with the composer, contractor and studio as the costs can add up pretty quickly.

On large budget projects, we will have 3-5 players in the room, layering many passes. On some, even when money is not an issue, we will leave the samples, especially if the composer has put a lot of time into the programming and it already sounds great. Then, there is the middle ground where we will keep the samples and overlay some live players.

I have seen some orchestrators try and recreate the sound by notating every instrument in the demo, sometimes 10 or more of them. This is not the best way for several reasons. Firstly, some of the instruments are difficult to source and you need a lot of players or budget for multitracking (LA and London). There are also some that are recorded in ways that are very hard to recreate. For example, a soft instrument is recorded and processed to make it sound much louder. 
A better approach, I have found, is to listen to the result and come up with something cool that gets the main elements, but will then be unique to this score. This is the same approach I use with string gestures. When a composer layers four different gestures, each played by a full string section, trying to recreate them—each with only a quarter of the forces—is futile. Instead, listen to the final mixed sound and create something that matches the essence of that while blending into the cue. This way, you produce something unique that won’t appear in any other score. This approach is even more useful if you are overlaying samples with live players.
More often than not, you can break it down into two or three layers: a high ticker or shaker type line, a mid-range rhythmic part, and the low, big hits. I usually notate these with descriptive labels (High, Middle, and Low or Big) and work out the specific instruments during the session. Every percussion section will have its own selection of instruments, and the same instruments can sound different in every studio. This method ensures the result is distinctive. We typically handle this type of percussion in a separate session, allowing for experimentation without wasting the orchestra’s time.

When it comes to notation, keep it simple. The sound world we’re working in generally assumes that large drums ring by default. Therefore, only mark it when you don’t want the drums to ring or if you prefer a dead, muffled sound.

By default, percussionists will strike each drum with one stick at a time. However, to get achieve a bigger sound, I will ask them to double up when possible. They can play the same drum as a flam, or split their hands between different drums. A flam involves playing one hand slightly before the other, with the second (on-the-beat) stroke usually louder. This is notated using a grace note. One way is to have them play both hands on all accents. While you could notate this with two noteheads or flams, it’s simpler to instruct: “flam the accents” or something to that effect. You could notate all of these things in great detail, but percussionists can easily embellish and improvise when requested, so I find that keeping it simple and letting them do their thing gets you the best result. This is the same approach one should take to notating hand drums such as Djembes, Congas, and Bongos.

Taiko Drums

These are the big disappointments in the percussion world, to me, and every sound engineer I know! They look fantastic on insta and in the EPK but often sound much smaller and less impressive in real life compared to the visuals and samples. Usually, you’re after the larger ones, the o-daiko, but the larger the taiko, the more disappointing it will sound! That said, if you use them as part of a large ensemble or other large drums, you will see the Taiko and hear the other ones, pretty fitting for Hollywood actually.
The sound of the sticks hitting the rims is also commonly used—use an X notehead to notate this.

Anvil

I spoke too soon. There is an instrument even more disappointing than real Taiko drums: the real anvil. I’ve been in sessions where a massive blacksmith’s anvil has been wheeled in on a cart—it looks impressive, but when struck, it sounds so underwhelming. It’s nothing like what we’d imagined. Often, brake drums or metal pipes are used as substitutes. Sometimes, we end up creating a completely new sound—perhaps hitting metal sheeting, a cymbal stack, or some other piece of metal junk, anything but a real anvil.

This section has turned into percussion instrument Festivus. I will now stop airing my percussion grievances and move onto Feats of Strength.

Mallet Choices

As I have mentioned several times already, there’s rarely a need to specify which mallet or stick to use. Each instrument and dynamic range has its default. For example, suspended cymbals are played with yarn mallets by default. Scrapes on cymbals and tam tams are always done with metal. If the Gran Cassa is playing a pianissimo roll, they will naturally use soft mallets—why would they choose anything else?

Pictograms for Mallets or Instruments

Hard no on these. They aren’t standard, they require explanation, and they’re simply unnecessary. The only thing they accomplish is making you look like an amateur.

Part II: Tuned Percussion will be ready soon!

The post Percussion: A Hit Job, Part I appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

Fun fact: before my career as an orchestrator took off, I worked at JoAnn Kane Music Services (JKMS) doing MIDI transcriptions. This experience was invaluable, as I learned directly from the experts how things are done and then applied that knowledge to my own use.

The goal when transcribing and sketching MIDI is to provide the orchestrator with all the information they need to do their best work quickly and accurately. You should avoid making any artistic or creative decisions. Do not add dynamics, slurs, or accents, and do not correct mistakes. If something looks like a major screw up, contact the composer’s team. If it is a minor slip, then just put a note in the sketch for the orchestrator to deal with.

Note for composers and assistants preparing files for orchestrating
Composer deliverables should include a MIDI file, a full mix, and stems. Sometimes, if there are specific notes for the orchestrator, these can be put in as markers and/or included in a separate text file. We are not interested in the original work files. They take forever to load as plugins and VI’s will not match up and there is rarely information there that we can not get from a MIDI file. Some people have experimented with exporting XML files but we have not found any advantage in the work that we do.

Export the MIDI file just as the audio was printed. Do not try to quantize or clean it up, and do not delete anything, including all the synth MIDI. If you are using Logic, join MIDI regions before the export (otherwise, each region is exported as a separate track).

1. Open the MIDI in Digital Performer

Why Digital Performer [DP], you ask? Over the years, we’ve tried every DAW out there, and DP stands out as the best for cleaning up MIDI. The arrange window is clean and easy to navigate. The Chunks/Sequences feature allows you to have multiple versions in the same file—perfect for keeping a clean version or original meters after a rebar for reference. The smart quantization tool is a real time-saver; it’s intuitive and usually gets the quantization just right. Additionally, changing meters is a breeze, and by default, all MIDI and audio stay aligned to the same timing. It is not just me though, all of the major prep houses in LA that do MIDI sketching use DP. You can of course use any DAW to clean MIDI, the process is still the same, it just is not as easy!

Open the MIDI file in DP (you can do this by dropping the file on the program icon in the toolbar, or if you have DP set as the default for opening MIDI, just double click the MIDI file). 

Note: To add an app to the toolbar, hold down Command, select the app, and drag it to the toolbar until you see a plus sign.

Leave the measure numbers as they are, unless the composer was using negative bars in their DAW, in which case you will want to make them match their first bar of music. A giveaway of this would be the audio files might start before bar one of the MIDI file. Another situation where you might adjust measure numbers is when a cue starts in the hundreds or thousands. This is not ideal for scores and parts as it wastes space and time saying and thinking in long numbers. I trim the numbers out, leaving the last two the same. For example, 1332 will become 32. This means it is easy to refer back to the original files if need be. We will mark the sketch and score as ‘Trimmed’ and let the composers team know what we have done so they can make the Pro Tools session match.

Save the DP file. We have a DP folder in the project directory. All the DP sessions are in the top level of that, then all of the audio files for the whole project are stored in a single audio folder. 

Organize the track layout: put the full mix at the top, followed by the stems in a folder, and make sure they line up correctly.  Organize the MIDI tracks in score order, with folders for each section. Synths and other random things can go at the bottom. Make sure all track names make sense. If they do not, ask the composer team. Before making any changes, duplicate the chunk so you have an original untouched copy and one to tidy.

2. Cleaning up the MIDI
Have a listen and make sure the meters make musical sense. We often change them either because the composer did not have time to sort it or because we have a better idea, either way, you always want it to be whatever is best for humans. In some cases, you might need to retime the MIDI. For example, if you have action music written at 60 bpm that has lots of 32nd notes, you should double the tempo to 120 bpm so that fastest notes are 16th notes. Or go the other way, and make something that is whole notes at 160 bpm into 80 bpm to make it more musical and natural, as it should be. Other things that might be helpful to look out for are fast 3/4 that should be 6/8 or 12/8. Always go with what will feel and read best for the players. If you do make any changes here, you need to send a new MIDI file back to the composer’s team to prepare Pro Tools sessions. 

You might run into a situation where the main duration are triplets in 4/4, but it makes more musical sense to interpret them as eighth notes in 12/8. You can do this in DP by selecting “Scale Tempos…” and “Scale Time…” and scaling to 150% of the current value, as shown below. Remember to create a new chunk before making any changes and export a new tempo map for the composer’s team.

Go through every track and quantize note starts and ends. The DP smart quantize function is perfect for this. Split out any polyphonic parts onto separate tracks so they import much easier. You want to avoid the notation software having to put things in layers or voices. I think it is important to only work on what you can see. While it might seem like a timesaver to select and quantize the whole document, it might not all go the right way, so select and view a part or section at a time and work on that.

If you know the composer’s template, you can clean out any duplicate MIDI now. If you are unsure, leave it and deal with it in your notation software. Once you have checked and cleaned all of the MIDI, you can save it as a new MIDI file. We use a macro, so we can’t screw up the file naming. 

3. Creating a sketch using notation software
Open the cleaned up MIDI file in your notation software. We use Keyboard Maestro to automate this part of the process. First, we run a macro that exports the tidied MIDI file from DP and opens it in Finale. Then, we run another macro to create a sketch with all the project info and correct settings using variables. The macros automatically save both the MIDI and sketch files in the appropriate project subfolders. Here is a video demonstrating how they work:

Be sure to use a clean template with no fancy fonts. When people are sketching for me, they will use my template so all fonts match what I use. I keep my template simple with no fancy text fonts that might be missing on someone else’s computer. You have to imagine that on a big movie there might be 10 others, on different computers that will need to handle the file, you want it to look the same everywhere. Also, if things are going to be XML’d to other notation programs, you want it as clean as possible. In Finale, whatever file you have set as your default will be what the midi import uses for settings.

Make sure all the track names make sense and that clefs are correct. Add tempo markings from DP, add brackets for the different orchestral sections, and correct enharmonic spelling. Insert double bars where the music shifts to outline the structure of the cue.

Go section by section and delete obvious duplicates. Strings often need the most condensing as it is common for lots of patches to be doubled. Merge back any polyphonic parts. The idea is to get the sketch down to a minimum number of staves, but keep it easy for the orchestrator to copy and paste things back out. If in doubt, just leave duplicates. For example, there might be a trombone line on a trombone patch doubled in an ensemble patch. If it is my team cleaning up for me, they can just leave one copy, but if you are not sure, leave and label both. 

Original MIDI

Sketch Delivery

For strings, add tremolo articulations where needed and use circles for harmonics. Keep them at the sounding pitch (use 8va or 15ma where needed, this is just the guide for the orchestrator, not the final notation). I prefer people to not say the same thing twice, so no need to clarify with text when the articulation marking says it all. The only thing this would clarify is your lack of musical knowledge.

Keep normal octave transpositions (piccolo, contrabassoon, etc.) You can label the stave as “picc. sounds 8va” to be clear, and opposite for the contrabassoon. Harp harmonics sound an octave above the notated pitch.

Look out for patches that are sounding in a different octave (e.g. CineWinds Piccolo, CSS Contrabass) or ones that contain octave doublings (some Spitfire Strings patches do this). This is where listening to the stems really helps. 

Listen for brass mutes. If a patch name says ‘mute’ or ‘sord’, it is assumed to be a straight mute, and can be marked as con sord. Some patches are not named accurately though. For example, the CineBrass muted horns patch is actually stopped horns. Always use your ears to confirm; an actual horn straight mute or ‘sord’ is mellow/muffled, as opposed to the zingy, metallic sound of a stopped horn, which should be marked with the “+” sign (no added text needed). Of course, there is a stopping mute, but this is not something we need to worry about: just mark the stop and they will work out what is best. To geek out on the horn further, check out this post.

