# Tutankhamun Sessions Video



## Gerhard Westphalen (Oct 30, 2016)

This is priceless! The sort of video I've always been after. I've only started watching.

Thanks Spitfire!


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## CACKLAND (Oct 30, 2016)

Awesome, Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.


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## Spitfire Team (Oct 30, 2016)

Thanks for posting here. I've done some accompanying text for context and thoughts whilst I was doing this session:

*BEHIND THE CURTAIN: TUTANKHAMUN SESSIONS*

I have always been amazed at London musicians. Well, I guess as a proud Londoner I’m aware of the rare melting pot of professions and industries that come together to create a rare opportunity with our orchestral players. With the sheer number of orchestras, chamber groups and bands playing in the vast array of live spaces available to us, combined with a huge number of ‘pits’ in Theatreland, there is a voracious appetite for live players. Combine this with a vibrant session scene and you create a need for ‘depping’. Whereby one excellent musician deputises for another without anyone being the wiser. The secret for this is in sight reading, and where that is concerned we have the best sight readers in the world. With our two world-class symphonic orchestral recording studios; Abbey Road & AIR Lyndhurst there is a thriving film music scene. But because of the deep well of diverse talent, players will be performing on kick-bollock-scramble sessions for the likes of Poirot or Downton Abbey, where entire series can be recorded in a matter of hours, to lengthy month-long treatises by the likes of Hans Zimmer, where players have to hone their skills into a laser-sighted forensic approach to their art. Oh, and there’s this sample developer in London who also books a lot of musicians to meticulously hone their craft over many concentrated and zen-like hours.

So basically, and in my humble opinion, and with utmost respect for other musicians both in Europe and Stateside... for film and TV sessions, we have the best that you can get!

However this is no use to man nor beast if the studio cannot handle working at a precise and lightening quick manner, and if the composer and his team are not prepared. So with this video I wanted to prove that with ten years of writing low budget crap, and the experience I have learned from that, the impossible really can be achieved (*with the exact science of technical preparation refined, a long term relationship with an orchestrator defined, and a working understanding with arguably the greatest team of engineers, Pro Tools operators and assistants at one of the greatest studios in the world*). You really can achieve the impossible. Not only can you capture the right instruments, playing the right notes, in the right order and at the right time against picture, but that you can capture a sound that is quite extraordinary in that time too.







Earlier this year, I was asked to write the score for a big new series allocated for the coveted Sunday night ‘Downton’ slot. We were handed a relatively (for TV) large orchestral budget, and decided to record the whole series in just two three hour sessions in London. This film is a real-time (save for some cuts made for legal purposes) account of those sessions.

The music was written, arranged, orchestrated and copied in the two weeks that led up to these sessions (which is why Ben and Christian are yawning and coughing so much). The live band was north of 50 strings players, and an (unseen) oboist and bassoonist in side booths. All the percussion, brass, and guitars are Spitfire samples, with some vocals (performed by Synergy) having already been recorded as what I call ‘underdubs’.

You’ll see that alongside keeping the session moving, I also have to make on-the-hop decisions that are pragmatic. For example, I decide to leave an imperfect bit of intonation because I observe a woman’s hat is flapping in the wind onscreen and therefore is likely to mask the rare ‘rub’ laid down to tape. You’ll also see that I start by feeding them material we can get through quickly, and that it is similar in style and theme, so that we can warm up, but also get a few cues under our belts before attacking the real ‘meat and taters’ about half way in the session (at about 1h 30mins). I have an impossible number of cues to get through, so as we go on we start working our way through cues that I would have been ‘happy’ to just use samples on. As we near the end I get Ben to print out two cues I had no intention of recording.... will we make it to the end and get everything done??!!

Many thanks to the incredibly talented people captured here for their hard work, but also to allow us to make what I believe is a really important film. Thanks also to ITV studios for granting permission, to the Musicians Union for their co-operation, and to Air Studios (as always) for making us feel so welcome.


