# What kind of brass are used in this soundtrack?



## DANIELE (Sep 9, 2017)

Hi, I think this piece is a full orchestral piece. I'm asking my self what brass are used in the first part where there is a dark atmosphere.



Can anyone help me?


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## rottoy (Sep 9, 2017)

DANIELE said:


> Hi, I think this piece is a full orchestral piece. I'm asking my self what brass are used in the first part where there is a dark atmosphere.
> 
> 
> 
> Can anyone help me?



If it's not part of Hans Zimmer's private sample stash, I wager it's live.
Definitely sounds live.


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## erica-grace (Sep 9, 2017)

Definitely trombones to start, maybe tuba as well. At :40, those are horns. The thing that's hard to tell, is whether or not the horns are doubling the trombones in the beginning, and whether the trombones ar doubling the horns after. If so, the "doubling" sections are playing lighter, and may have had their volumes reduced in the mix. Sounds live, too


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## DANIELE (Sep 9, 2017)

rottoy said:


> If it's not part of Hans Zimmer's private sample stash, I wager it's live.
> Definitely sounds live. Bruce Fowler has to be playing one of the trombones.



I think it's a live orchestra without synths. Anyway it seems there are trombones and horns playing in a low register but I'm not entirely sure there is nothing else.


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## DANIELE (Sep 9, 2017)

erica-grace said:


> Definitely trombones to start, maybe tuba as well. At :40, those are horns. The thing that's hard to tell, is whether or not the horns are doubling the trombones in the beginning, and whether the trombones ar doubling the horns after. If so, the "doubling" sections are playing lighter, and may have had their volumes reduced in the mix. Sounds live, too




I think the same but for me those trombones seem too powerful. How many of them are playing? Is there a bass trombone too?

Maybe 3 Trombones and 1 Bass Trombone doubled with horns in low register.


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## DANIELE (Sep 9, 2017)

Or maybe the bass trombone is accenting the spiccatos in the strings.


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## DANIELE (Sep 20, 2017)

I'm here again to asking about first measures of this piece. I'm writing a piece where I need the same ostinato sharpness of this track.

What are the instruments involved? Cellos, Basses in unison (or doubled in an octave?) and...?

I'm asking because I can not get the same results in my work. Is there something I can't understand to achieve that result.

Thank you.


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## MChangoM (Sep 20, 2017)

DANIELE said:


> I'm here again to asking about first measures of this piece. I'm writing a piece where I need the same ostinato sharpness of this track.
> 
> What are the instruments involved? Cellos, Basses in unison (or doubled in an octave?) and...?
> 
> ...



Do you have OT Metropolis Ark 1? I can get something very close with "Strings Low Spiccato 8va" mixed with a small amount of "Strings Low Portato Short 8va". I think with just MA1 patches and a little time, it could be nailed. BTW, I really like your compositions.


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## DANIELE (Sep 20, 2017)

MChangoM said:


> Do you have OT Metropolis Ark 1? I can get something very close with "Strings Low Spiccato 8va" mixed with a small amount of "Strings Low Portato Short 8va". I think with just MA1 patches and a little time, it could be nailed. BTW, I really like your compositions.



Thank you for your reply and for liking my works.

I'm sure I can achieve this sound with some ensemble library, what I want to do is to achieve this using a more "classical" approach. When I write an orchestral track I try to be as realistic as I can because doing so help me to study orchestration at the same time.

I'd like to be a good orchestrator and every track I wrote has to be a step up for me. So I'm trying to reach various types of sonorities using single instruments (or sections with strings) and I like to discover what other composers do to get their results. But, without orchestral sheets, I need some help to understand correctly.

Maybe here I have to layer basses and cellos sections with some solo that emphasizes the sections. I'm not sure...

Anyway thanks so much for your suggestion.


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## South Thames (Oct 17, 2017)

Hi Daniele

Know this thread is a bit old, but I found it interesting so I thought I'd respond.

If you think of the ostinato as (and the underlined caps are the accented beats here):

DA da da DA da da DA da da DA DA DA etc.

There's actually two things going on in the orchestration of this, which makes it much more interesting to listen to:

> Cellos and basses in octaves are playing all 12 notes of the ostinato.

> But the 'DA's (not the 'da's) are being played by a low piano, playing at max dynamic in low octaves, I would say at least an octave below the cellos and basses so what you mainly sense is the deep, percussive sharpness on the accents, and some kind of low drum, probably a taiko or similar, also just playing the DA's. So I think that's the key (particularly the low piano) to the 'sharpness' that you noted.

So if you heard them (the piano and taiko) on their own it would be ( _ = slience) DA _ _ DA _ _ DA _ _ DA DA DA etc. 

If the drum and piano played all notes of the ostinato it would probably sound too heavy, but having them just play the accents makes it much more interesting to listen to.

Hope that helps!

Tim


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## DANIELE (Oct 17, 2017)

South Thames said:


> Hi Daniele
> 
> Know this thread is a bit old, but I found it interesting so I thought I'd respond.
> 
> ...




It helps a lot!! Thank you Tim.

I noticed the piano in background but I wasn't sure about its power on the mix.

Very good and detailed explanation, I hope you'll answer in the same way to my future posts too!! I've many things to ask about different pieces.


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## South Thames (Oct 17, 2017)

No probs! Happy to help.


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