Fun Fact: in an orchestral setting, ‘con sord’ will be a straight mute and for trumpets and trombones and it will be made of metal. As always, know your defaults!

For percussion, put instruments on their correct lines, and mark if they ring with a ringover articulation, (Piatti, Sustained Cymbal, Gran Cassa).  

If there are not a lot of instruments, you can leave them on their own lines. If there are a lot, you can combine multiple instruments onto one stave. For the record, I am not a fan of using single line staves for percussion! Timpani samples always ring, so no need to mention it. If it is the one case in a century where they used the one library that does not ring, then you can mention that, and buy a lottery ticket.
Listen out for one shot samples of rolls. Often the duration of a suspended cymbal or bass drum crescendo is different to what you hear, so in these cases go with the audio and what makes musical sense, the orchestrator will adapt it.

Tidy harp and piano parts and remove unnecessary overlaps. I prefer notes to be written as proper durations, not short notes with ringovers. A harp rings by default, so if the harp is playing a melody, chords or accompaniment, all notes are ringing, no need to state the obvious. For harp glissandi, you can notate the scale or add a diagram. No need for pedal information in the piano other than perhaps say ‘with pedal’. 

Keep rhythmic spelling simple. Use eighth notes for short notes rather than quarters with staccato dots.

Listen for gestures (one shots, risers, clusters, etc.), from libraries like Symphobia, or all the circular bowing/evolving textures from Slate + Ash or Spitfire. If you can hear the notes, write them down; if not, then just use placeholders and text descriptions. If you are not experienced with any of the extended techniques, call a friend who is.

For choir, if there are obvious syllables then add them in, but it is not something to waste a lot of time on. The composer is usually just using anything that works and I will usually work out my own lyrics.

There may be synths, atmospheres, or grooves that have no MIDI. In those cases, transcribe and describe them. The same goes for rhythm section or vocals. I want everything I hear to be notated in the sketch. It has happened more than once that the synths were not updated from version 1 and the orchestra is on version 4 and there are now clashes we need to fix or point out so having everything notated is important. I will also want to put guides for any synths in my score.  If you find harmonic discrepancies, make a note in the sketch file for the orchestrator. Do not correct anything. The same applies to rhythmic discrepancies. 

Lastly, proofread it!

For more tips and tricks check out these posts.
How I open DP Files
How I control DP in the background
My Orchestration and Arranging setup

The post MIDI Transcription for Dummies appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

How I open DAW files from Finale
Most projects I work on involve many scores. A film could have 50 cues, and a show I am arranging might have 25 songs. As the lead orchestrator and arranger, I am not only working on my own scores but also checking and proofing the scores of my team. This means I am opening many scores a day, each with a corresponding Digital Performer or Transcribe file, where I can reference the original material from the composer or artist. I used to have to click through folders and lists of files to find the correct one, but now I just use one keyboard shortcut, and the corresponding file opens and spots to the correct start bar.

The Keyboard Maestro script that makes all of this happen is quite complicated and tailored to my scores and setup. There are several parts to it. The first part looks at the file extension to determine which program it is using. In my case, it looks for DP, Cubase, or Transcribe. The reason it needs to know this is that the steps after opening the file are different for each program. Additionally, it needs to switch macro sets for my jog shuttle so it controls the correct program.

The second part involves capturing the starting position within Digital Performer (DP), opening the correct DP project file, and ensuring that DP closes any open files without saving (since DP can only have one file open at a time). It will also handle and dismiss any pop-up dialogs that appear. Afterward, it moves DP to my left monitor and positions the playback marker at the previously captured cue start point. Finally, it switches back to Finale, ensures the score is displayed in page view, and maximizes its window.

Next up, how to control DP in the background.

The post The Setup Series #1 Opening DAW Files appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

The post The Setup Series #2 Controlling DP in the background appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

You will notice that on my desk I have a pretty unique layout of input devices, but everything is there for a reason. I spend many hours sitting here working and have developed and refined this setup over the years. I am also always trying out new toys, anything to make work easier, faster, and more ergonomic, all of which allow me to be more creative. Note that this setup is totally geared towards orchestrating and arranging. While I do use it to compose, if that was all I was doing, it would be a little different.

The first thing you will notice is that the MIDI keyboard is not in a drawer underneath the desk or on it in front, but it is on the right. As I spend more time with the QWERTY keyboard and the trackball, having a keyboard in front of me just gets in the way most of the time and makes it less comfortable. By having it on the right, it is accessible, but it allows my setup to be optimized for QWERTY and trackball. This also works with my preferred way of entering notes into Finale, which is just how I started from day one, playing on the keyboard with my right hand and entering numbers for speedy entry with my left. If I had the keyboard in front of me, I would have to have another number pad on the left, or my right hand would be crossing all over the place.

The other unique thing in this setup is that I have a QWERTY keyboard, then the trackball, then the number pad on the right of that. This means that my right hand is close to the keyboard, and I can also use my pinky on the number pad so my hands move much less as I’m working. My left hand then goes between the QWERTY keyboard and the shuttle Xpress to its left. I have also programmed as many of my most used macro triggers to sit under my left hand so I don’t have to move or look at it often.

Here is a list of the devices and software I use everyday to orchestrate and arrange, and why. This is current as of July 2024.

Computers

2022 Mac Studio, M1 Ultra, 128 GB.
2022 Macbook Pro, M1 Max, 64 GB.

Both machines are on Sonoma, latest update and are pretty much identical. I run Time Machine for backups. As well as all work being done out of Dropbox, which is also backing up.

Input Devices

Apple Magic Keyboard
I use this keyboard as it has a small form factor and is very reliable. The Bluetooth just works. It also has the fingerprint sensor which I can use to authorize things. You’ll notice that I do not use one with a number pad as I want to have that on the right of the trackball, and having the number pad on the keyboard puts my hands too far apart.

Kensington SlimBlade
I know a lot of people hate trackballs and even more hate the SlimBlade, but once you get used to this you won’t want to use anything else. The ball also doubles as a scroll wheel. It is also low profile so my wrist is not at a bad angle and it has extra buttons that I can use for shortcuts. I used to use a mouse but it gave me terrible wrist pain as I was always moving side to side in an awkward motion. When you have three screens, you need to be able to get around easily and with the trackball I can just spin it and get from one side to the other.

Contour Shuttle Xpress
This is my secret weapon. I use it to control Digital Performer in the background as I’m always referring to the original Composer file as I orchestrate or the original song if I’m arranging. Check out this video to see how I use it.

Targus Numberpad (USB)
I have tried many number pads over the years, from cool ones that look like the Apple keyboard to Bluetooth ones that have no wires, and I always come back to this wired Targus one. It is super robust and has a high profile which means it is on level with my fingers and easier to get to with my pinky while my hand is still on the trackball. They are also super tough and I have another one in my backpack that has been thrashed around the world and still works perfectly.
I mentioned how the Apple keyboard works flawlessly with Bluetooth, unlike many other devices I’ve tried. When most devices go to sleep, which they must do to preserve battery life, you have to waste a few clicks trying to get them to reconnect—if they reconnect at all—so they’ve all been a disaster. In my experience, only the Apple bluetooth gear works without these issues.

Icon MIDI i-controls
Just like with the number pads, I have tried every small profile MIDI fader controller out there and this one is the best I have found. It is large enough that it doesn’t move around as you use it, but small enough that it doesn’t get in the way. I don’t just use the faders for entering controller data when I program in Cubase but also to balance the volume in REAPER as I am working. Check out this video for an explanation of what I’m talking about. [When I get around to it!]

Komplete Kontrol 61
I do not like this keyboard. It is awful to play and it started sending random modulation data after six months. The company refused to take it back and wanted me to send it in for them to look at and go without anything while they took their time. I chose to just ditch it as the support was crap and I don’t need to work with companies that treat professionals like weekend warriors. I’m only using it now because my other keyboard also started sending random data (pitch bend this time). I am jinxed with MIDI keyboards. If someone can show me a better one that is the same size and has nice-feeling keys, perhaps semi-weighted, I would be grateful. I do not need any other control inputs on the keyboard. I just do not use them. All of these fancy Komplete Kontrol knobs are a complete waste of time for me, and probably most people.

M Audio Keystation 61
I was in love with this keyboard when I first played it. The action is semi-weighted and just feels really good for my non-pianistic chops. But it is cheap and things tend to break, or they just stop working. I have three of them lying around, one just would not fire up one day, and then the next one started sending random pitch bend, which is actually worse than random modulation. It took me quite a while to work out why all of my MIDI was getting out of tune. So this is why I am back to using the Komplete Kontrol at the moment. Someone save me and suggest something better.

Update: I finally got around to opening up the Keystation and unplugging the pitch and mod wheels. Now it works fine, albeit without pitch bend or mod, which is fine for me.

Screens

Dell UltraSharp U2720Q 27 inch 4K Monitor
I need a lot of screen space for what I do and these Dell 27-inch 4K monitors are the best balance of real estate, resolution and price that I have found. I have three of them and I run them at the highest resolution. I do have to wear glasses though! One thing to note is that they do not swivel. I see a lot of people face-bragging and Insta-flexing about their swiveling monitors and how they can see a whole 11×17 score page in portrait mode. I have tried that and after an hour I give up as my neck gets so sore from looking up and down. It is just not ergonomic but it does make you look professional on your socials. The other thing is I work in scroll view most of the time, I only go to score/page view at the very last minute to lay out the score, so I want a setup geared towards working horizontally, not vertically.

Ipad Pro
I love my iPad! I use it for so many things. Here are some of the more important ones-

• Marking up and learning scores for concerts. I then get them color-printed. You can load audio directly into ForScore and even program page turns. While not ‘in’ ForeScore, you can also open a video and it will sit ‘on top’ of the score while you learn it.
• Marking up scores that people have sent me for feedback.
• Conducting sessions from. I don’t remember what year I started doing this, but I do have scores from Frozen 2 marked up on my iPad and I have used it on every session since at least then.
• Using as a second display if I do not take my suitcase monitor and if I do take that, I often use it as a third display.

Sound

Apogee Duet
This is pretty new to my set up. I was looking for something small that had a big knob to easily control volume and not have to look to find it. This has been working perfectly and sounds pretty good to my ears. I used to use a Universal Audio Apollo interface, but I was having a lot of driver issues. They are pretty cool and the ability to run plug-ins on them used to be a big selling point. However, computers are so much more powerful now that you don’t really need to do that to work properly, you are often just paying extra money for something that is not needed. The preamp modeling is cool, but I don’t really record anything so it’s not anything for me. And the final nail is that you can now run all of their plugins natively. The Duet does have the ability to host some of Apogee’s plugins on it. It comes with a channel strip that is useful for adding some EQ and compression to my mic before it hits zoom.

Focal Solo6 BE Studio Monitors and Sub
One day, I had a few hours between sessions at different studios, and I couldn’t work at either of them. So I called a friend and borrowed their studio. They had a pair of these speakers, and I really enjoyed the sound. When I got home I ordered a pair for myself,
and soon after I ordered the matching sub.