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## phil_wc (Oct 30, 2016)

That video is blocked in US tho, haha.


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## SymphonicSamples (Oct 30, 2016)

Thanks for the share Gerhard, watching now, really enjoying seeing the process. The music sounds gorgeous and the samples blended beautifully. What a treat.


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## airflamesred (Oct 30, 2016)

'Here they come'! Interesting incite, thanks.


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## mac (Oct 30, 2016)

Great vid. @Spitfire was there a reason you chose live strings, but sampled brass, perc and guitar?


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## PeterBaumann (Oct 30, 2016)

Great video - thanks for sharing this insight spitfire!


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## sourcefor (Oct 30, 2016)

Yes video blocked in my country (USA) bummer


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## Nils Neumann (Oct 30, 2016)

Blocked in Germany too:/


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## higgs (Oct 30, 2016)

sourcefor said:


> Yes video blocked in my country (USA) bummer


Try using a VPN - it's worked fine for me. A TOR browser might work as well.


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## Spitfire Team (Oct 30, 2016)

Hey guys, its blocked because of sound matches with the Album on Sony Classics... I'll get in touch with them to see if they can lift the restrictions.


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## jononotbono (Oct 30, 2016)

Good god. This is amazing! So inspirational. Thank you for releasing this into the digital wild! Christian, your music is amazing and the fact that you have no formal music theory training makes this even more amazing. Gives the likes of me some hope!


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## Spitfire Team (Oct 30, 2016)

mac said:


> Great vid. @Spitfire was there a reason you chose live strings, but sampled brass, perc and guitar?



Hi there. 

In order to clear this amount of music in a short time one needs to be incredibly pragmatic with session planning. Here are my reasons IN THIS INSTANCE. Of why I chose strings and sampled brass percussion.

1. You're only orchestrating / copying for 5 stanzas.
2. As string players do 400% more sessions than brass players there are 400% more strings A-list bands in London. I could therefore pre-suppose that this amount of work was possible without having to personally police the booking of the brass players.
3. String players play more stuff for longer in scores. They're therefore capable of performing what is seen in this film, whereas this would be unreasonable on brass players lips and arms.
4. It is common knowledge that you really need to rehearse as a whole and then record in separate stems at Air... the brass really overpowers. I didn't have the session time.
5. The score was written for string melodies with brass accomp... and perc and guitars. I wanted to hear Rolf Wilson at all times... He is a total ledge.
6. When given an amount of money you have to work out what bang for your buck you're going to deliver for your clients. For me no sample library has ever been able to replicate the sound of 50 strings players playing melodically. Its not that strings samples aren't articulate, its just that they cannot replicate the blur of that many players truly performing out of their skin. Especially with all the cheesy Egyptian portamentos I directed.
7. As all my samples are Spitfire, I knew they would mix seamlessly with anything else I recorded in the hall... 

If people can't be bothered dial forward to 1hour 30mins once the band is really working at full pelt, its pretty amazing the sound they're making whilst site reading... Always so honoured to work with these guys.

CH.


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## vewilya (Oct 30, 2016)

Wow. Amazing and insightful stuff Christian. Thanks a lot. Love the music! Full of soul and spirit. UB


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## Peter Cavallo (Oct 30, 2016)

Spitfire Team said:


> For me no sample library has ever been able to replicate the sound of 50 strings players playing melodically.



Interesting statement. I totally agree. When I first recorded with live strings I just sat there and almost wept. The lush beauty of hearing them play together is awesome. Especially when it's your own music 

Beautiful music Christian and very inspiring, thank you for sharing.


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## rottoy (Oct 30, 2016)

Truly fantastic stuff to witness, Christian.
Loving the magic!


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## erica-grace (Oct 30, 2016)

sourcefor said:


> Yes video blocked in my country (USA) bummer



If its blocked in your country, you can use https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/ to down it. Beware of pop-ups and browser windows opening behind the current window. If that's an issue, adblocker works pretty well.


