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Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo - Mock-up

alexballmusic

Active Member
A complete re-recording of Bernard Herrmann's iconic main theme from "Vertigo" (1958), realised with virtual instruments. Spitfire are supposedly releasing a specific Herrmann collaboration, but in the meantime, these sounds work well. What do you think?

Sounds used:
Strings: Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings
Brass: Cinesamples Cinebrass Core and Cinebrass PRO
Woodwinds: Spitfire Audio Symphonic Woodwinds
Percussion: Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion
Organ: Sound Dust Hammr+
Harps: Orchestral Tools Symphonic Sphere & Kontakt Factory Harp

Sequencer: Cubase 6
FX: Mixed in using Izotope Vinyl, U-he Satin, Waves, T-racks

 
A complete re-recording of Bernard Herrmann's iconic main theme from "Vertigo" (1958), realised with virtual instruments. Spitfire are supposedly releasing a specific Herrmann collaboration, but in the meantime, these sounds work well. What do you think?

Sounds used:
Strings: Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings
Brass: Cinesamples Cinebrass Core and Cinebrass PRO
Woodwinds: Spitfire Audio Symphonic Woodwinds
Percussion: Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion
Organ: Sound Dust Hammr+
Harps: Orchestral Tools Symphonic Sphere & Kontakt Factory Harp

Sequencer: Cubase 6
FX: Mixed in using Izotope Vinyl, U-he Satin, Waves, T-racks




Very well done! I enjoyed it very much. Nice video walk through and tape effect.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Rhythmically a bit rigid, needs some humanising. Good luck.

Thanks Phillip. I did some tempo fluctuations and didn't quantise everything. Doubled the harp and celeste up with a real piano to try and give more human touch. Will keep working more on that side of things.
 
@alexballmusic Congratulations! Great score, great mockup! Love the added notations calling out chords and orchestration changes. The whole package of mockup and notations creates a very, very compelling video. I would love to see more like this!

Thanks very much. Yeah, think it's always interesting to break things down into the fundamental harmony. You can get miles of material from just a min(maj7) chord. It's mystery in a box!
 
Truly loved it - particularly the woodwinds - spot on!

Cheers.

Yeah, Spitfire winds, really nimble I find. Have you got them?

I actually used just the close mics, which sounded slighty odd on their own but sound most like the original recording when in the mix. Was quite an interesting discovery for that more vintage sound - close mics and some wow and flutter.
 
Cheers.

Yeah, Spitfire winds, really nimble I find. Have you got them?

I actually used just the close mics, which sounded slighty odd on their own but sound most like the original recording when in the mix. Was quite an interesting discovery for that more vintage sound - close mics and some wow and flutter.

For even more vintage-y mixing you could try narrowing the stereo field of the winds altogether, and panning the strings quite harshly to the left/right using the close mics.
 
For even more vintage-y mixing you could try narrowing the stereo field of the winds altogether, and panning the strings quite harshly to the left/right using the close mics.

Now you say that, when I listen to the original that's hit the nail on the head. It's more like mono stems panned around to make stereo, rather than individual sections being in stereo.

Thanks for the tip!
 
Wow brilliant, thanks so much for posting. Love it. This is such amazing music. Never tire of it.
Wow this must have taken so much time. I bet you learned loads.

Really appreciate you posting, and thanks so much for the notes and the chord symbols, really really useful. (I think more scores should do this).

Re the sound, it's pretty good overall, I think the strings may be the weakest, a little thin/straight? And if one was getting even more picky, perhaps more dynamic range between soft and loud passages (this just from memory), and perhaps a bit more tempo variation / looseness. But overall great work. I've always thought I'd love to mock up a few Hermann pieces, but getting the time is difficult (and it would take a LOT of time for me!). Thanks again.

PS Yes, that Neil Brand series of 3 programmes on film music is brilliant. Seen it a couple of times. He also has a series of three on the history of musicals which is surprising good as well.
 
Wow brilliant, thanks so much for posting. Love it. This is such amazing music. Never tire of it.
Wow this must have taken so much time. I bet you learned loads.

Really appreciate you posting, and thanks so much for the notes and the chord symbols, really really useful. (I think more scores should do this).

Re the sound, it's pretty good overall, I think the strings may be the weakest, a little thin/straight? And if one was getting even more picky, perhaps more dynamic range between soft and loud passages (this just from memory), and perhaps a bit more tempo variation / looseness. But overall great work. I've always thought I'd love to mock up a few Hermann pieces, but getting the time is difficult (and it would take a LOT of time for me!). Thanks again.

PS Yes, that Neil Brand series of 3 programmes on film music is brilliant. Seen it a couple of times. He also has a series of three on the history of musicals which is surprising good as well.

Thanks for the feedback. That's useful to hear.

Was trying to get the strings to sound bitey and like the original, maybe pushed it a little far with close mics. I'm using chamber strings too, which are fantastic but a small ensemble. Wonder if bigger sections might have sounded a bit better.

It's funny with the tempo and looseness because a couple of comments say the same thing. I actually dropped the original recording into the sequencer and then traced the tempo of it so that mine drifted pretty-much identically, but that's clearly not coming across. Maybe should have done my own tempo and exaggerated it a bit more so it "breathed" a bit more. Vsts aren't going to behave exactly the same as real players after all.

Maybe when Spitfire release they're Herrmann collaboration I'll give it another pass and see if I can get it perfect. Certainly learned a lot from playing around with it. Was inspired to do so by Neil Brand after seeing his segment on it.

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. Good to get other ears on it!
 
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