ARC Studio
This is new to the studio, and so far I’m really digging it. My studio isn’t in a treated room; it’s actually the master bedroom of my house. Since I work more than I sleep, I decided to treat myself to the best room for more of my time! While the room doesn’t sound terrible, running the audio through the ARC before it hits the speakers does make a difference. I used to use Sonarworks and then the Sound ID Reference, but they always gave me grief in various ways, so I stopped using them. The advantage of using the ARC Studio is that it’s a hardware box that sits between your audio interface and monitors. That means it doesn’t run on the computer. So when you listen with headphones directly from your computer, that sound isn’t affected.

Sennheiser HD650 Headphones
There are so many different pairs of headphones out there, and real audiophiles have very serious opinions about them. But these seem to be the ones that most can agree are pretty good for general-purpose work like mine. I used to use closed-back headphones, and when I discovered open-backs, I kicked myself for not doing it earlier. Open-back headphones just feel much more comfortable, and they’re not fatiguing, so you can wear them comfortably for much longer. You can also still be in a room with people and talk to them while only you hear the playback.

RØDE PodMic
Five years ago, no one needed a microphone on a stand on their desk all the time. But then something happened, and we were all stuck at our desks needing to talk to each other online all day long. It just made sense to have a decent microphone with a nice stand that you could move in and out. The irony is I ordered this microphone two months before the pandemic. I was going to make some screencasts for this blog, but I never got around to making them until now. The mic has come in very handy with all the things we now do online, from Zoom calls to producing sessions across the world. Of course, the gold standard for this sort of thing is the Shure SM7B , and in recent years, there have been many new options on the market from Shure and every other microphone company on the planet! For me, this is a big step up from using any built-in mic or one on the camera. If you’re podcasting a lot, you could probably go a few notches up.

Blue Compass Microphone Boom Arm
I started with a cheap boom arm and upgraded to this one a few months back. I’ve not regretted it at all. It’s super solid, which means I can move it around really easily, swing it in and out, and not worry about it breaking or falling off the desk.

Travel Rig

When I travel, I always pack the SlimBlade, Shuttle, and number pad in my backpack, along with a USB-C hub to connect them all. I’m not great with the MacBook trackpad, so even on planes, I prefer using the SlimBlade if I can find room. In my suitcase, I also pack the QWERTY keyboard, a MIDI keyboard, and a 24-inch monitor. I use a well worn MVST Trek aluminum. I replaced the original straps with some much stronger ones to hold things in place.

LG 24UD58-B Monitor 24″ 4K Ultrafine
There are not a lot of options for 24″ 4K screens.

UColor T3 – 23.8 Inch 4K PC Monitor
I smashed up yet another LG in the suitcase (July 25)! I am trying out this new one at the moment and it is awesome so far! It is very thin and has a simple, built in, stand. It can be bus powered, so a single USB C cable from the laptop carries the power and signal. The one catch to this is that at the high resolution and brightness I like, it needs more power than a single port can deliver. The solution is to run a second USB C cable for power, like you would use to charge your phone or ipad. It still works without this, but not as bright as I would like. Even with this it is still way easier to travel with as it does not need its own dedicated power plug and cable that I will lose or forget!

CME XKeyair 37
I really dislike using a two-octave keyboard for anything. This one is three octaves, which makes a big difference for me. I can voice larger chords or play a chord with a melody, which isn’t easy on a two-octave keyboard. The Bluetooth functionality is practically useless; it’s always difficult to connect, and when it does it frequently drops out, so I use it with a USB cable instead.

Apogee Groove
I use this for my mobile rig. It makes a significant difference in sound compared to the built-in MacBook audio. It also provides more power, which is much better for driving the HD650 headphones.

Bose Quiet Comfort Noisecancelling Headphones
While I do have several pairs of AirPods laying around, I find them very uncomfortable for more than an hour or so when I’m working on a plane or in a noisy environment. I needed something comfortable for long periods of time. These headphones have a bit more power than the AirPods and, being wired, they have a larger battery which gives them longer life between charges.

Unfortunately, they are now discontinued so you can only get them secondhand, but they are well worth it if you need something comfortable and noise-canceling for working on the road.

Software

Finale
I have never used another notation program. I opened the demo of S!@#$%s once when they first came out with magnetic layout. I lasted about 3 minutes because the look of the notation was still terrible, and magnetic layout has messed up more ‘scores’ than a studio executive who played in a band while at school. That’s a pretty inside joke that you’ll only get if you’ve worked on a studio film!

Dorico is looking promising, but it still has a few things that don’t fit well with my workflow—I’ll save that for another post. Well, OK, seeing as you really wanted to know, here they are the first two: The playback is too slow; even with just a piano loaded, there’s a little delay [Yay, this fixed this!]. When you have instrument doublings, it insists on putting extra staves in galley view for each instrument. Imagine I’m working on a film score with a woodwind section and 4 of the 8 players double on multiple instruments. Suddenly, you have an unworkable mess of blank staves that you can’t automatically hide. I do all of my work in scroll/gallery view, only switching at the end to layout the score, so this doesn’t work for me! At the other end of all of those staves in scroll view is the condensed view in engrave/page view. It is very powerful but you can’t edit the notes in that view! So every time I am proofing a score and want to change a note for whatever reason, I need to go back to the shit show that is write mode. Dorico does have a very powerful staff filtering function, better than Finale’s staff sets, however I don’t want to have to set these up for every score I work on and keep switching, this is something the program should be able to do, pretty please!

Once upon a time, you could open the Finale brochure and find a picture of me. I doubt they would put me in there now, even though I’m one of their biggest users. I’m very skeptical about the direction of the program, or lack thereof! The same bugs have been in it for over 10 years and never get fixed and any new features seem only tailored to the education market. I can only keep using it thanks to many plugins, Lua scripts, and hundreds of Keyboard Maestro shortcuts! Lua in particular has been a game changer.

Well that section has not aged well, since I wrote it Makemusic has discontinued Finale! I am still using it for now as I can’t see any other option for me that is as fast and gets the look I am after. I am still looking at Dorico, but they need to fix the things I mentioned above.

Digital Performer
We have tried using all the DAWs to clean up MIDI and review composers’ material when we work, and DP is simply the best. A few reasons why: it has a very clean interface (you really have to go out of your way to get lost in it), smart quantize, and chunks. You can see examples in my Extreme Australian Orchestrating Video. It is old, but we still use it the same way.

Reaper
I was looking for a host for my playback sounds when checking scores for wrong notes. Hosting in Finale is problematic—it is not fun when you are checking a file for a wrong note on a session and it decides to load instruments, it also makes the program more unstable than it already is, and that is not good! I used to use Plogue Bidule, but it was giving me some issues and was a bit quirky, so I tried out REAPER and it’s been great. REAPER not only hosts the playback sounds, always loaded in the background and ready whenever I hit play in Finale, but it also has my ‘doodle’ piano loaded. I also route DP through it and it hosts the AudioMovers Listento plugin when I produce remote sessions, allowing me to use my Icon controller to adjust the volume. I plan to make a video illustrating what I’m talking about; it’s on my to-do list.

Cubase
This is my DAW of choice when I compose and program. It is not as good as Digital Performer for looking at the Composer’s files and cleaning up MIDI. I find Digital Performer terrible for programming MIDI! That is why I use both. Here are two of the many reasons:
Firstly, DP only offers one lane for controllers in the MIDI edit window. This means you either see all controllers piled on top of each other or have to navigate through small boxes and drop-downs to view them one at a time. There’s no easy way to automate these views, which is quite inconvenient.

Secondly, adjusting the MIDI playback offset for each track isn’t straightforward in DP. Unlike Cubase, which provides a slider in the Inspector for easy adjustments, DP requires adding a MIDI plugin to each track, which is a total pain. The last time I tried it, this process was more buggy than Finale. Perhaps it has improved since then, but as someone sensitive to timing issues, I need a straightforward method to make adjustments.
When writing my own scores, I also have a dedicated PC that hosts all of the samples connected via VE Pro. My assistant also has a duplicate set up so either of us can open the files and they will play back the same.

Keyboard Maestro
I first got into macro players back in 1996 when my friend Graham Lloyd introduced me to the Windows Recorder while I was still using a PC. Later, I transitioned to Quickeys and became quite enthusiastic about it. Initially, Quickeys and Finale worked better on PC, so I stuck with that platform. However, when Quickeys received a major update for Mac I made the switch. This was also necessary to be more compatible with everyone else in Los Angeles who used Mac for music. Unfortunately, development on Quickeys ceased, and we held out as long as we could but needed to find an alternative. Keyboard Maestro required a slightly different approach which was frustrating at first, but now, I can’t imagine using anything else.

I currently utilize hundreds of shortcuts. In Finale, I don’t keep any palettes open and I’ve even forgotten where many functions are located in the menus because I rely solely on keyboard shortcuts for all tasks. Actually I can’t even remember some of the triggers I use as it is all muscle memory now! I plan to create a video demonstrating this workflow, from basic tool selection (level one), to executing Lua script plugins for adding hairpins (level two), setting edit filters for copying various elements with a key press (level three), all the way up to more advanced functions such as this one that opens files for me.

ForScore
ForScore is an iPad app designed for viewing and annotating PDFs, specifically tailored for music performance. I use it for marking up scores for live concerts, which I then get color printed. I’ve been using ForScore to conduct sessions for many years, dating back as far as Frozen 2. During online remote sessions, I load the score onto my iPad to make notes using ForScore.

A lesser-known fact is that there’s also a Mac app available, and you can sync scores between devices. I load scores onto my Mac, where I add annotations such as ruling lines, navigation buttons, metronome changes, and create set lists as these things are way easier on the Mac. These edits sync seamlessly with my iPad where I can then pencil in further notes and highlights.

Pianoteq 8 Stage
This is my go-to “doodle piano,” as I like to call it. I always keep a piano loaded so I can play and check things when transcribing, composing, or just having fun while waiting for things to load or download. It’s not sample-based, so it loads quickly and has low CPU usage, but it sounds great to my ears. I know not everyone will agree with me on that though!

NotePerformer 4
NotePerformer was a game changer for notation program playback when it first came out, and now it has really stepped up by allowing you to use other sample libraries with their engine. I don’t use it while I’m actively working due to significant playback latency, but when we need to send a demo for a project, we make a copy of the score to add some more information to help the playback, and then run it through NotePerformer. Check out the bottom of this post about my Killer Mike Overture for an example of how we it sounds.

Garritan (GPO) Finale Strings
The problem with most string sample libraries is that they require a lot of controller information and key or patch switching to work properly and make anything sound half decent. They also take a long time to load. The Garritan Aria strings are designed for use with notation playback and work well with just simple note on and off midi triggering while the Aria player is solid and stable. They sound almost decent (OK, they don’t, but at least I can hear each note) and give me a good idea of what the notes sound like. I can use my imagination to know what the real strings will sound like, I have a little experience at that. I just want to know if I wrote a wrong note by accident. When I playback from Finale, I have it set to just send note on and off, no Human Playback or any controllers. I don’t put enough information in my scores to have all of that work properly. When we do make a demo and use NotePerformer, we make a copy of the score and add in more information so it plays back better.

WIVI
WIVI has been discontinued now, but as long as I can keep it working, I will use it for my score playback. It’s actually what NotePerformer grew out of. You can load any woodwind or brass instrument and even create sections that automatically distribute voices. It sounds way betters than the woodwind and brass that come with Finale.

Note that the above sample libraries are only for playback when I am working. When I write my own scores I use different ones as these are not up to the standard required in that world.

Valhalla Room
I was looking for a reverb that would sound great, be easy on the CPU, and not require an iLok or crazy authorization scheme, as I use several machines. Valhalla Room ticks all of those boxes.

