# Best hireable Scoring/Recording Orchestra you've hired?



## Pooley (Jul 21, 2021)

Hello hello!

I am based in AUS and the cost of a one hour session with an orchestra is well over $10,000

I am about to book a recording orchestra overseas, but am curious on peoples opinions on the best sounding, best to work with (most organised and so on) and most affordable for what they "Purchased"??

I am considering FAME - Macedonia and Budapest Scoring currently, open to peoples feedback and suggestions for the tightest run ship 

Thank you so much.

Dan


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## Niah2 (Jul 21, 2021)

Hello,

Well I haven't had any experiences other than with the shared sessions of budapest scoring. I've done quite a few over the years with them and I've always been very happy with the results and the overall experience.









Budapest Scoring • A world-class orchestra right at your fingertips


Budapest Scoring offers high-quality recording services for composers from all around the world. The finest orchestra in a state-of-the-art facility.




www.budapestscoring.com





Then again I have not recorded with other remote orchestra so...

Hope more people post about their experiences with other remote orchestras.


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## Robin (Jul 21, 2021)

Are you looking for remote sessions or "in person" sessions?


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## Stephen Limbaugh (Jul 21, 2021)

http://www.nashvillemusicscoring.com has some competitive pricing. The musicians are also not jaded.


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## CT (Jul 21, 2021)

Stephen Limbaugh said:


> The musicians are also not jaded.


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## Alchemedia (Jul 21, 2021)

Stephen Limbaugh said:


> The musicians are also not jaded.


In the mid '90's I was producing a session at MCA Nashville and requested a string quartet and an engineer. I got 4 depressed "fiddlers" (their term, not mine) and a drunk tape op. No kidding! They couldn't even read sheet music. But they weren't jaded.


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## Stephen Limbaugh (Jul 21, 2021)

Alchemedia said:


> In the mid '90's I was producing a session at MCA Nashville and requested a string quartet and an engineer. I got 4 depressed "fiddlers" (their term, not mine) and a drunk tape op. No kidding! They couldn't even read sheet music. But they weren't jaded.


Epic. lol….

Well fortunately Nashville is a completely different place than 30 years ago! A lot of the session players I gleaned were professors at Belmont, Vandy, or just straight up transplants from NYC/LA.


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## JJP (Jul 21, 2021)

My best experiences have been recording in LA with AFM musicians. There are indie and demo rates available. Sometimes those little low-budget things are the most fun. If you have a good contractor, you can get great musicians and it's a real blast of a time.


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## Alchemedia (Jul 21, 2021)

Stephen Limbaugh said:


> Epic. lol….
> 
> Well fortunately Nashville is a completely different place than 30 years ago! A lot of the session players I gleaned were professors at Belmont, Vandy, or just straight up transplants from NYC/LA.


Ditto! I found some top-notch profs from Vanderbilt. I know it's another world since Mutt & Shania rewrote the Gnashville playbook. I couldn't take more than a few weeks and grabbed a flight back to LA.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Jul 21, 2021)

Pooley said:


> Hello hello!
> 
> I am based in AUS and the cost of a one hour session with an orchestra is well over $10,000
> 
> ...


I think one of the better known here, due to Strezov Samplings good work, is indeed the Budapest revenue.

there is another member here ( can’t recall…..john I believe) who has done a bigger score with asian influences with them and was more then satisfied.

no personal experience here, but if I were to book one, I guess they are on my top list due to quality and overal pricing.

good luck


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## bryla (Jul 22, 2021)

If you are talking about the Eastern European options the best quality, professionalism and musicianship is:

Budapest via http://eastconnection.org/

or:

Prague via https://www.tadlowmusic.com/

I consistently have great experiences with both of these.

I'm not talking about shared sessions but if you have an instrumentation list you can ask them to keep an eye out for sessions you can tag along at the end so you don't have to pay for a three hour session if you only need one.


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## Giovanni dall Camera (Jul 22, 2021)

Silence-is-Golden said:


> I think one of the better known here, due to Strezov Samplings good work, is indeed the Budapest revenue.


Errr … Strezov Sampling is in Sofia, Bulgaria. Budapest is Hungarian. Am I missing something and Strezov has recorded samples also in Budapest? That might be the case and I don’t know about it. Anyway, there is no comparison between those two venues and orchestras …


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## mikeh-375 (Jul 22, 2021)

JJP said:


> My best experiences have been recording in LA with AFM musicians. There are indie and demo rates available. Sometimes those little low-budget things are the most fun. If you have a good contractor, you can get great musicians and it's a real blast of a time.