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## mac (Oct 30, 2016)

I just watched the remainder of the video. Love the chuffed look on your face at ~1:36


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Oct 30, 2016)

Spitfire Team said:


> Thanks for posting here. I've done some accompanying text for context and thoughts whilst I was doing this session:
> 
> *BEHIND THE CURTAIN: TUTANKHAMUN SESSIONS*
> 
> ...



Made it through the entire video today. 

A couple of technical questions perhaps you or someone else could chime in on -

What was the role of the guy at the desk in the middle of the room? Assistant engineer?

How were the PT sessions handled? Was it separate sessions for each cue? I noticed that there was some switching in the video monitors. Was that switching between 2 PT rigs? If they are separate sessions, is the video cut up into each session?


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## Spitfire Team (Oct 30, 2016)

Hi Gerhard,

Yes that was Lawrence, the assistant who handles pro tools, each cue was on a different PT session, just the one PT rig was in use for playback and record.

Best.

C.


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## mickeyl (Oct 31, 2016)

phil_wc said:


> That video is blocked in US tho, haha.



Here (GER) as well. *Sigh*


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## SymphonicSamples (Oct 31, 2016)

Crazy , it's the first times ever and I mean Ever, living in Australia works out we actually see something before USA


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## Killiard (Oct 31, 2016)

Thanks for doing this video Christian! If you ever need someone to sit in the back and make you weak coffee then please let me know


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Oct 31, 2016)

Ridley Scott at 1:18:31?


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## rottoy (Oct 31, 2016)

That's definitely not Ridley Scott.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Oct 31, 2016)

That would be his dad, Nicky Henson


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## Chris Hurst (Oct 31, 2016)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> That would be his dad, Nicky Henson



....who's latest film I scored recently!

I never did put two and two together on that one! D'oh! Well, his son's instruments are all over it (particularly the Evo Grid series), so I hope he's pleased!

Fantastic video and, together with the recent Spitfire Audio Journals, a great source of valuable information.

Thanks Christian!


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## procreative (Oct 31, 2016)

Firstly thanks for putting this up, very educational and inspiring. Had not even watched the credits carefully to spot your name on it!

Would be truly amazing if you ever consider putting up the original mockup to some of the cues, to compare how it sounded before/after. Presume you use SCS/Sable during writing stage?


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Oct 31, 2016)

@Spitfire Team if you guys are looking for ideas for future Behind the Curtain videos I think more on this specific project would be great. Perhaps something on the writing/mocking up stages or the mixing stages after the session. I know that the point of the video was to show the work of the session musicians there rather than your work but you could kill two birds with one stone.


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## Spitfire Team (Oct 31, 2016)

I'll try and gather some of the demos this week for you guys to listen too... May dig out some scores too... Thanks Gerhard for your idea, we may make an article with all the bits I've gathered from this...


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## ClefferNotes (Oct 31, 2016)

@Spitfire Team Thank you so much for sharing this, I hope one day I will be lucky enough to score some orchestral music in this beautiful place. Your score is sensational, beautiful work Christian!


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## procreative (Oct 31, 2016)

Spitfire Team said:


> I'll try and gather some of the demos this week for you guys to listen too... May dig out some scores too... Thanks Gerhard for your idea, we may make an article with all the bits I've gathered from this...



Fantastic! Has snippets of Lawrence Of Arabia and dare I say it The Mummy, with a dose of Poirot!! 

Can't believe these talented musicians can just turn up and sight read into it. It sounded beautiful, you must have been dancing inside hearing your cues back.

I remember many eons ago when I was in a band and we needed a Sax part, the engineer said "I know a music student who might be able to help", took him about 20 minutes to lay his parts down. A chap who turned out to be a composer called Joby Talbot who via a stint in the Divine Comedy (band) ended up as a pretty notable composer.

But he was a skilled multi instrumentalist and great musicians just have that ear to get straight into a piece with or without sheet music.