Omnibus 3
I need to be able to route audio in the background. The main use for this is combining audio from a DAW with my microphone for zoom calls and making videos. I was using Loopback fro this, but was getting a few glitches so needed to try something else. While the routing is not quite as intuitive as Loopback, I find my system much happier with Omnibus and once you wrap your head around it, it is quite powerful.
Another useful application of Omnibus is creating a stable output on my MacBook that does not change when I move from a dock with an interface, to roaming with just the laptop. If you don’t have this you may have some very unhappy programs each to you move, and forget about easily using Airpods with a DAW. This solves those issues.

Fission
Fission, a cool little app from Rogue Amoeba, is my go-to app instead of Finder for quickly listening to audio files. It allows for simple edits, fades, normalization, and exporting to MP3’s.

Piezo
Ever need to quickly record audio directly from your system? Maybe you want to prove to someone that their mic is echoing, or capture a snippet from YouTube. This tool lets you record the output of any program—or even your entire system audio—with ease.

Dropbox
We work out of Dropbox for every project. This means that anyone on the team can see and open any file at any time. Another advantage of using Dropbox is that everything is constantly backed up to the cloud and saved on various computers. If a file gets corrupted, it’s easy to revert to a previous version that is intact. I also store all my Finale settings and plug-ins in Dropbox, ensuring that Finale on my studio computer mirrors the version on my MacBook exactly. My assistant also runs Finale from the same folders, allowing him to update scripts and plug-ins that will automatically load the next time I open Finale.

Slack
I can’t stand group emails almost as much as family ski trips! Slack has been a game changer for how we communicate on projects. I have channels for each project with the relevant team members, and also channels with each of the copy houses we work with, which means everything is in one place and there are far fewer emails. I also join the channels of the composers’ teams that I am orchestrating for. This keeps our work chats organized and separate from our social interactions.

Moises
I think I’ve used “game changer” to describe a few things in this article, but this one really is! AI stem splitting is a fairly new development and it has made life so much easier for us when we do transcriptions. Once upon a time, we would have to listen to the full mix and try to pick out the vocals, bass, guitar, or piano—and sometimes, it was nearly impossible to hear what was going on. Now, we can separate out all of these elements and hear them individually, which makes it much easier to transcribe. At first, it seemed unreal, like being one of the first people hearing about the internet. But once you try it for yourself, you’ll realize it’s very real, albeit a bit scary.

The app also gives us a click track that we can use to tempo map the song if it’s not in a consistent tempo. We can then have our DAW follow that tempo or flatten it out into a grid. Typically, we need to do this to lay Finale playback over it for a demo, as Finale and lots of fluctuating tempo changes shouldn’t even be in the same paragraph. Sometimes, we might just use one element from the song for a demo

Recently, I did an arrangement of Satin Doll for Alita Moses and the National Symphony. She want it in the style of The Eraser by Thom Yorke. As I was using the exact same drum groove from The Eraser for my arrangement, I split it out and used that for the demo of my version of Satin Doll. Anyone who has worked with rhythm section playback from a notation program knows what a disaster it can be!

Zight
I make screen capture videos all day—everything from giving feedback on scores to my team, to creating score videos to send to clients. I used to rely on Dropbox Capture for this and loved its power and simplicity. As soon as I finished recording, it would upload to Dropbox automatically and give me a shareable link instantly. Best of all, it was included free with my regular Dropbox subscription.

Unfortunately, Dropbox discontinued it. I think I tried every alternative available—both paid and free—and the only one that came close was Zight. It offers the exact same features, including providing a link right away, and even comes with its own storage. The only downside is that it’s a paid service.

Shotr
Shotr is a great app for quickly marking up or editing a screenshot. If you need to add an arrow or text, it’s a great tool for that purpose.

The post My Orchestration and Arranging Setup appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

One thing I have to do with these concerts is to make sure they are true collaborations, rather than the orchestra just playing ‘backings’. This can be tricky. We have very limited time to rehearse with the artist, so their parts mostly need to be the same as they perform on every other show. This means that, for most songs, the forms will be the same, which leaves limited space to feature the orchestra. What I typically do is pick a few songs and add a new orchestral opening. This works well for introducing the orchestra and is usually easy for the artist to grasp, but you don’t want to do it on every song or your edgy hip hop show ends up going to Broadway. I might add a section in a song for the orchestra, but it has to be super easy for the artist and their band to keep track of. Sometimes the players in the artist’s band are not readers, so it is not as easy to communicate these things to them as it is to the orchestra. We also often use backing tracks, which need to be edited and double-checked if I make any timing adjustments.

Each artist has been different with how they start their show. Some have an opener already in their set, others just start right in. As it is the beginning and they have not ‘started’ yet, this is a great place to insert something for the orchestra. It could be an extended introduction to the first piece, or, in the case of my recent show for Killer Mike and the National Symphony, an overture. His shows normally start with the band and singers walking on to an Aretha Franklin song. As much as I love Aretha, I have a whole orchestra sitting there, so writing something new seemed like the perfect way to start the show.

Just like in musical theatre or opera, I give the audience a taste of what is to come and feature the orchestra. But how does one do that when the artist is a rapper and most of the hooks are spoken? My trick is to wait until the end, after all of the scores are finished. By this stage, I have a good idea of all of the music and I can go through the scores and find suitable parts to feature. Firstly, I look for things the audience will recognize and latch on to. Then, I look for big orchestral sections that I can paste in and not have to spend a lot of time creating!

In the case of Killer Mike, I knew I had a few sure things. Down by Law, which features a sample from Curtis Mayfield, and Kill Jill, which features a sample from Aura Qualic feat. Hatsune Miku, offered the most ‘musical’ material. Never Scared has a catchy riff and a melodic refrain, like a football chant that I knew the crowd could latch onto. Don’t Let the Devil had some great material. It was different to the others though as it was mostly things I had added without being based on existing material. It also had these great stabs that I thought would have a lot of impact at the start. Similarly, I had written an introduction for Spaceship Views that had some material that could come in handy.

Quick tip
whosampled.com is a great resource for finding the source material, which can really help when it comes to understanding what is going on and getting a cleaner version to transcribe. Also great is genius.com for breakdowns of the lyric meanings and very useful information about the song history. All of these things help with writing a more informed arrangement.

I had a rough form in my head: start with the big stabs from Don’t Let the Devil, end with Down by Law, and Kill Jill in the middle. I only used one verse of Don’t Let the Devil to open it up, then went into Never Scared [13]. I was lucky they were originally in the same key so I did not have to work out any modulations. Never Scared had two big elements I knew the crowd would dig: the bass riff, which is identifiable right away (you can hear the crowd in the recording recognize it), and the vocal refrain. I decided to have this in the brass, loud and unison, marching band style. I knew the next big part would be Kill Jill so I had to get from Em to Dm. I then had the idea to use the material from the Spaceship Views introduction [SCORE HERE]. It is amazing how these things work out [40]. The first phrase is in Em, then drops a step to Dm, resulting in a perfect transition. Kill Jill has a great tune, sampled from Aura Qualic. In the Killer Mike version, it is the original that plays off the track. For the overture, I picked the trumpet to play the tune first [47]. I knew it would be lyrical, but also have the power to cut through, should the room be noisy. My instincts would normally lead me to put it as an oboe or English horn solo. Ironically, the oboe microphone was very hot at the opening of the show, so it would have been heard. I actually went to the sound person and had them turn the oboe down and the horns up after hearing the overture.

We are now at the last part, Down by Law, that features an orchestral sample that I had transcribed. It is in C# minor, so I just had the bass and cello play a unison D and drop to C#, then brought in the violins on a G# to set the key [69]. One of the challenges of arranging for orchestra in this genre is that the backing is often very repetitive. I have done arrangements where the backing is a one bar loop for 3 minutes. In the case of this song, it is an 8-bar loop, based on the sample that is sped up and chopped up. I am not going to repeat the same thing every 8 bars in my chart, so I usually start by writing the biggest version, then reduce and do variations. In this version, you will hear I start with a reduced variation in the woods [73], then go to the full version [81], then a variation where no one plays with the sample [89], all new material followed by another big version where the original choir part is in the brass and the choir sings material from the sample [97]. I then bring it down and the strings play new material while the woods play the sample with big chords to the end. You see the band and singers walk on and then join in and then Killer Mike is introduced.

The show versions of all of these songs have tracks featuring drums, samples, and loops, none of which were used for the overture, so I had to fill in some things, in particular the percussion. I did not, however, try and make them sound like a drum kit, which is a very tricky thing to make work. I did, however, borrow ideas from marching percussion writing to add interest and propulsion. Riffs in the strings also help in this area.

The other thing I did with this overture to make it work with as little rehearsal time as possible was to make sure all of the tempo changes were ‘in the clear’, the orchestra is then well prepared for the next section and can play it perfectly together. Check out [13] and [71].

Timisms

You will notice the score is very ‘Tim’. There is no descriptive text, no micro managing of dynamics and articulations and no redundant ones! I was going to say and no tenuto, but I did actually use it on a few string parts to get the bowing I wanted.

Slides– I love slides (glissandos, portamentos, whatever you want to call them). When I use the straight line, I intend them to stay on the same string, if it is the wavy, they can change. As you can see all of the ones in this example are easy and obvious on a single string. You do need to tell them to start right away as their default behavior is to wait and slide at the end of the duration.

Woodwinds. A trick I use a lot and explain in detail in Error Code 7 is to take a single line and turn it into multiple parts. In this case, the line in the violin, which is a synth part in the original, is broken out and expanded for the woodwinds. The original also has delay and is quite blurry sounding, so I added a few notes to give it that effect.

You will notice the woodwind section is non-standard. For several years now in the studio and live (when suitable) I have been writing for woods that are needed and work for the score or show, not just using a standard double or triple wind lineup as most would. Of course, there is more flexibility with doublings in the scoring world, but it is not quite so in the live concert world, so never expect that if you just have one oboe, they will double on English horn. But my main point to doing this is that, on these concerts, the woods are there for embellishments and some solos, NOT as thickeners. The minute you get into microphones and amplification, the usual doubling and blending rules and techniques do not apply, at least in my experience. There is no point having bassoons honking away doubling the cello all show long. They simply aren’t heard, and if they were, the result isn’t what you’d expect, nor is it a pleasant sound. So I give them the night off. I like having flutes, but I avoid just having them doubling the violins endlessly. It is a similar thing, they are either not heard, and if they are, they change the sound of the violins in a way that does not suit the music in this genre. I find having two regular clarinets and a bass gives me a lot of options. The clarinets can play up high with the others woods and the bass can play down on it’s own or with the brass and low strings. Mindless doublings can quickly turn your expansive symphony orchestra into a expensive accordion.

The Demo
Once upon a time in the live arranging world, you were never expected to send a demo, you just did the chart and sent it off. Nearly every job these days needs one. Some want them to give notes and approve, others just want them to hear what is going on and to prepare, and this really helps conductors. If I am conducting then I will know the music pretty well, but if it is someone else, they will be no where near as familiar so a good demo really helps them learn the music. For a song, I will usually ‘layback’ the orchestra demo over the original track, that way they hear everything and it saves me having to worry about any vocals or rhythm parts that never work well played out of notation software. Thanks to AI tools like Moises, we can now even strip out the vocal or split the rhythm parts and give rehearsal versions to the artist or edit things around that are not possible with the full mix.

