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Hybrid Orchestra

Phillip996

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How do you guys go about creating hybrid music? Do you use dedicated libraries or create those sounds yourself? I have been interested in making some music that isn't strictly orchestral, but have no idea where to begin.
 
How do you guys go about creating hybrid music? Do you use dedicated libraries or create those sounds yourself? I have been interested in making some music that isn't strictly orchestral, but have no idea where to begin.

Mostly I make the synth sounds myself with a combination of hardware and VSTs.

Depends what kind of hybrid sound you're thinking of, but there are some really wonderful libraries that straddle the line between synthesized sound and real-instrument samples -- check out Rhythmic Robot's Cloud Chamber, Crank, and Steampunk. Spitfire's Glass and Steel is a nice one -- it starts with a lot of, well, glass and steel samples, which you can access directly, but it also turns them into a lot of processed textures. (I think Spitfire also offers processed orchestral sounds with each of its Albion line.) Or, if you can still find them, the absolutely incredible libraries by Mk6, who went on to bigger and better things.

Coming from the other end, there's also Indiginus's mostly-synthesized orchestra, Solid State Symphony. I haven't experimented with this as much as I should, but it's definitely the kind of thing you could layer into orchestral sounds to make them a little weirder.

(But my music tends toward the quirky and experimental -- if you're looking more for Zimmer/braaam-type stuff, I know there are libraries for that, but I'd have a hard time pointing you to them.)
 
Mostly I make the synth sounds myself with a combination of hardware and VSTs.
Depends what kind of hybrid sound you're thinking of, but there are some really wonderful libraries ….. Spitfire's Glass and Steel is a nice one -- it starts with a lot of, well, glass and steel samples, which you can access directly, but it also turns them into a lot of processed textures. (I think Spitfire also offers processed orchestral sounds with each of its Albion line.)
Coming from the other end, there's also Indiginus's mostly-synthesized orchestra, Solid State Symphony. I haven't experimented with this as much as I should, but it's definitely the kind of thing you could layer into orchestral sounds to make them a little weirder.

Many thanks for tip on Indiginus' Solid State Symphony (and very affordable Lite version)
Have some Albions, and Glass & Steel which fit right in with your advices. :thumbsup:

Regards
 



Music like this somewhat what I want to make. I don't have any kind of synths at all. I was wondering if people put all kinds of effects on string/brass sounds themselves and created their own sound, or if people used sample libraries for that. I am pretty noob at all this. Any software synths that is good for this kind of stuff? I liked the rhytmic robot's you linked.
 
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OP, I'm not sure of your skill level or budget, so forgive me if this is too basic or more than you need, but:

1) If you want to stick to Kontakt libraries, I agree with Ryan 99: Heavyocity is good. I only have their Vocalise, but it's really terrific -- you can get both pure vocal sounds and highly processed, synthetic sounds. NOVO Strings is expensive, but it might be really good for what you want to do, because these examples involve some processed strings. Output libraries are also really geared toward this kind of thing. (EDIT: One more thought -- the Gothic Instruments DRONAR series is well-regarded and pretty affordable.)

2) You'll want to get comfortable with effects. Certain effects plugins can really mess up some orchestral samples and give them a very weird flavor. I highly recommend the Soundtoys line of effects -- they go on sale a lot and can do both basic and very odd effects. Audiority is another good one. And Arturia makes several really great filters -- their Mini-Filter is tough to master, but even just the presets will give you a bunch of very weird tempo-synced effects.

3) A lot of these effects could also be done with basic tools that come with your DAW. The second track, for example, appears to me to be primarily just an electric piano (or maybe an EP patch in an FM synthesizer), tremolo strings, and a ton of reverb. (Probably some kind of weird modulated reverb.) I use Logic as my DAW, and all those things are available with the DAW -- a very nice electric piano, a tremolo orchestral strings patch, and a really great space-modeling reverb. Or there are inexpensive libraries/VST's that would provide the same thing. And the nice thing about doing this kind of hybrid stuff is that you don't need the very-very-very best orchestral library, because you're going to process the sound anyway.

(Sidebar: if you absolutely don't know where to start, there's a VST called XPand!2 that includes a bunch of orchestral sounds that I probably wouldn't use by themselves for realism, because they sound like (and probably are) patches from a '90s ROMpler. But as a starting point for sonic experimentation, why not? Plus it also includes a bunch of synth sounds -- some silly, some decent. XPand!2 is presently $63 at Plugin Boutique but frequently goes on sale for $1.)