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## jononotbono (Nov 1, 2016)

Spitfire Team said:


> Especially with all the cheesy Egyptian portamentos I directed.



I found nothing cheesy about them! I loved them! If it sounds good it is good and it feels like some people give them a bad name just like the String ostinato! I've watched the video twice now! Just amazing!


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## URL (Nov 1, 2016)

Awesome to see behind the doors of Air Studios, nice to see how the pros works how quickly you put Q with few retakes. Thanks I really appreciate this video.


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## Leeward (Nov 4, 2016)

Wow. I'm impressed at the professionalism of everyone involved. Never knew you could get something like this done so quickly!


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## Saxer (Nov 5, 2016)

Beautiful work! Lovely main theme!

This should be more or less the sound of Mural, shouldn't it? Would be interesting to compare...


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## Thorsten Meyer (Nov 5, 2016)

phil_wc said:


> That video is blocked in US tho, haha.


The video is blocked in Germany


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## Saxer (Nov 5, 2016)

Thorsten Meyer said:


> The video is blocked in Germany





erica-grace said:


> If its blocked in your country, you can use https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/ to down it. Beware of pop-ups and browser windows opening behind the current window. If that's an issue, adblocker works pretty well.


Works fine!


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## Coldsound (Nov 6, 2016)

Saxer said:


> Beautiful work! Lovely main theme!
> 
> This should be more or less the sound of Mural, shouldn't it? Would be interesting to compare...


It's very very close. I've played over the video and sometimes you get lost, and you're not sure what is "real" and what is "sampled", but still as Christian says, there is more emotion with real player, it's more fluid, and the "real" sound is slightly warmer/better. The mural sample is a bit more nasal sounding (as every sound bank to my ears) Is it the fault of the kontakt engine?...


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## erica-grace (Nov 8, 2016)

Just finished watching - wow - great stuff! 

May I ask something, Christian? 

2MA3 - 51:05 in the video. I hear some woodwinds.... ok, those are samples. After a few bars, we hear this string ostinato part, that you can see the violin players playing. Right before the tympani crescendo. After that crescendo, those violins are now playing longs, but you can still hear the ostinato. Is the ostinato samples, or did you split the strings in a certain way to allow for longs AND the ostinatos? If so, may I ask how, please? Thank you!


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## jononotbono (Nov 10, 2016)

Watching it for 3rd time. The music is amazing. I need to watch this!


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## URL (Nov 10, 2016)

jononotbono said:


> Watching it for 3rd time. The music is amazing. I need to watch this!



Man you need help...yes I saw it twice.joke


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## jononotbono (Nov 10, 2016)

Ha! I know you were joking. I have a sense of humour. I meant I need to watch the ITV Tutankhamun! But yes, thinking about it, I do need watch this Behind The Curtain video a 4th time.

I'm intrigued by the Pro Tools user Lawrence. He must be so on the ball if he is recording everything with one Pro Tools Rig and one cue per each session. Would I be right in thinking that a template would be created before the day started, after knowing how many players there are going to be and then on the day the session gets loaded and used for each Cue? When Lawrence is told to keep specific bits (drop ins - sorry I don't know the proper terminology yet) how does he make a note on keeping those parts for post work? And can the players here Christian speak when pressing the Talkover button on desk or can only the Conductor and his info gets trickled down to the players? Please excuse my ignorance at this time. I have much to learn!


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## URL (Nov 10, 2016)

jononotbono said:


> Ha! I know you were joking. I have a sense of humour. I meant I need to watch the ITV Tutankhamun! But yes, thinking about it, I do need watch this Behind The Curtain video a 4th time.
> 
> I'm intrigued by the Pro Tools user Lawrence. He must be so on the ball if he is recording everything with one Pro Tools Rig and one cue per each session. Would I be right in thinking that a template would be created before the day started, after knowing how many players there are going to be and then on the day the session gets loaded and used for each Cue? When Lawrence is told to keep specific bits (drop ins - sorry I don't know the proper terminology yet) how does he make a note on keeping those parts for post work? And can the players here Christian speak when pressing the Talkover button on desk or can only the Conductor and his info gets trickled down to the players? Please excuse my ignorance at this time. I have much to learn!