On a high budget project, for example a song arrangement like the one I recently did for Alan Menken‘s next score, Spellbound, I had to mock it up properly in Cubase. There is just not the time or budget to do that in this world. Most arrangers I know use NotePerformer right from their notation program. It does a pretty good job of interpreting the notation. I mention in Over-Notation Nation that many people often fill their score with things that are redundant to players, but are needed for the playback. I do understand this but I recommend either using hidden expressions in the same score, or just do what I do and make a copy and you can go to town on it. As you can imagine with my super minimal approach, I do need to add a few things to get a decent playback. The one let down for me with the NotePerformer sounds has always been the strings. You can now get around this in the latest version where they have ‘playback engines’ for other libraries and you can mix and match libraries from many developers with the original NP sounds. We have found that we can get a good result by using Cinematic Studio Strings for the strings through NotePerformer with the rest of the orchestra still using the original sounds. The next biggest weakness in NP is the percussion but replacing it with other libraries can be hit or miss. In this case, CinePerc works better. This is what you hear in this demo.

The post Killer Mike Overture appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

I have been on many rants about the abuse of tenuto in current notion practice. I see scores needlessly littered with them. They can be of use, but in my experience 98.254% of them I see out in the wild are redundant.

In my film orchestrating and arranging I rarely use them. I can go an entire 100-minute score and count the number of tenutos on my fingers. I have been trying to work out what they mean in all contexts, and they could mean so many different things depending on the musical context, who you ask, what position Jupiter is in, or any other number of factors, so that I think tenuto actually means nothing in most cases, and accomplishes nothing but making the player think and wonder what you mean in this context and then go on to ignore the marking or realize it is redundant!  

I recently asked a horn player at work what he does when he sees a tenuto and he said he has no idea until he hears what else is going on. That is kind of how they play with no tenuto, so it begs the question, what is the tenuto doing? All is not lost, though, this articulation does have some uses. I use it on soft dynamics in the strings when I need a proper start and not a mushy one. Of course it does mean things for string bowing and it makes a note that was going to be short for whatever reason become ‘full duration,’ that is the textbook meaning. It can be used in the middle of a phrase to get an emphasis on a note, but people have a habit of putting it in places that would naturally get that anyway, making it often redundant. But as for how it affects the articulation of a note, the attack, it is more often than not going to be exactly the same as it would with nothing. One place where it is common is on repeated notes under a slur in a woodwind or brass part to indicated legato tonguing. I hate to break it to everyone, but they do the same thing with no tenuto. Unless you have lost their trust on what your slurs mean, they must articulate repeated notes and with nothing, say, to accent them or make them short they will – and I know this is hard to believe – legato tongue them.

Even when I have asked a player and they say it will affect the attack, when I have secretly tested similar phrases with and without a tenuto, it is not different in most contexts. When I have questioned some orchestrators as to why every second note has a redundant tenuto on it they have said that they were told or heard that every note needs an articulation or indication of some sort. I could not disagree more. It is this thinking that has led to its overuse and thus lack of actual effect!

Here is a little example I put together based on something I recently saw posted to facebook. This is an example of some redundant tenutos. As it came from quite an experienced person, I changed it enough to make it not recognizable, but the point will be the same.

Let’s go instrument by instrument.

Flute – A tenuto would imply to play full duration. The slur over the tenutos would be saying to legato tongue the notes. What are they going to do if you just left it naked? It is a flute, they need to articulate the notes, it is pp and with no slur they would legato tongue them as there is no information telling them to do anything else. They would never accent them. If it was just a slur, that would be different, but having having both of these they kind of cancel each other out!

Harp – The tenuto and slur mean nothing. A harp will play the same with this or nothing: they pluck the string softly. There is nothing else they can physically do. The notes will also ring, which is just how harps play; you have to tell them NOT to ring.

Celeste – It is pp, not much room for interpretation. I guess the slur is saying to play legato, connect the notes. But having no slur and saying nothing would get that. Absent any other information, the default is to play the notes full duration and connected. You have to tell people to detach notes, especially at pianissimo. For louder dynamics, one could argue a player might detach in order to get a more obvious attack on the next note. That happens with all instruments.

Violins – This is tenuto that should be here. As all of the other instruments have to play right on beat one since their physics don’t allow them fade or ease it in, you want the violins to do that as well, starting right on with the rest of the ensemble. Without a tenuto, I guarantee on the first take and then possibly forever after the strings will start on an up bow and slightly fade it in, since that is their default on a single long note like this. Yay, one out of thirteen tenutos is doing something.

I know some people will say they have some physiological effect or affect the attack, but in this example I can tell you they won’t. There is only one way to play this. I think there are a few things at play here that explain why we live in world were scores are dripping in tenutos like my vegemite toast drips butter:

• There is just a school of thought out there that says that each note needs an instruction/articulation. If the note is long, a tenuto is the logical thing to add.
• It will affect the attack (it can, but not in these example, at least twelve of them)
• If you are being paid as an orchestrator you might feel the need to justify your money and make the page look full, pretty, and like you have put time and effort into it. Leaving things naked can look like you just did not bother.
• They don’t know or trust what happens with nothing.
• People are overthinking it.

Just think before you tenuto and never drink and tenuto.

The post Tenuto Uh-Oh appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

This is the second half of my discussion of the piece I recorded with Hollywood Scoring, where we look at the melodic section of the piece from bar 32 onward. Be sure to check out Part 1 so everything here makes sense.

Main Theme

I recently bought a new piano and walk past it on every trip to the kitchen. I remember as soon as I got confirmation that this session was happening, I was on my way to make some vegemite on toast when I stopped at the piano, put my hands down, and the first two bars of this theme came out right away. This is about the limit of my piano skills too. The next time I came by to make a coffee and grab a bikkie I worked out the consequent phrase. The harmony alternates between A minor and Ab Major, with C being the common tone.  The tune follows that harmony. I like harmonic surprises, whether that is a note in a chord you were not expecting, or a whole chord change, and I think I managed to get lots of both into this theme. 

Instead of two four-bar phrases which were probably going to be the same, at the seventh bar (38) I go to a different place. I use a first inversion chord here, which I find is harmonically neutral in this instance, and use a kind of sequence to get to the F major chord at 41. I leave in the Bb from the previous chord, making it an F with an added fourth, a sound I had set up in bar two of the theme (33), with the melodic C over G major harmony. I can hear my harmony teacher telling me that the fourth always replaces the third, but I love the sound and rules are made to be broken, just not the one that vegemite needs butter, leave that out at your own peril. 

To add interest I add notes and lines that provide slight dissonance and resolutions, which is also something I set up in the first two bars. The first tension note is the Bb on beat 3, but you don’t even notice it, so I will give it a two out of ten. My scale is from one to ten, where one is consonance and ten is just plain wrong. You should start to get interested when you hear a three. A five makes you smile. The C in the G chord in the second bar of the theme is a five. A six, you start to get a little worried but so long as you resolve you are OK. A little vinegar face may start to appear at seven (four to seven is firmly in Prokofiev territory). Once you get to eight you have to wonder if the composer is deaf, does not know what they are doing, or is just taking the mickey. A ten is like eating vegemite off a spoon with no butter on toast, it just should not be done.

An interesting thing about this tune is that if you just play it by itself, it is pretty basic and a little strange thanks to the half step relationships between the first three notes. They do not exist in any western key. But as soon as you add the harmony, it sounds warm and more like it is meant to be, at least to my ears.

Bar 43 is like a pre-chorus, building towards bar 50. We could call this the chorus, or if we want to get totally geeky we could look on the form as a rondo and this was the B section heading into the repeat of the A, but with a variation. Instead of starting on the A minor and going to the Ab major, I start on an F major, which is close enough. I then have Ab minor going to major but if you look and listen carefully to the flute and clarinet you will hear both thirds going. These notes are B and C which are common enough to the surrounding harmony that they can pedal through it. This time I do make it a traditional eight-bar phrase, but I change the harmony up in the fifth bar.

Bar 58 serves as another transition, or a C section to get us to the final A. If you look at the chord shape from second violin down, you see the familiar voicing with root, fifth, and major seventh that I used in the intro and first transition. In bar 61 the main motif is in the horns. The harmony is built off the descending bass line. I wanted something nice and dark. Gm, Gb, Dm, Db, C, Gb/Bb, Am, Ab all with a Bb pedal. Somehow we end up in G minor, guess I screwed up somewhere, we should be modulating up not down! This is the same melody and harmony as the first A section, just orchestrated in a much bigger way. The coda is like a third sequence of the material in bar 71, but much softer and wrapping us up to get ready for a final resolution in Ab major (Oops, not sure how that happened!)

Orchestration

I start off simple, with lush string voicings and we still have the mutes on from the previous section. That lushness is all from the lower parts. If you look at the cello, we have the root then the fifth, then we have the third in the viola. This gives us the range of a tenth and is the key to this sound. The basses are an octave bellow the cello, giving us a solid foundation. One could fill in the root again in the viola part, but it is not needed at all as we have plenty of that already. I keep first violin all in unison and freely divide violin two, viola, and cello when notes are needed based on voice leading and the sweet spots of their ranges. This is standard operating procedure in this type of voicing and range. A lot of the impression of the ensemble size comes from the top part, so keeping the firsts undivided can allow you to divide other parts and the ear will not notice the balance changing. Only when it gets really high would I go the other way and have the firsts divide.

I could go div. a3 in the violins but that is silly here as it makes a voicing nightmare for the players switching lines. Save the three way for when it is a longer phrase in three parts or the voice leading makes sense. A good way to test for this is to imagine you are somewhere in the back of the firsts and when there are three parts you play the second one, is it easy to read and follow the line and does it make musical sense? I see a lot of inexperienced orchestrators thinking they are being cool going back and forth into three parts, because they can, with no regard for the poor player jumping about.

In bar 32 I had a few options but chose to divide the cello. Firstly, it is the biggest sound, so dividing it even when there are only six players is going to maintain the best balance. Secondly if I had the viola on the fifths, in bar 35 they would hit their open C, which runs a very real risk of not blending well. Also these particular notes are fuller on the cello than the viola. For the other splits, you can see that voice leading made all of these the most obvious choices. While the string section is quite forgiving when it comes to divisi, you can really put some extra butter on that vegemite toast by thinking about it musically.

Notice there is no text saying ‘div’ or ‘unis’ anywhere on basic two way divisi! Totally unnecessary in any situation, studio or live. The way we were all taught to indicate for strings is backwards, and I go into it more in ‘Divide and Conquer’. The ‘div. ord.’ text above first violin is just canceling the previous section where the back stands had their own part, now they fold back into their regular section.

Most people would write some swells in a section like this, the natural thing would be up one bar and down one bar. I purposely left this blank so I could demonstrate how a section thinks and plays something like this ‘by default.’ Let’s look at the first phrase of the first violin. I have given them two pieces of instruction, and that will lead to two other consequences in their playing. Firstly, it is soft, and secondly I want the phrase done one bow to each bar. Being soft, they will want to start with an up bow. That is because the bow is lightest on the string at the tip and they can easily and musically start a phrase. If they start on an up, then of course the next bar is a down, so they are ending the phrase at the tip again, where they started. The physics of this mean that the phrase has a natural swell to it. As they get to the middle of the bow, the sound becomes a little more intense and louder. In the fifth and sixth bar the line rises, and the players can just tell that they should keep going and not diminuendo. Not only can you hear this in the recording, but you can totally see it in the waveform.