4) Finally, because there are indeed some synths (and synthesized drums) on these tracks, it would probably be helpful to you to learn a bit of basic synthesis theory. This series of videos is often recommended, even though it's quite cheesy and old-fashioned, because it really does cover the basics very well. In addition to whatever comes with your DAW, there are some absolutely killer free synths -- my favorite is u-he Tyrell-N6. You could also look into hybrid synths that do more complicated forms of synthesis like granular and FM -- again, Logic has a killer one called Alchemy, and Omnisphere, though expensive (~500), is the industry standard for synth apps. Actually, either of those would probably keep you busy for years and would work very well in these kinds of hybrid tracks.

(Sidebar 2: if you're not ready to pay for the top-of-the-line synth VSTs, but you have an iPad or an iPhone, there are a BUNCH of fun, great-sounding, and very inexpensive synth apps. You can get everything from highly realistic re-creations of classic Moog synths -- try Moog's own Model D app -- to mindblowing new-fangled sound design tools. Really easy to do great stuff with just an iPad these days.)

Hope that's enough to get you started. Have fun exploring!
 
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I often make tracks similar to the Silent Hill example you posted. My advice is to really learn synthesis, particularly how to create subtle ambience, as that will end up being more important than anything else.

Whereas a lot of hybrid and orchestral music is focused on melody and rhythm, hybrid ambient is about timbre and tone. Learn how to evolve sounds and create your own patches. Record your own sounds and manipulate them in a sampler. Modulate things to achieve subtle movement. And so on.

The orchestral samples can be anything from the cheesiest 90's pcm to the latest Spitfire whatever, it wholly depends on the effect you're trying to achieve.
 
Silent Hill (Yamaoka) used a lot of loops in the soundtracks, just so you know. Here's a huge thread pointing to actual samples and libraries/companies (Zero-G, etc.):
https://silenthillforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=16347

Also, McCann [XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Deus Ex, Splinter Cell] (by extension from Tim Wynn), from what I've seen, uses a lot of acoustic sounds which he processes extensively. Specifically, I've seen him mention using the Absynth FX section to process some organic sounds, use long time-stretching, generous amounts of fx and found sounds.

Love that stuff. Generally, it's a mix of synthy sounds, organic sounds and heavy processing (sampling, time stretching, effecting/processing). Stuff like Omnisphere, Heavyocity, Glitchmachines and Zero-G would be a good place to start. Maybe UVI, too. Their Vintage Vault would be a nice source for a different/more old-sounding flavor. But in the end, I think making your own approach in making/processing sounds with effects and coming up with your own sounds (or the source sounds) will benefit you (or just mash stuff together and see what happens).
 

Music like this somewhat what I want to make.

Hopefully not as generic. :whistling:

Goldsmith wrote "hybrid" music 50 years ago, with weird instruments like Blaster Beam for Star Trek or various synths from Rambo to Total Recall. For "modern" hybrid music you need any kind of a good synth + strings, brass and percussion libraries. Buy something like Albion One + Zebra or Omnisphere and that's basically it if you don't want to spend more money. Grab Native Instrument's free Reactor, Guitar Rig and similar stuff so you have some more sounds and effects. If you want to process your sounds a lot buy some specialized multi effects plugins like those from Sugar Bytes.

And most importantly, buy some Mike Verta classes so your compositions are worth something. :laugh: (Seriously, Mike should start to paying me for this. :roflmao:) Jokes aside buy Structure, Theminator and The Mod Squad. Before you buy anything else. Don't be like the rest of us who spent all their money on all those great libraries just to figure out we cannot compose one minute of decent meaningful music. :rofl:
 
Hi, thanks for all the replies. I already have pretty expensive sample libraries from spitfire, Orchestral tools etc. Although none of the libraries like Albion, metropolis or any kind of epic library.

It seems to me that starting by learning synthesis is what I have to do. I have previously heard of omnisphere, and thinking maybe I should start there.

And getting familiar with effects. I realize now that composition like this is a lot of sound design rather than strictly composing.

The Mike Verta classes looks pretty comprehensive and at a reasonable price. I will definitely check them out.

Thanks for making such lengthy replies :O
 
Although none of the libraries like Albion, metropolis or any kind of epic library.
You don't need that. You can get big sound by layering, orchestration, eq, compression and reverb, even without epic super-fff articulations and stuff.

It seems to me that starting by learning synthesis is what I have to do. I have previously heard of omnisphere, and thinking maybe I should start there.
It helps but libraries now have so many presets you can a lot of time just tweak those. Depends on how much control over your synth sounds you want.

And getting familiar with effects. I realize now that composition like this is a lot of sound design rather than strictly composing.
Yea, it can be that. If you want to sound unique, you'll sound design a lot.

The Mike Verta classes looks pretty comprehensive and at a reasonable price. I will definitely check them out.
Wait for some 40% off sale. Mike makes them quite often. Believe me, those videos are way more important then any synth, effect or sample library.
 
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