# Harry Gregson-Williams background sound



## miditator (Jun 27, 2014)

Hi guys!

I love the soundtrack of Harry Gregson-Williams.Maybe somebody knows by what tools is achieved sound like in the movies 'Deja vu' and 'Unstoppable'. How to make a background looping sound.How to achieve such a variety of loops and great sound.Must be some sort of a system and tools but I do not know how it's done.

Would be interesting to know what he used it for these works. ha ha ))

Thanks!


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## gsilbers (Jun 27, 2014)

he does his own and uses different commercial libraries and tweaks them. 
sample logic libraries, heaviocity, and maybe others like REV.


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## skitzmurd (Jun 27, 2014)

gsilbers @ Fri Jun 27 said:


> he does his own and uses different commercial libraries and tweaks them.
> sample logic libraries, heaviocity, and maybe others like REV.



+1 Output Rev... Thats all you need, if you're looking for a plugin to archive that!


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## jleckie (Jun 27, 2014)

It is really not too difficult to reverse your own sounds. Harry also takes the reverb itself and reverses only it adds it to the piano for a great piano effect.


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## Dan Drebing (Jun 27, 2014)

skitzmurd @ Fri Jun 27 said:


> gsilbers @ Fri Jun 27 said:
> 
> 
> > he does his own and uses different commercial libraries and tweaks them.
> ...



Rev looks pretty cool. Is it worth $200 though? Could I achieve something pretty similar with my other libraries/synths using the reverse fx in SugarBytes' Artillery 2?


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## gsilbers (Jun 27, 2014)

also, not sure about him but i know several remote control guys will use Ableton live (ni rewire/sync to the main daw). 
using his own recorded samples fro other gigs or recorded from a current project, ableton is great for these type of sound. fast and easy to reverse, change tempo picth on certain areas, on board effects are great etc.


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## LaurensGoedhart (Jun 27, 2014)

Dan Drebing @ 2014-06-27 said:


> Rev looks pretty cool. Is it worth $200 though? Could I achieve something pretty similar with my other libraries/synths using the reverse fx in SugarBytes' Artillery 2?



Rev is worth every penny I spend it on. Great library with a lot of possibilities!

That Ableton Live rewire/sync combination sounds interesting as well. Would be cool to have an extra device to record incoming audio, loop it, stretch it, and do other cool things with it on the fly! Anyone know how that works? I can guess and think for myself, but that'd take time


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## TheUnfinished (Jun 27, 2014)

Harry's a great sound designer himself, but also employed the guys from the Welsh electronica outfit Hybrid for the films you mentioned. They used Reaktor a lot.

In a talk I went to, he spoke about putting together lots of pre-recorded loops he'd made himself into Kontakt so he could trigger them on the fly to picture... particularly for the action sequences.

Also, you can see a bunch of his gear in this *studio interview*.


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## miditator (Jun 28, 2014)

Thanks for the information. 
Reversible sound no problems but these deep filtered loops and their compatibility with a great diversity and development….
It is necessary to delve more thoroughly reactor.
Sorry for my english )


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## wst3 (Jun 28, 2014)

Not sure how many non-guitarists are here<G>... but Roger Linn builds a pedal that does all sorts of beat sync'd tricks. 

There is also a VST version http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/adrenalinn-sync-plug-in.html (here)

I still use the pedal, and because it speaks MTC it works, but I think I'll have to get the plug-in one of these days. While it won't reverse anything (there are other ways to do that) it does a whole lot of other things really well!


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## Dan Drebing (Jun 29, 2014)

LaurensGoedhart @ Fri Jun 27 said:


> Dan Drebing @ 2014-06-27 said:
> 
> 
> > Rev looks pretty cool. Is it worth $200 though? Could I achieve something pretty similar with my other libraries/synths using the reverse fx in SugarBytes' Artillery 2?
> ...



There are tons of tutorials out there to teach you how to rewire with ableton. I set it up a long, long time ago with Reason and it was really easy (as I remember). Sorry I can't give you any more detail than that- it's been a long time since I did any of that.