What I wrote:

What I could have written to get the same thing, and what they actually played ‘by default’:

You will note that after all of that banging on about what they do with nothing, I had to go and ruin it with the ugly tie over into bar 42 and the ‘senza dim.’ text. While I knew what they would do in bars 32-40 with no info and it would be perfect, I also knew what they would do in bar 41 would not be what I wanted. If you follow the bowing pattern, we would have ended on a down bow (and even if we had not ended there, there is a good chance they would have switched somewhere to end on a down). They always like to end soft phrases on a down bow, as it’s the easiest way to create a musical end and release to the phrase. Can they end a soft phrase on an up bow? Sure. But it is just not as natural or as easy. And just like in the opening phrase where the end on the down makes a diminuendo, they will do the same here, but as they play nothing in the next bar they will go down even lower in dynamic. Strings ALWAYS release the pressure on the end of a phrase unless you tell them otherwise. One way is to make it a crescendo; they will then aim to end on an up bow as they end up at the frog, the heaviest part of the bow, and can project a more confident sound more easily than at the tip. But musically I don’t want that here, so the only way to do it is to nicely ask them not to do what they were going to do and end without a diminuendo. The other thing string sections always do is end phrases with a final long note early, before the barline. The best way to get them to hold the full bar is to trick them by tying the note onto the downbeat of the next bar. I swear in many cases they still end early!

You will also note in the fully notated version I just wrote poco. As I discuss in my post “Swell Enough,” I find that even if I mark a swell as piano to mezzo piano, they will overshoot it. My solution to control the swell is to use poco. Just a reminder, poco is not a dynamic, it is a description of the hairpin, so it goes with the hairpin, not at the end of it, don’t crescendo to ‘a little’ you do ‘a little’ crescendo. You can actually hear this in bar 43 where I mark pp to p, but it feels louder.

As this section naturally builds, I bring in the flute and clarinet, then the horns and bass clarinet to fill out the harmony.

At bar 43 I originally had the bass in, playing the octave with the lower cello part, but I wanted to feel bar 44 more and a good way to do that was to leave out the bass for the first bar of the phrase. It is amazing how much you can gain by leaving things out. At bar 44 I do a neat trick with the clarinets where they oscillate F and A. I wanted to feel a little motion here. I could have had them repeat the notes, but by trading off, I get the harmony and a cool oscillating effect.

In bar 47 the horns take over the lead. One big difference I often see between how us ‘Hollywood’ types write and how legit composers and orchestrators write is that we love unison horns. There is something special about how multiple horns blend. We have all heard the stories about avoiding unisons in certain sections (I for sure rant about avoiding oboes in unison) but horns are the opposite. Two horns are fine, three work really well, and right up to six you can write just about anything you would write for one and get a lovely result. I think once you get to eight horns, unless it is something epic, you do start to have to think about it as it gets pretty heavy.

In bar 48, I hope you recognize the pitch set in second violins. I use it to build on the subtle motion I set up in the clarinets. This leads rhythmically to what the woodwinds do in bar 50. Notice in bar 49 I have the cello and bass articulate beat 4 to help push us into the next section and draw our ear to the downbeat. I also deliberately have the melody rest on beat one so we feel the rich chord first.

At that point we kick it up a notch, I have the strings at mezzo forte and now playing two bows to the bar, which leads to a fuller, more intense sound than the last time we heard similar material with a single bow for each bar. Even if I had left the dynamic at mp, it would be louder. The issue with leaving it at mp is that some of the players would ignore that I wanted more bows and still keep playing one per bar. It is much easier to play softer, with good control and blend, using less bow – especially in the studio with a small section. (For more on string section sizes, check out this post). In this case, though, they knew it was me who wrote it and that there was a reason for it!

Listen to how the firsts phrase this line with no information. Each phrase tapers off, and ends a little early, they just can’t help themselves! While the strings carry the tune and harmony, I have the horns mostly in unison playing a counter line. I have third horn play with the lower second violin part to bring that rub out a little. The woodwinds are providing some motion. If you look at the example below you can see the top staff is a reduction of the flute and clarinet parts. Many people would just leave that line as is. One issue is that they have to breathe. If I did write this, one could just leave it up to the players to breathe. Please don’t insult them by saying ‘breathe when necessary.’ If the part was in unison many would write ‘stagger breathe.’ If you read this article you will see my thoughts on that. My preferred solution is to use this type of figure as a starting point to get creative and create new textures. Dovetailing is the most common way. But like I mentioned earlier I like to take it to the extreme, E.A.D., Extreme Australian Dovetailing. Instead of trading off, they all play and split the line, letting notes hang over, creating cool blurs and textures. This way it won’t be a problem when they grab a breath as there are still things going on.

You can see in this example I have the flute take the first two notes and hold the second one. The clarinet rests on the first note, plays the second, and then holds the third. Depending on the harmony, it could hold over and have no rest, but in this example it would not work too well to bleed over the harmony changes. We would get some eights and nines on my dissonance scale for sure!

The bass clarinet plays the roots. I could have given them just long notes or no rests, but again they need to breathe and they would have done that at the end of measures, leaving out an eighth or making one really short, not what I wanted. All of the note changes are well-covered in the low strings, so we don’t need them, so we can leave them out and they can breathe in any of the rests. You will also notice there is no articulation on this. I would say 97.765% of people would feel the need to say legato, or put tenutos or slurs and tenutos and write some essay on soft tonguing but maintaining the pulse. But I always start with “what will they do with nothing?” as I am lazy and don’t want to do too much work. And the answer is all of the above. There is nothing telling them to play short and it is mezzo piano repeated notes. They need to be articulated to speak, so just give a dynamic and you will get light articulation and full duration.

I build this section to a forte then drop right back. Notationally, note that I did not say subito pp in the top violin part. From what I see out in the wild, most would, but it is so obvious what is going on as there is the forte at the end of the bar. The other not so obvious trick I pull here is that we go from ten violins on the top line at the forte, to six on the pianissimo. Bar 58 is marked div. a3 which means the violins go into three groups of six players. A few other ways to make this note softer would be to drop out the front stand or two, that pushes the sound back away from the tree and of course reduces the number of players as well. I could have the back stands take it. The voice leading for some of them would not be ideal so they would have to drop out for a bit to shift. If this were coming from a bigger, longer, more intense section I would just stop and start again. It is really hard to get a beautiful controlled soft note with all of the adrenaline and energy built up from playing loudly, so getting a fresh start leads to a guaranteed result and no one in the theater will know the difference. The actors did not shoot the movie or scene in one take, so we don’t have to either.

To contrast the previous section, I thin this one out. The wire in the top violin part glues it to the previous section. I have the shape from the opening in the rest of the strings. To add some color and interest I have the violas slide their notes. I have learned that while slides are fun, it is easy to overdo them and things can sound cheesy pretty quickly. By just sliding one part you create something that is not expected, nor easy for the listener to work out right away especially if it is on the inside of the voicing. To help this one come through a little more, I have them play sul pont. 

As the woods have been in a supporting role, I finally feature them here. A cascade finishing with the horns joining the bass clarinet on a dark version of our main motif. Notice how beautifully the woods play this line. We could use many words to describe it, but it took none to get this, just the right dynamics, articulation (or lack thereof here as it is all slurred) and orchestration. The bass clarinet continues the line, handing it off to the horns. Having no slurs on the horns here and the mezzo piano gets me the perfect articulation, look mum, no tenutos! Notice how musically they end the phrase at bar 62 and breathe, all together, 100% predictable.

I wanted the strings soft, but intense, so no slurs. I will admit that I originally had this at mezzo piano but it was too loud. So I asked them to play piano, but fight the urge to slur the notes. I fixed this score to match what was played. I always am weary of leaked session scores and people getting too excited, there are so many changes made at sessions, some huge, but the scores are never fixed to show that. The only example is when they are edited for a live to picture performance or published version. But even then they will often don’t match the original recordings. I have conducted many live to picture concerts and found heaps of little things that were not fixed.

We did another pickup at 61 to get the mutes off. I did a similar trick to last time; the bass clarinet finished on its own and did not play on the pickup. In bar 64 I had the clicks go to eighth notes to help set up the people who have sixteenth notes in bar 65. I kept the eighths for bar 66 then back to quarters in bar 67. In general, players do not like eighth note clicks unless they really need them. Even then I find their idea of when they need them is different to mine. Like I mentioned in my conducting article, every player in the band knows when it is out of tune, but since they can all play out of time, together, sometimes they don’t know they are off. At slow tempos subdividing the click helps bring them back onto the grid, but once they are on it, the eighths are often not needed, as was the case here.

The Final A

This is the climax so I pulled out all the orchestration tricks. The violins have the tune in octaves with two bows per bar. The basses hold down the low end while the cellos play an arpeggiated counter line. I use non-chord tones on strong beats to create good dissonance, resolving each one.

But the fun happens in the violas. Just like I did with the woods, I split what would be a cliche and boring line up into something unique and interesting.

Beat 3 of bar 66 looks like a mistake, but the chord in that bar is Fadd4 and when I was working this passage out I heard the rub in my head at the point, which is rare, usually it is just voices. If you want to hear another example, check out this cue from Maya and the Three, you will also hear an epic bass slide.

The horns outline the harmony, playing triads. If this was a large orchestra with full brass I might have the horns all in unison on the top line, or some other nice counter line, and the trombones playing the pad. And in a case where I had this ensemble but four horns, I would have the top line doubled in this case and 99% of others with this texture. Like I already mentioned, horns love unisons and it just makes everything better. Seeing as it is the top line that we hear most, making it better by having the extra player on it just makes sense. I know there are all sorts of other theories about what note of a chord should be doubled. Even if I did subscribe to those theories, which I don’t, it is just not always practical. A part could be skipping all over the place and if you then start to smooth it out to make sense – which is an OK move to make – then there was no point to it in the first place! (Again, more details on the French horn are here.)

By this stage I should not need to explain what is happening in the flute and clarinet. I wanted to control where they breathe, so I have some rests to help them. I have the bass clarinet working with the basses. It is a good idea to have this octave here as the cello are now playing something else.

Check how well it combines with the woods to form a percolating text that provides motion without sounding like a riff or cliche ostinato.

Bar 71 is the biggest moment of the piece. The violins end up in the highest range of the piece. I also took out all of the slurs so every note gets its own bow, leading to an even more intense sound. The viola and cello play sixteenth notes, taking over the motion from the flute and clarinet. The notes they are playing are nothing special, the same as they would have played normally, but by instructing them to play ‘on the string,’ the notes are connected and form a motion texture as opposed to a driving riff if they were to play it ‘off the string.’ 

I go into more detail here, but in a nutshell bowing technique falls into two types: on the string, where the note starts and ends with the bow ‘on’ the string, and off the string where the note starts and ends with the bow above, or ‘off.’ Traditionally the default, with no other indications, is to play on the string. Technically I would not have needed to say anything here, but as this was a session with studio musicians who are used to playing lots of riffs and motor rhythms off the string, I marked ‘on’ to make sure no one played it the wrong way. In many cases these days I use this to my advantage, knowing what they do based on context. I just write the eighths or sixteenths without articulation or indication and the players will play it off the string or ‘off-ish’ if we want more attack. I just finished a day in the studio and I did not indicate anything for the 8th notes and every one came out exactly as I wanted. I also never tell them what actual stroke to play, that is stuff they sort out and don’t even think about, it just happens organically. In fact in the entire day, I did not change or mention anything to do with note length.
It is not in this piece, but one thing to watch out for is you have a rhythmic passage with accents and normal notes, the accents will be longer than the normal notes. This can sometimes lead to rhythmic issues as the bow movement is not balanced. If they are having trouble, I ask them to dial back the accents and it will even the timing out. As with everything bowing, it is all physics.