I don't know so much about live orch. rec it seems that the players hear C.H..., every Q must be setup before in Protools and they work so fast- "all" the retakes must be in the same Q but that is not so hard in protools.
Punch in and out or drop in -same
It seems C.H have a priority list and that is "synced" refers for the Q in Prootools if may guess... Theres tons to learn
Please can I have 48 hours/day instead of 24...


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Nov 10, 2016)

jononotbono said:


> Ha! I know you were joking. I have a sense of humour. I meant I need to watch the ITV Tutankhamun! But yes, thinking about it, I do need watch this Behind The Curtain video a 4th time.
> 
> I'm intrigued by the Pro Tools user Lawrence. He must be so on the ball if he is recording everything with one Pro Tools Rig and one cue per each session. Would I be right in thinking that a template would be created before the day started, after knowing how many players there are going to be and then on the day the session gets loaded and used for each Cue? When Lawrence is told to keep specific bits (drop ins - sorry I don't know the proper terminology yet) how does he make a note on keeping those parts for post work? And can the players here Christian speak when pressing the Talkover button on desk or can only the Conductor and his info gets trickled down to the players? Please excuse my ignorance at this time. I have much to learn!



I'm fairly certain that they have all of the sessions ready so that they only need to see where they're starting and then hit record. I'm not sure if they have multiple sets of tracks for different takes or just rerecording onto the same tracks. I'm still curious to know about the video and whether they cut up the episodes so that there's only a specific scene for a particular cue. 

Considering that Fiona is talking to everyone I'd assume that his talkback is also for everyone. I'm also curious to learn more about what Lawrence is doing. It would be great for them to do an interview with him.


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## jononotbono (Nov 10, 2016)

URL said:


> Please can I have 48 hours/day instead of 24...



You would still be on VI Control for 50% of that time.


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## jononotbono (Nov 10, 2016)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> I'm fairly certain that they have all of the sessions ready so that they only need to see where they're starting and then hit record. I'm not sure if they have multiple sets of tracks for different takes or just rerecording onto the same tracks. I'm still curious to know about the video and whether they cut up the episodes so that there's only a specific scene for a particular cue.
> 
> Considering that Fiona is talking to everyone I'd assume that his talkback is also for everyone. I'm also curious to learn more about what Lawrence is doing. It would be great for them to do an interview with him.



I agree man. This is a slick operation. I would also really love to hear the demos and the finished pieces at some point (if that's at all possible). I know, asking for a bit much perhaps!


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## jononotbono (Nov 10, 2016)

That piece at 1:34:27! Man, what is the name of that Cue? I love it.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Nov 10, 2016)

jononotbono said:


> That piece at 1:34:27! Man, what is the name of that Cue? I love it.



"Tomb Discovery"


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## Sekkle (Nov 10, 2016)

Thanks so much for this Christian and the Spitfire team, love the music and so awesome to actually see the process in realtime. All the content you guys are creating is very informative and inspiring, not to mention the tools you create.


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## URL (Nov 11, 2016)

jononotbono said:


> You would still be on VI Control for 50% of that time.



Then I have 24 hours on composing music and 24hours to learn how to do it
C.H is on Spotify.


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## JaikumarS (Jul 16, 2017)

Spitfire Team said:


> Hi there.
> 
> In order to clear this amount of music in a short time one needs to be incredibly pragmatic with session planning. Here are my reasons IN THIS INSTANCE. Of why I chose strings and sampled brass percussion.
> 
> ...



Thank you Christian and Team Spitfire for the Video.

Christian, May I know what's meant by the Siren? The one you mentioned during recording and wanna a re-record the cue again.

-JS


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## wbacer (Jul 16, 2017)

They must have unblocked the video. I'm in the US and was able to view it without a problem.


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