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## skitzmurd (Jun 29, 2014)

I almost forgot. Here is a tip, which I used for a long time that Nick Murray posted on his YouTube account. 

"Harry Gregson-Williams Reverse Piano Effect Tutorial" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWbzJyLNNvs

This is for Logic users, but I am sure you can take from the knowledge you gain from this and use it in other DAWs.

Take it, develop it, do other fun cool stuff with it and soon enough you might even have your own new unique sound.


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## Kareemo (Jul 2, 2014)

Does anyone know how to create this cool HGW-sound at about 0:46? 
What kind of instrument could that be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1BgPmKsmVI


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## R. Soul (Jul 2, 2014)

Kareemo @ Wed Jul 02 said:


> Does anyone know how to create this cool HGW-sound at about 0:46?
> What kind of instrument could that be?
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1BgPmKsmVI


This saves people from forwarding  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1BgPmKsmVI#t=45


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## TheUnfinished (Jul 2, 2014)

Probably an electric cello. Certainly a bowed instrument being run through an amp of some kind.


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## Kareemo (Jul 11, 2014)

Thank you! BTW: Great stuff that you´ve done for Zebra.


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## clarkus (Jul 11, 2014)

I own REV and use it all the time. It's pretty deep for a product that would seem very specialized.


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## madbulk (Jul 11, 2014)

As Matt said, if you like the electronica aspects of HGW, you're probably listening to Hybrid. They have been working with him for many years, and as far as I know they still are. I know they were on Total Recall -- that's not long ago.

I'd never even heard of REV. That thing sounds great.


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## gsilbers (Jul 11, 2014)

LaurensGoedhart @ Fri Jun 27 said:


> Dan Drebing @ 2014-06-27 said:
> 
> 
> > Rev looks pretty cool. Is it worth $200 though? Could I achieve something pretty similar with my other libraries/synths using the reverse fx in SugarBytes' Artillery 2?
> ...



ableton does that. well most of it. if you have it on a dedicated computer wiht its own interface then you can affect the incomming audio. sync via mtc to your daw computer. 
you can easily do granular stuff, reverse, stretch and do a lot things on the fly. 

besides, the way it does delays and the way you can set a loop to be an odd rythm is very easy. it leads to wider and faster expreimentation. im guessing with those new controllers it might be easier. like in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXLL46xkdlY


well, that might be too much for live tweaking ala HGW =)
but it gives you the idea of all the ways live can be tweaked for live perfomances.


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## clarkus (Jul 12, 2014)

No problem with the funky english.

Reaktor is the hardest program to make do anything at all of the products that I happen to own.

Is anyone getting good use out of it?

I used to work with it for a few specific & very cool instruments built for it, like "Icepad." But I now feel I can get what I need from some much more user-friendly plug-ins.

Are people still designing for it?


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## Daniel James (Jul 12, 2014)

Big HGW fan here. I like you used to wonder how he achieved certain sounds and would spend days in utter frustration getting close but just not right until one day a friend said to me..."Instead of trying to replicate something he created why don't you figure out what it is about that sound you like, or what makes it work, then make your own that fits the concept"

As soon as I started following that advise I became much happier in my sound design and started having fun because the focus was on how the sound made me feel and not the actual sound itself.

Good luck 

-DJ


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## djshcomposer (Aug 12, 2014)

I am also one of those people who tortured themselves trying to study HGW always getting close to but never hitting the mark. The crazy part was that I began to doubt myself to the point of not composing at all. Until I scored a short film where it got to the point where I was so fed up of trying to mimic Zimmer, HGW, (and every other composer under the sun haha) that I just said f**k it im just going to do 'whatever' .... now not only was it the most fun and creative time for me but I learned this 'whatever' was not a negative spurt of frustration but in fact it was 'my sound' I reacted and composed as me, eye opening experience. However I do believe he uses alot of omnisphere for textures and rhythmic elements and alot of stylus RMX (not sure if so much nowadays) but he has said in an interview his custom folder is much bigger than his commercial folder so perhaps go out and experiment. make your own sounds loops and all that good stuff, you might stumble across your 'signature' sound. Hybrid are an awesome team loved what they did for some of HGW scores.

D


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