# Audiomachine production info?



## Wibben (Apr 15, 2015)

I've been obsessed with Audiomachine albums lately. Phenomena and Tree Of Life in particular. The production on these albums are incredible to my ears and wondered if anyone here has any insight into how they work? I could swear that I hear LASS in some parts but it sounds like a live orchestra playing.. any behind the scenes info would be extremely interesting, just out of curiosity and appreciation for the craft


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## H.R. (Apr 15, 2015)

I heard a lot of Zebra and Dark Zebra in their Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

They work with Cubase and for their big project, first they do it in MIDI then with real a orchestra. These are the facts I knew from their Facebook page comments.


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## kfirpr (Apr 15, 2015)

H.R. @ Wed Apr 15 said:


> I heard a lot of Zebra and Dark Zebra in their Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.


I've heard many Heavyocity Aeon in the last Call of Duty


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## Wibben (Apr 15, 2015)

I think I've heard some sub bass synth sounds underneath the orchestra in some places. It's tough to tell if it a bass drum och synth laying the consistent low rumble underneath the orchestra and other percussion.


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## Daniel James (Apr 15, 2015)

H.R. @ Wed Apr 15 said:


> I heard a lot of Zebra and Dark Zebra in their Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
> 
> They work with Cubase and for their big project, first they do it in MIDI then with real a orchestra. These are the facts I knew from their Facebook page comments.



Tons of Project Alpha and Project Bravoin that score too! It was awesome to hear 

-DJ


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## Wibben (Apr 15, 2015)

Cool to hear, Daniel


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## christianb (Apr 15, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8sZIlxHFqU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APh2KrKQXfs&spfreload=10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APh2KrK ... freload=10)

Greg Townley... frequent coconspirator with the AM guys. He has a pretty good video series on mastering as well.

this is pretty cool too.
Interview with Dinletir and Rix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDZ8FEvTflM





christianb


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## JohnG (Apr 15, 2015)

Hi there,

I don't know you well and apologies if what I suggest below is already known to you or it's too basic, but whatever.

What you hear with most of the top music libraries is the cumulative experience of orchestrators, engineers (recording and mastering), players and composers too, naturally.

So if you want that great sound, it is a good idea to hire a great engineer to help you and a great orchestrator. And an orchestra!

If you have scores you can hire a real orchestrator to Skype with you or just review in person to point out places to strengthen your writing. It can be a real help just to have a couple of hours with someone like that. Then hear what an experienced engineer can do with your tracks -- it can be surprising (good and bad of course).

It is also key to work with live players, even if it's just a soloist, and learn how they think and what helps get your ideas across quickly. When there are 100 people waiting, it's too expensive to learn at that time, so it's a good idea to learn with small groups.

It never hurts to write prose into the parts so they know what you want, if you can describe it but don't know every single musical term or technique. If you want the strings to "whisper," write that word in the score along with pp or ppp. Maybe that will lead the strings leader to have the section play sul tasto or some other way you didn't think of. That's how you learn and don't spend too much $$ when you are under the pressure of a big session at an expensive hall.


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## Wibben (Apr 15, 2015)

John: Thanks for the advice! It never actually occurred to me to hire an orchestrator/other-experienced-person for educational purposes, that's not expicitly a teacher. I'll definitely look into that in the future.

I fully understand that no tool will get ME to sound like them, except experience, practise and hard work, that's a given. I'm sort of a Behind-the-scenes-nut and am a bit in love with those albums at the moment, so wanted to get some insight into the production if anyone knew or could make some educated guesses 
There's nothing so inspiring to me as watching great artists make great art


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## guitarman1960 (Apr 24, 2015)

Hi there,
Here's a link to Greg Townley talking about his work on Audiomachine Phenomena!

http://gregtownley.com/phenomena/

Enjoy!

Dave.


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## Wibben (Apr 24, 2015)

Thank you, Guitarman :D Very interesting read


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## Guffy (Apr 24, 2015)

I was in love with Phenomena when it was released, and just now i started to get back into it, and it really is great.

I especially love their drums. 

If you listen to "Crossing Destiny", listen to the huge drums that come in around 1:22.

Is that toms?

I've been trying to recreate that, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Been using Soundiron APE and 8Dio Toms as starting points.

This album was also released about a half year after HZ Percussion got released, so i wouldn't be surprised if they used some of it in there (even though i know they use live orchestra, i bet they layer in samples here and there)


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## Wibben (Apr 25, 2015)

In the blog post Guitarman posted, the mixer/producer mentions there were 10 percussionists blasting away at Air Lyndhurst :D
Seems like there's a mix of a standard drumkit (or Trap drums, as he calls it), Taikos and classic percussion instruments. 

I really love the sound. It sounds like the mix is on the verge of collapsing but it never does. The low end must have been extremely tough to get right on that album.


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## TheUnfinished (Apr 25, 2015)

I know they've grabbed some of my soundsets - but I doubt it's that key to their whole sound! Haha.

They do put together some very fine productions.


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## Wibben (Apr 25, 2015)

Everything sounds better with your soundsets, Unfinished


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## Matt Hawken (Apr 25, 2015)

Wibben @ Wed Apr 15 said:


> John: Thanks for the advice! It never actually occurred to me to hire an orchestrator/other-experienced-person for educational purposes, that's not expicitly a teacher. I'll definitely look into that in the future.



Hey Wibben! I'm an orchestrator and although I should probably be saying 'Hire me!' I think I can save you some money!  

The reality is that the orchestration on these tracks (I'm listening to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8sZIlxHFqU) isn't terribly complex. The orchestra is mostly moving in block chords with the odd melody line or arpeggiation in the strings. This kind of writing is actually very formulaic and you can pick it up quite quickly. I'll explain why.

When writing low powerful chords for symphony orchestra you have to obey the harmonic series (if you don't have it memorised - do it, it's not hard! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_s ... 28music%29 ). This is physics - straying too far from this voicing will create a muddy and ineffective sound. Therefore, you simply lay out your instruments according to this series. Whether you look at scores by Beethoven, Bruckner, John Barry or Lorne Balfe I promise you they will all write low chords following this formula.

This is a handy guide for scoring low chords in each inversion: https://cinesamples.com/file/productFil ... vl49ic.pdf (look at the last page). Although it says it's for quiet chords, it will work for ff writing just as well.

Move these chords through the common trailer progressions ( iv IV I V / IV V vi iii etc.), make your violas move between two chord tones, give your choir a soaring melody and you're on the way to this sound.

I don't mean to make it sound simple because there is a lot of skill required (especially at the mixing stage) to create this sound. I just want to point out the underlying theory that I hope will open up this world a bit more to you.


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## Wibben (Apr 27, 2015)

This is very interesting, Matt! Thank you for your tips!

Do you have any suggestion for where I might find examples of how to use the Harmonic Series while orchestrating? The Wikipedia article confused me a bit, but I think I'm getting the gist, after some lite Youtube-ing 

Another thing I've noticed in the Phenomena record is that they seem to have an endless supply of Violins, as sometimes the violins are doubling the melody very loudly, but the the violin spiccato is still chugging along.. so might be they've layered multiple recordings? Or perhaps it's a mixing trick, pumping the 2nd Violins in those parts?

The Horns seem to move around freely in the stereo field as well, or I'm just not experienced enough to recognize the other brass instruments in the thick mix


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## Richard Wilkinson (Apr 27, 2015)

You might be hearing Trombones if they're off to the right, maybe? I've heard the trombones occasionally doubling the F. Horn melodies in some trailer tracks.


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