I agree with @JJP that a good contractor makes a big difference to a band. Mine was top notch to the extent that I had the likes of Irvine Arditti sometimes leading and every player in all sections was generally speaking, a member of a major orchestra in London.
(I too had a great time in L.A. recording at Paramount in the old Bing Crosby Studio...anyone remember that studio that's now no longer with us?)


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## Niah2 (Jul 22, 2021)

Giovanni dall Camera said:


> Errr … Strezov Sampling is in Sofia, Bulgaria. Budapest is Hungarian. Am I missing something and Strezov has recorded samples also in Budapest? That might be the case and I don’t know about it. Anyway, there is no comparison between those two venues and orchestras …



That is correct. This is the orchestra George Strezov works with:









Four For Music Ltd.


Four For Music Ltd.




www.fourformusic.com


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## Richard Wilkinson (Jul 22, 2021)

FAMEs and FFM are both very good. Best experience I've had was at Air studios with an orchestra put together by their fixer. Not sure it gets much better than that!


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## JohnG (Jul 22, 2021)

Los Angeles and London are the best I've had. Nashville (Alan Umstead's crew) are also excellent, and yes indeed, George Strezov's team in Sofia are very good too, particularly woodwinds and strings. I've recorded over seven hours of music there.

Feel free to PM me for additional colour. Once you step outside Los Angeles or London (and top orchestras in other places -- Tokyo for example), where they can play anything you throw at them, there are always things to consider.

@JJP is right to point out the low-budget and demo rates for Los Angeles -- they are really cheap and superb players. If you want a Los Angeles based contractor PM him or me if you like.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Jul 23, 2021)

Giovanni dall Camera said:


> Errr … Strezov Sampling is in Sofia, Bulgaria. Budapest is Hungarian. Am I missing something and Strezov has recorded samples also in Budapest? That might be the case and I don’t know about it. Anyway, there is no comparison between those two venues and orchestras …


Haha….you are absolutely right, my mistake.


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## Pooley (Jul 25, 2021)

Thank you all for the fantastic responses this is all fantastically valuable! I really appreciate them all!
I'll write to most of them to get quotes on what I am recording - mostly strings and some brass - so that I might find the most competitive price and best performances. (which we all want of course) aha

@JohnG and @JJP would you two recommend working with LA based groups remotely? 
I am currently based in Canberra Australia with COVID and costs would prevent me from attending in person of course. 
Having it done in LA would be amazing though!


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## d.healey (Jul 25, 2021)

http://www.fourformusic.com/ do all of my orchestral sample recording (same team behind Strezov Sampling). Excellent players and studio engineers.


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## JohnG (Jul 25, 2021)

Pooley said:


> @JohnG and @JJP would you two recommend working with LA based groups remotely?


I would think the first thing would be to get a contractor here. I've never recorded remotely in Los Angeles, since I live here. @JJP might have an idea.

I'll PM you.


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## reimerpdx (Jul 25, 2021)

JohnG said:


> I would think the first thing would be to get a contractor here. I've never recorded remotely in Los Angeles, since I live here. @JJP might have an idea.
> 
> I'll PM you.


Would you explain what a contractor does in this scenario?
is my understanding of the thread such that a contractor is required to organize and execute an ensemble recording in LA, but not other places? Or is a group like FFM the ’contractor’ in that instance?


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## JJP (Jul 25, 2021)

JohnG said:


> I would think the first thing would be to get a contractor here. I've never recorded remotely in Los Angeles, since I live here. @JJP might have an idea.
> 
> I'll PM you.



@Pooley If you would like to record in LA I can help. I recently orchestarted and contracted a string recording for a video game for some composers from Europe.

Be aware that in most cases the prices are not as cheap as the low budget deals in other parts of the world, but the quality and efficiency is unsurpassed. On my last project because of good planning, orchestration, a good, fast engineer and stellar musicians, we recorded 30 minutes of string quartet music with lots of harmonics, tricky entrances, double-stops, solos that had to be recorded separately, and the like in a single three-hour session. The composers were ecstatic at the quality of the recordings.

I'll PM you my email. Feel free to reach out.


