# Bloodborne OST - Father Gascoigne, The Hunter



## Trash Panda (Aug 31, 2020)

Edit: Newer version with more capable libraries for this piece is posted here: https://vi-control.net/community/th...-berlin-strings-perc-jxl-brass-chorus.127721/



Spoiler: Original post



Hi all,

I am new to the orchestral mock up world, but very familiar with rock/metal arranging/recording/mixing, and currently working through recreating some of my favorite orchestral songs.

I spent the past week transcribing the first half of this boss fight song and plan on doing the latter half (the super aggressive third phase of the fight) this week along with adding the percussion. This is one of my favorite pieces as it is so thematically on point and I love the way it evolves throughout the fight, such as the long sweeping rise in the music when Gascoigne begins his sweeping 2-handed attacked, and the over-the-top third phase, when he goes full beast.

I would love some feedback on the mock up below on this piece from one of the early bosses of Bloodborne.

Happy to provide the score editor output, XML or MIDI for collaboration on the accuracy of the notation.

Libraries used (all Audio Imperia):

Choir: Nucleus Core
Brass: Jaeger and Talos
Strings: Areia
Percussion: Nucleus (Timpani and Gran Casas)
Classic Mix mic on all instruments except Gran Casas

Full song mock-up (mixed and mastered):


Plugins used:

Neutron 3 Advanced
Ozone 9 Advanced
Seventh Heaven Reverb
Original:


@MartinH. @thevisi0nary I'm sure both of you will be interested. 

Edit: MIDI file attached


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## MartinH. (Aug 31, 2020)

The Serinator said:


> I would love some feedback on the mock up below on this piece from one of the early bosses of Bloodborne.



Awesome! Always happy to see another one taking interest in Soulsborne music. I think this transscription sounds pretty correct, though I'm not the one to ask on that front. I'm sure my own mockup still had some mistakes that I couldn't figure out, like the low strings pattern that starts fading in at 0:14.

Mix wise I think this is still a little too dry if you want to match the sound of the reference. The best advice I can give is not very specific: make it so you can listen to a section of the track on loop so that it automatically switches back and forth between mockup and original while letting the playback run, then listen with your eyes closed where the different sections move at the transition points between mockup and reference. Tweak a couple things, than give your ears a break. I'm starting to think many of my long tweaking sessions when trying to match some kind of tone - orchestral, metal, or otherwise - were getting diminishing returns because of ear fatigue. I haven't figured out a good workflow yet to avoid that pitfall, not even sure there is any. 

I'll watch this thread for updates and I hope someone else can give you more specific feedback. I've always gone the trial & error route and I'm not on the level yet where I can just listen to something and tell you what's missing to make it sound like the reference. The things that I'd experiment with is adding more reverb to the strings, using panagement to tweak stereo width and/or move things further away or closer, and add a little algorithmic reverb to the master to glue things together. Not too much of course.


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## thevisi0nary (Sep 3, 2020)

Dude this is so good! You did an outstanding job, the arrangement is great and the vibe is totally on point.

I think if you smooth out the brass runs in between the main melody and also the repeating low string runs a bit, it will even sound better. The low end could use a little umph too.

Great work

Something that this soundtrack has inspired me to do is experiment with reseating the strings. If you look at the picture below, the arrangement seems to go something along the lines of either:

V1, violas, cellos, basses, v2

Or

v1, v2, cellos, basses, violas



https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7710/17077399014_ff76120be5_b.jpg



Ive written stuff with CSS with the second violins stereo inverted (put on the right) with some success, trying out methods like this may be helpful if you want to get it as close as possible. Though not completely necessary. I do like how centered the low end strings are on the BB ost.


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## Henrik B. Jensen (Sep 4, 2020)

It sounds really good! Interesting to hear those libs in action here.

One thing I notice when comparing this to the original OST is that the balance seems off, or things might be panned a little too extreme to the sides.

There's a lot of stuff going on in the right side, but substantially less in the left.

Can you hear it?

Often when you listen to a piece you're making, you end up "getting deaf" to how it really sounds because you hear it so many times.

EDIT: I also immediately noticed, without hearing the original OST first, that this piece is too dry. It does not sound realistic. A little bit of reverb is necessary I'd say, but only a little bit / don't overdo it.

EDIT2: The balance-thing I mention: Could it simply be that the string ostinato (isn't that what it's called?  ) is playing at a little too high volume compared to the rest of the mix? Not sure about this, but try experimenting with it.


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## Trash Panda (Sep 15, 2020)

Dynamics all over the shop. You'll be too loud soon too.

Thank you to everyone for the detailed feedback. It is much appreciated!

I have arranged the full song, tweaked the hell out of all parts that didn't sound right and applied some very light mixing and mastering to the Classic Mix version of the samples. One of the biggest things that helped getting the strings sounding right was switching on the Sordino option in Areia, except the cellos and basses.

I flipped the stereo image on the second violin, which I think solved the balance issue. All other instruments are in their situ-recorded positions.

The second half of this was a beast to figure out by ear because of how loud everything is, all the little details going on and figuring out how to fake legatos and marcatos on a choir that only comes with sustains for long notes. The thundering drum sound in the second part was difficult to figure out, but a combination of a timpani and highly processed, reverb-soaked gran casas sample seemed to get pretty close.

I've updated the OP with the full mock up and left the original 1st half mock up as a comparison.

Reverb-wise, I'm still getting my sea legs. I used Seventh Heaven Studio B Close for brass and strings and Studio B Far for percussion/choir with ERs only and fed that into the Seventh Heaven Cinema Scoring Stage with LRs only for the tail with some pre-delay on the strings and brass.

Probably needs some work with reverb and positioning tweaking, but I think this is at least 95% close.

Let me know if you want the MIDI or score output and I'll be happy to share.


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## francomiquio (Nov 11, 2020)

The Serinator said:


> Dynamics all over the shop. You'll be too loud soon too.
> 
> Thank you to everyone for the detailed feedback. It is much appreciated!
> 
> ...




Ooo man that was so awesome can you pls share the MIDI with me! I love Bloodborne


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## Trash Panda (Nov 17, 2020)

francomiquio said:


> Ooo man that was so awesome can you pls share the MIDI with me! I love Bloodborne


Sure thing. MIDI file attached to the OP.


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## dhmusic (Aug 1, 2021)

Trash Panda said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I am new to the orchestral mock up world, but very familiar with rock/metal arranging/recording/mixing, and currently working through recreating some of my favorite orchestral songs.
> 
> ...




Nice work man. It's good to see you went for the full challenge of a 1:1 version

I went hunting through the the forums for Bloodborne covers and was surprised to find only one

Maybe I don't have enough insight yet


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## Trash Panda (Aug 1, 2021)

They’re hard to pull off and there’s not as many transcriptions as you would expect. I’m part time working on redoing this in CSS with Infinite Brass, which I feel can get much closer to the sound of the original. CSS with CSSS stacked with a focus on close mics and the solo strings seems to mimic that super dry string sound and the darkness of the libraries is perfect for the tone used.


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## dhmusic (Aug 1, 2021)

Trash Panda said:


> They’re hard to pull off and there’s not as many transcriptions as you would expect


For sure. Yours is actually really close, it's a good ear transcription.

I'm transcribing Ludwig The Accursed/Holy Blade right now. It's a doozy, I can see why no one's done a proper version of it yet.


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