You will notice that I tie everyone over onto beat one of bar 75 as I did 42. If I did not they would end a little early with a slight release, I really think I am repeating myself now. At this dynamic and intensity, you don’t have to tell them to avoid the diminuendo as you do at softer dynamics as I had to at 42. I also did not need to write anything fancy for the viola and the cello. When strings have a passage of short notes followed by a rest like this, the last note will naturally be longer as they have nothing to get ready for in the next bar. It is very natural, so natural you probably never noticed it before. 

I have the cellos divided, half on the sixteenths and half with the basses. I add some harmonic interest by changing the chord inversion and add a tasty slide in bar 73 as we head to the last big note.

The flute and clarinet are playing the same notes as the viola and top cello sixteenths, and this helps glue it together. The bass clarinet is on its own filling in the gap between the bass part and the cello motion. They have some sixteenths for interest and as a way to blend with the viola and cello sixteenths, but they also work with the bass part.

The horns are in unison until the last chord. Note the slurs are carefully placed. Horns can perfectly legato tongue, sounding similar to a sostenuto bow that just changes direction with no emphasis. This is what you will get articulation wise with no other information from pianissimo to mezzo forte. Once we hit forte they will articulate the notes more to push them out, slight gaps will start to appear in musically appropriate places and be more exaggerated at fortissimo as the tongue must stop the previous note in order to articulate the next one.  This effect gets amplified more in the lower brass as it takes more energy and breath to articulate. It is also observable in all wind and string instruments. The energy to articulate a loud note has to come from somewhere, and that by default is robbed from the end of the previous note.  If you add an accent, the detachment from the previous note will be more pronounced.

When horns slur a second it sounds normal, like any other wind instrument, but when you get to thirds and above with slurs you get this lovely harmonic smush between the notes. Not a gliss where they use their fingers, it is subtle on small intervals, getting more pronounced on larger ones. As the horn is so long, most of the notes they are playing are in the mid to upper register, so what sits on and above the stave when transposed are all high partials. This makes the horn quite difficult to play as many notes close together can be played on the same fingering. All brass instruments share this same issue, but their standard playing range is in a lower set of partials. Of course intonation is better on different fingerings as they are based off different fundamentals. While probably not evident to most listeners or orchestrators, horn players make lots of context based decisions on what fingering and side to play on.

Due to this quality in horn slurs, I really think about what I want them to do and it is then not uncommon for a unison passage I am writing to have different slurs in the strings, horns and woods or anyone else playing along as they all react differently to them. For some more obvious examples, check this new version of the Disney Logo that I orchestrated and conducted featuring Dave Everson on principal horn and seven more of LA’s finest.

At bar 76 we do another pickup to put the mutes back on for the coda. The tune starts in the first violin but then gets picked up by the flute. Note the flute has a repeated note under a slur. They legato tongue the repeat. Unless you have been sloppy in your writing and have a track record of missing ties, this is how they will play it. Most people would feel the need to add a tenuto to the repeated note. For years now I have not been doing that and no one has ever failed to articulate or asked if I missed a tie. I took the clicks out here and the just followed me. A very natural, and unmarked ritard. happens.

If there is one thing I would do differently next time it would be the cello in bar 77. My voicing is good, I am heading towards the last chord, a low tenth voicing, almost as low as you would go with this shape including the low fifth to not get too muddy. But the slide in the bass has no sonic room. I would give the bar a 7/10 on my dissonance scale thanks to the minor 9th. A few solutions I can think of would be to have the bottom cello play in octave unison with the bass, but then that is not the best voice leading to the last chord. Alternatively, I could just have the cellos in unison in that bar. I could also move the violas up a bit; the minor 9th and the slide are a bit much together, so maybe one of them has to go.

Take a close listen to the ensemble as they end the last note, they all do a little dim and end. The strings all end up on a down bow, finishing at the tip. The woods hear what the strings are doing and follow. This is not in the score, but it is just how an ensemble plays. Just like I knew at the beginning that there would be a light start and a little swell on the first long note, I also knew at the end here they would do this little diminuendo. Having no click at the end also makes them listen to each other a little more.

One Last Thought, keep it clean.

In this whole piece there is not one tenuto for anyone, but especially take notice of the horns and woods where I know many would feel the need. In my film orchestrating and arranging I rarely use them to control the attack of a note in the woods and brass. In general I see composers and orchestrators using tenutos way too much. The topic is too deep to go into here, but please read my post on this topic so you can tenuto responsibly!

I hope everyone notices and remembers is that there is no descriptive or emotional text anywhere in this cue or any of my work, the page is always clean and uncluttered with the only information being what is absolutely required. I have found text is just not needed in 99.537% of situations. We can use many words to describe what we think or feel when we hear the music, but I do not need to put them on the page for the players in order to inspire that result. I just need good notes, orchestration, the right dynamic, slurs and articulation, if needed of course. I am not leaving it ‘clean’ for the players to do their own thing, I know exactly what they will do using my concept of the “orchestral default.” Unsurprisingly when I see a score with an over abundance of descriptions there are also a lot of – drumroll please – tenutos!

I know in some earlier modern music, especially when people wrote by hand, the score and its calligraphy are as much a part of the art as the music itself. But that is not the case in the scoring and pops world. It is a goal for me to get the results I and the composer hiring me want with minimal information on the page. I know I am extreme with this, but after hundreds of hours of recordings and performances I have proved my point. Unfortunately, this means my scores just don’t look as cool on Insta.

And finally, I know I do say ‘context’ a lot and it is a big subject, but all I can say is that once you have done this long enough and had the opportunity to do the experiments I have, you can predict the contexts with great accuracy. I hope to have more time to write blog posts about my findings. It could be the vegemite gives me a special sixth orchestration sense, you should all try it.

Thanks to Noah, Adam, Michael, Ed, and the whole Hollywood Scoring team for giving me the time to record this. To the amazing players led by Ben Jacobson who pulled off this recording in 25 minutes, To Max Karmazyn for bowing demos, to Thanh Tran for the score and part printing, and to Adam Michalak for fixing my dodgy edits and doing a fantastic mix. And as always, to Ryan for editing this and making me sound almost intelligent.

The post Error Code 7 – A Deep Dive: Part 2 appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.

My friends at Hollywood Scoring wanted to test out bringing their own recording gear into the iconic United Recording Studio A, which has been ‘closed’ since the beginning of 2023. They invited myself and a few others to write for a small orchestra. I was also on hand all day to conduct or help in the booth for other composers who conducted themselves. I consulted with contractor Noah Gladstone and engineer Adam Michalak on what ensemble would be best for the day. We came up with flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, three horns, and strings (18/6/6/3). This is a great ensemble as you have a decent string count, making a full sound; three woodwinds that can be used for solos, lines, or chords; and three horns that also can play a chord for a pad, unison lines, or a solo. Some people wrote for just this group, others used it to beef up samples or play along with synths. We had every possible combination covered.

I decided to take the opportunity to write something that would demonstrate some of my favorite orchestration techniques. In this two-part post I’m going to go deep into my process, show you the scores, and let you hear the result. Some of what I discuss here is also covered in more detail in other dedicated posts on the blog, so there will be plenty of links to follow. For other parts I’m going to go into more detail for this specific context, and maybe on some tangents. Some new stuff I’m just going to make up on the spot and as always I will talk about the notation just as much as the orchestration as you as their connection is something I feel is not talked about enough in other resources. So grab a glass (or bottle) of wine and some vegemite on toast – we are going to break this apart and plunge deeper than a drop bear’s free fall from a eucalyptus tree. (That was ChatGPT’s suggestion, my editor overruled what I originally wanted to say.)

Why Error Code 7 I hear you ask? If you are a finale user you will understand. If not, lucky you.

Getting Started

Before reading on, check out this score video so you know what I am talking about.

• PDF of the score used in the video.
• PDF of the score used at the session.
• Video to download, easier to refer to as you go along. (Click the 3 dots bottom right to download if it does not automatically.)

The piece starts with what we call a ‘wire’ in the scoring world, a long held note that often in demos will come in from nothing and swell. As you can see I just have them start at pp. They will start at the tip of the bow and you will naturally get a swell as they move the bow. 99% of people would write it from niente or ppp and have a swell, but I think this is redundant as the physics of the bow and the mental game of chicken the musicians play about their soft entrances will lead to that effect with no notation needed. In fact, when I have written an actual swell, they often go too far and then I have to waste time telling them not to. It is important to note that the larger the number of players on it, the more the natural building effect is present.

I have also been on many sessions where the engineer prefers not to have them all attempt to come in from a true niente, this can waste a bar before making a proper sound. Instead, with a clearer start, the engineer can use volume automation to achieve the effect, and with better control, if that is what is needed. What is harder to do is go the other way and make something out of nothing. So as you can see, for several reasons, writing from niente or instruction to ‘come from nothing’ are best saved for instagram posts, not the real world. One other thing I have noticed over there years is that the larger the section, the more exaggerated the start will be, no matter you write. With many people, a game of orchestral chicken can happen where people wait for someone else, like they slowly start to fall forward, gaining momentum, thus you get the niente start. With a small group, they know they can’t do this and will start properly more often but with such a tentative sound it can be problematic and we ask them to just ‘start’. I have not seen this mentioned elsewhere, and perhaps people will disagree or have other theories, but from my experience, this is what I have found and worked out.

A favorite trick of mine to keep these wires subtle and under control is to have it played by players at the back of the section. These players are further from the Decca Tree so the sound that’s picked up is less direct. There will be microphones near the players should we need to bring it out more.

For every project I do I define three or four stands as ‘Back Stands’ and they can play anything like this. I will make sure that it is an even number of players from both firsts and seconds so that the rest of the parts can still function and balance as usual. In this particular section I had  eighteen violins (ten firsts and eight seconds) so I had four from the firsts and two from the seconds peel off, leaving me with six players on each part. To get them back into the section, my short hand is ‘div. ord.’ I use it to cancel any fancy divisi I might have specified and return to standard firsts and seconds. Sometimes I might use an arrow pointing them back to their old staves as well. I find I do not have to do any fancy orchestrating to get them out or back into the section, if a part is coming up for ‘Back Stands’ they will just tastefully end whatever they were doing and be ready for their new parts. Once done, they do the opposite.

For the very opening, I instructed the violins to use ‘circular bowing’. Instead of the bow staying in one position in relation to the bridge and moving from side to side (whether normal, sul pont, or sul tasto), it circles, covering all of those spots. A section will not sync this up by default, so you get a whispy sound with subtle random color changes. This is the opposite of the technique I use in the other parts of this introduction where they all move at the same time to pont and back. In this piece it is only played by six players so each color change is more pronounced. The more players you have on it, the more the sounds blend together and the less obvious the effect will be, though it is still a cool sound.

The first chord is Fma7, followed by an Ebma7. The wire starts on an A, but then at the chord change I have half of the players slowly side up to a Bb while the rest maintain the A wire as a pedal point. Then the chord changes to a Cma7; the Bb slides to a B, notated as a Cb here so they can see the portamento line. (I know that will drive some purists nuts, notating B as a Cb or visa versa, it works just fine!) The default for players when they see a portamento line is to wait until the last minute before they slide. In this case I want them to move right away, so I had to add the text to adjust their behavior. Unfortunately, this goes against all of their training and I often find that even with the text I have to ask them to not hold the note before they slide.