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## utopia (Jul 26, 2021)

The best has to be my experience at the Abbey Road. 

Apart from that I've been very happy with my recordings here in Moscow with the amazing Opensound Orchestra. World-class musicians with a very competitive price.

See here from more info - https://orchestrascoring.com 

The service has been recently launched, so I think they're still missing demos on the website. But PM me if you'd like to check them out - I've got a few recordings that I can share privately that I feel show what they're capable of quite well.

I have no personal interest here apart from some of these musicians being my friends from the times we studied in Moscow Conservatory.

Best of luck with your search!


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## JohnG (Jul 26, 2021)

reimerpdx said:


> Would you explain what a contractor does in this scenario?
> is my understanding of the thread such that a contractor is required to organize and execute an ensemble recording in LA, but not other places? Or is a group like FFM the ’contractor’ in that instance?


The contractor is quite important as she / he chooses which players to hire depending on what kind of music you've written. If, as @JJP wrote above, it's a string quartet with avant-garde techniques, that's one set of players; if it's "mountain hoe-down," that's usually quite different. Same thing with brass. If you want a gorgeous glow, that can be one group, whereas big band or jazz would likely be a different crew.

Don't get me wrong, the players in Los Angeles and London are pretty good chameleons. Nevertheless, you want the right players for the size of the orchestra and the style of music. They also will take care of the paperwork with unions, supervise the date to be sure everything runs smoothly, and can also -- just to be helpful, as it's not part of their job -- often offer suggestions about recording locations, a conductor (as needed), and even an engineer.

So a contractor, depending on the person, frequently wears many hats.


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## AEF (Jul 28, 2021)

Im curious why there seems to be no real scene in NYC. Is it simply union costs being too high?

Anyone know of any scoring done in NYC at all?


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## CT (Jul 28, 2021)

There are a few examples I can think of, residents like Goldenthal and Shore staying close to home to record, and even Morricone recorded at The Hit Factory at least once. Sadly it doesn't feel very active at all though, you're right, though I'm far from being in the loop.

There aren't as many great big orchestra rooms as you'll find in London or to some extent Los Angeles, that's for sure. Power Station (not that big anyway), Manhattan Center... _maybe_ one or two others that would fit the bill. Plenty of nice churches but that's more complicated and not always the right acoustic fit.

If anyone else from New York is here and knows I'm dead wrong about the relative flatness of the scoring scene here, please, absolutely correct me! I would be relieved to find the right niche here....


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## AEF (Jul 28, 2021)

Mike T said:


> There are a few examples I can think of, residents like Goldenthal and Shore staying close to home to record, and even Morricone recorded at The Hit Factory at least once. Sadly it doesn't feel very active at all though, you're right, though I'm far from being in the loop.
> 
> There aren't as many great big orchestra rooms as you'll find in London or to some extent Los Angeles, that's for sure. Power Station (not that big anyway), Manhattan Center... _maybe_ one or two others that would fit the bill. Plenty of nice churches but that's more complicated and not always the right acoustic fit.
> 
> If anyone else from New York is here and knows I'm dead wrong about the relative flatness of the scoring scene here, please, absolutely correct me! I would be relieved to find the right niche here....


power station seems to be the only real facility—and unfortunately i cant stand how that studio sounds and feels (its super dry and dead sounding in there, and the recordings from there always seem like they are recorded in a closet.)


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## JJP (Jul 28, 2021)

AEF said:


> Im curious why there seems to be no real scene in NYC. Is it simply union costs being too high?


The union costs for scoring films are the same in the entire USA. It's a national contract.

I think the reason there isn't as much scoring in NYC is because the big studio lots are all in LA. The studios were originally built in LA because there was lots of land and the weather was good for filming. NYC doesn't both either of those benefits, so the scoring scene followed the studios.


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## AEF (Jul 28, 2021)

JJP said:


> The union costs for scoring films are the same in the entire USA. It's a national contract.
> 
> I think the reason there isn't as much scoring in NYC is because the big studio lots are all in LA. The studios were originally built in LA because there was lots of land and the weather was good for filming. NYC doesn't both either of those benefits, so the scoring scene followed the studios.


makes sense.

shame though bc the quality of musician in new york is, obviously, quite special.


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## gsilbers (Aug 12, 2021)

There is also one in Macedonia. And also does Hollywood movies.


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