A common comment I might then get from players when the slide is only a half step or even a whole step but up high is that they have such a small distance to move their finger they need to wait. I will usually say I prefer they move early and arrive early, over waiting. I will also often have to ask them to not slide the last bit rapidly to land it on the beat where it is notated. This gives a comical sound and ruins the effect. I tell them that if they are in that situation, it is ok to be late arriving at the target pitch, as that is better for the effect. In this example I have them all move at the same time, that is their default. Sometimes it is nice to have them move separately, giving a blur to the sound.  The easiest way I have found to do that is to ask the inside stands to move later. If you just ask some to do it, no one knows who is going to do what without having a discussion and you might get all or none!

Seating and session organization – Tangent alert!

Over the years I have developed ways of organizing divisi that are simple for everyone to follow, foolproof and adaptable should the section size change between when you wrote your score and the session. I always avoid specifying exact numbers. Not only can things change, but it gets confusing as to who is going to do what. String players always have a reference for who will do what, I have just built on this.

You start with standard firsts and seconds. By default they will divide on the stand, no special instructions needed (I don’t even use the words ‘div’ or ‘unis’ in this situation). If you need three parts, in most cases I divide the seconds, I will explain why in part two. All strings players share a stand and thus work in pairs. In a simple two part divisi the top voice goes to the player sitting on the outside of the stand, closest to the ‘audience’ and the bottom voice will go to the player on the inside. Check out Divide and Conquer for more information on divisi in strings. If you want three voices, my first choice is usually to keep the firsts all together and divide the seconds.

As all violins read off the one part in the studio, it is super easy to write three lines and have them split into equal groups. I mark this ‘div. a3’ and for clarity I most often use three staves. Players also prefer it copied this way too. I do mark this with text as it is not standard or a default behavior. In order for this to work, they need to know who does what, so I draw a nice picture for each session and give it to the stage beforehand to set up the seats. Then it is very easy for me to show to the concert master and then we can explain it to the players before we start the first cue.

If they are in three sections, and then extra notes appear, the default is to just divide on the stand, as they would in the more usual Violin I and Violin II sections.

This is why I always prefer ‘div. a3’ in ‘groups’. Some leaders will have them ‘number off’: 1,2,3,1,2,3, etc. This can get confusing and is limiting and I am convinced every time it is done there are at least two players who have no idea what part to play. By doing it in groups and keeping each stand/pair on the same ‘part’ you can then divide them further. Thus I can easily get them into six parts with minimal text and discussion. This technique also keeps each ‘line’ in blocks than can easily be pulled out by spot microphones. If you number off, each part is spread out. I don’t mind that sonically, but it is harder to then dig a part out if needed when mixing.

With this system, the same score will work with eighteen or twenty-four violins. Speaking of which, I have always said my perfect number of violins is twenty-four. But you can’t always afford that. In my experience, if you want to keep a full sound and be able to divide into six parts and not get too weak and thin, eighteen is the minimum magic number. This gives you ten on the top which gives a nice full sound and you can divide into three even groups of six, or keep six firsts and six seconds and have six peel off at the back and maintain balance. As you will hear in this piece it works well and does not sound thin. Likewise, I think six viola, six cello, and three basses balance eighteen violins. It’s true that I like more celli than violas in my large sections, but that is partly because you are usually up against more low end brass in a large orchestra. In the case of this session and music, there was no low brass. Check out my post on section sizes and layouts for more information.

In this example from my orchestration of Chris Beck’s arrangement of the Disney logo I have five parts. To be clearer I label each staff with the group name, but if it was just one note in each I would just say div a3 as I do in Error Code 7. I dare anyone to come up with a better way to get a five part divisi! Note that I could have also had the third stave played by the back stands, and then the front firsts and seconds would divide as they do in Error Code 7, but I did not want the Eb to be that distant.

You can see how I switch to standard firsts and seconds on beat three of bar 12, the firsts are divided and the seconds are unison. Here is the score and recording or Click here for further discussion of divisi, including this example.

Returning to Error Code 7…
The initial harmony is a simple Fma7 chord and I use orchestration techniques to make it interesting. Usually that chord has a lush, sweet character, but I decided to orchestrate myself away from anything lush or cute. I have the notes arpeggiated in the strings and woods and held in the horns and some other strings.

I borrowed a gesture I used in A Spell, A Prayer for Corrine Bailey Rae and the Metropole Orkest.

It starts with a simple arpeggiated line, that I then split into four parts, where each part just repeats a single note. This gives a nice blur as each note sustains. It is a trick I use all the time, though not always with every note of the group, and it works really well across all sections of the orchestra. As you will see later in the chart you can get a cool effect just by splitting into two parts and having one or two notes hold in places.

I first worked out this technique when I was coming up with creative ways to split woodwinds on fast passages, usually pasted from the strings. I think I will call it E.A.D., Extreme Australian Dovetailing. You can read more about that in It’s Staggering.

As you can see, It is a tricky one to notate as you need to give breaks so they can articulate the tremolo.  You could just make it continuous and have accents, but each note would be late and lack definition. I made it cleaner by only using the trem articulations on the first time, then I used simile. I will say though that there is no perfect way to notate this. I tested several ways including cleaner looking full durations with commas for the lifts before each articulation. In general I love commas; rather than specifying an exact duration, you let the players use their musical instinct, which results in something that always matches the context. But in this case looking at all the commas after every note looked ridiculous. Like notating modal music and enharmonics, sometimes there is no perfect way that will please everyone.

To add interest, I have them move from sul pont to sul tasto and back with each swell. You can notate it with funky lines, but I just did it with some text as I already have hairpins giving the shape of what I want. Either is fine, just don’t do both, you know how much that would annoy me. I added the word ‘extreme’ to the sul pont as I have found that in the studios players never go as close to the bridge as I would like, often for fear of sliding right over it. In both examples I get extra mileage out of the idea by having it repeat up the octave. In “A Spell, A Prayer” you can also hear a simple but very effective technique I used in the clarinets by having them all play ascending scales at different times, creating a percolating murmur.

In Error Code 7 it is a different kind of murmur in the woods, using the same E.A.D. technique I used with the strings. I put them in triplets this time to create a blur against the sixteenths of the strings. The default for any flute is to play with vibrato. Clarinets do not play with vibrato in legit music, only in jazz, so in order to have the flute blend with them for this texture, I marked it senza vibrato.

I compliment the sound of the sul pont by using stopped horns. As they swell, they sound more metallic, exactly the same effect as going from sul tasto to sul pont. Gluing all of this together I also have some strings holding the chord also moving to pont and back. Notice in the picture the horns are using stopping mutes instead of their hands. The mutes create a more stable and even sound than the hand. The choice of stopping with the hand or the mute is always left to the players. In general if there is a single note or a few in the middle of non stopped ones they will use the hand. If it is a whole phrase, they often use the mute. The mute is on a string that they can put around their wrist to make it easy to get out in a hurry. You can see the string in the photo. I notate the stop with a + above the note, nothing else is needed and it is just magic that if there is no + above a note they won’t stop it! I know the convention is to place a circle above the next open note, but I have never done that and not once has a player kept playing a stop or asked. And don’t get me started on adding text as well.

In order to pull off all of these string parts I had to really think about the divisi as I was already down six players to do the wire. I have the violas and the cellos divided into two (they will divide on the stand by default). Having six people on the wire left me with six firsts and six seconds. If I need four parts then each of them just divides on the stand. In order to not use five staves to pull this off I got creative and labeled the top staff as outside firsts and outside seconds, then used a staff each for the inside firsts and the inside seconds (all violins play off the one part in scoring). While it is still a little complicated, I think it is the best solution to get the parts I need with minimal text, explanations, and trees killed.

I repeat the same figure in Eb then C, totally cheating by just pasting it and transposing. Notice how I made the notation simpler and less complicated on the repeats. No need for all of the obvious information to be repeated. It also makes it simpler should we decide to change the dynamics; it is just the first figure that would need tweaking, then the rest just follow.

Transition

The next part of the piece helps transition us from the textural introduction to the harmonic main theme. You will see the back stands finish their note off while a new idea starts. Note that we are now in mutes. In the concert world you would have to have them all put them on in a rest and risk a lot of noise, or have them stagger them on, leaving it up to them as to when to do it. If you have read anything I have ever written you would know that is not going to be a solution I would choose. Being in the studio, we can cheat and stop recording, put the mutes on, and then start up again with no risk of unwanted noise or players randomly dropping out. I don’t care how many leaders tell me they can do it, it only takes one person’s mute to make a noise and the take is ruined. Same thing with page turns, I always stop and start. No one will know once it is all edited and mixed.

You will see I marked bar 19 as ‘Pickup’ and put a note on the back stands to finish their part on the previous pass. I like to plan how we are going to record and edit as I orchestrate, so I will mark the pickups in the score. We will often break it up even more once recording, but if I know ahead of time we will stop and start it is nice to have it in the score and the parts. This is not standard and I dream of the day when everyone knows what it means. In this case it is for mutes, but sometimes it is because a woodwind or brass player has to change instruments and there is no time, so stopping is the solution. There are many other reasons why we do pickups and I talk about them in Part 2 of my series on conducting.

For some history on the name: I had already started using the ‘S’ on the note as it was not used for anything else and was clean and readable. I was recording in London and asked the orchestra what I should called it. Sonia Slany, a fellow Aussie, yelled out ‘Stremolo’ and it stuck.

The other technique I love is long slides in the low end. You can hear a ton of it in my Trollhunters and Maya scores (examples below). I already discussed the issues around timing and slides in my section about the introduction but another important consideration if you want a smooth and good sound is whether the notes can be played on a single string. The slides in the cello in bar 19 are fine, they can only play the F on the C string and they can slide up to the A. Cellos don’t mind going into upper positions and the sound is fine. The bass is not quite as flexible, as the sound and intonation in upper positions is not as stable. However these notes are fine, the F starts on the E string and they slide to the A. One thing to note is that while every other section avoids open strings, bass players are in general a lazy bunch and will always choose the open string (this is acceptable due to the fact that basses have a softer tone than the other stringed instruments, so open strings don’t poke out like they do on those others). Here that means in bar 23 they need to look ahead and play the D on the A string, and not the open D as they would by default. 

Here are a few more examples of bends in my work as a composer on Trollhunters and Maya and the Three. The Maya cue takes it to the extreme; I also use some samples to beef it up, as is pretty normal these days. The scene is a battle with an Ouroboros, so extra sliding around was called for (note that the long fall at :36 is samples and was never live, nor intended to be)

At bar 27 I bring back the woods and horns with a tip of the hat to our chord shapes from the opening.  This is also a bit of a nod to a technique Chris Beck uses all the time where chords come and go in different families, overlapping. In this case it is strings, then woods, then horns, then back to strings. I use mutes in the horns to take the edge off and help them blend, the exact opposite of how I use the stopped notes in the introduction. (You can find more information about muting and stopping horns in my post about the instrument, including a video of studio legend Jim Thatcher demonstrating.)

Looking at it now I wonder if I meant to have a C in the violas in bar 30 and forgot, or maybe I just liked the sound of the minor second in the violins, we will never know as I have manipulated so many more crotchets since writing this and can’t remember. I know theorists for generations to come will come up with ideas about what is going on.

Continue reading more about this project in Part 2!

The post Error Code 7 – A Deep Dive: Part 1 appeared first on - deBreved - Tim Davies Website.