What's new

My mortal attempt to imitate John Williams

@José Herring do you want the video to walk through my track and talk about some tips/tricks along the way or a video just about some tips/tricks I've learned/am learning?
 
@José Herring do you want the video to walk through my track and talk about some tips/tricks along the way or a video just about some tips/tricks I've learned/am learning?
Thanks for asking. I'm going to get personal but not in a negative way.

I perceived that you are young and that you are new to this. Us older dudes, me for example, got locked into a way of thinking about samples because the libraries we used were so limited that they could only do X,Y,Z well. I would Never Ever attempt to do a Williams style anything with samples beyond just a an experiment.

But, then some younger dude who doesn't have those limitations in mind, sets out and does a bang up job on it.

So basically I would compare the ideas I have vs. the ideas of somebody who isn't jaded has.

Personally tips and tricks videos are useless to me. What is useful is why you made the decisions you did and how the patches choices effected that decision or how the decision were influenced by the patch. Then breaking down the mockup section by section.
 
I'll make it pretty easy for you, it was pretty much all HWO (everything gold, except strings which are diamond). Choirs are Fryeja and Olympus elements, and then I layered JXL trombones a3 to add some bite to the longs and provide some tighter shorts (HWB bones have very loose staccatos).

As of right now my workflow is messy so there isn't a whole lot to share, but I will say that those quick strings and winds at the end are pre-recorded runs, and I timed them up to make sure they hit the top and bottom notes at the same time. The rest of the woodwind runs are pre-recorded ones as well. I also used the trumpets triple tongue patch in combination with the staccatisimo patch to create those quick lines. In general HWO has always been my main (and for the most part only) orchestral library, so I've learned a lot of little tricks that add realism.

Hope that helps!
Excellent work; makes me stick to my trusty 'old' Hollywood libraries even more ... at least for the more serious jobs, hehe ...
 
This mockup could probably destroy the entire black friday economy of this industry. Congrats!

I'm more interested to know if this was orchestrated and played directly within your DAW or if you worked this out on paper/notation first before reaching for the samples.
 
This mockup could probably destroy the entire black friday economy of this industry. Congrats!

I'm more interested to know if this was orchestrated and played directly within your DAW or if you worked this out on paper/notation first before reaching for the samples.
Hahaha thank you!

All done inside Cubase, no paper/notation beforehand. Probably should learn to do that at some point, but for me it is a far less enjoyable way to write.
 
Hahaha thank you!

All done inside Cubase, no paper/notation beforehand. Probably should learn to do that at some point, but for me it is a far less enjoyable way to write.
Have you studied music, or interval theory? Or is that just all instinct/ears?
You're very talented either way, but if you did that with no music theory study, that
is damn impressive.
 
Have you studied music, or interval theory? Or is that just all instinct/ears?
You're very talented either way, but if you did that with no music theory study, that
is damn impressive.
Thank you, it's all instinct/ears. I've played piano and can read sheet music fairly well, so I have a backround in that sense, but besides that, just using my ear.
 
WOW @sIR dORT this is excellent!! John Williams is my inspiration as well and I have tried to emulate him a little bit with minimal success. Your composition reminds me of Anakin vs Obi Wan.

I use the East West HWO Gold as well, and when I have done runs I have programmed them in using the playable runs patch. The one thing I don't like though is that the strings keyswitch patches are pretty useless, and you are forced to put all articulations on separate tracks in Studio One. I prefer keyswitching and fewer tracks. However, in my latest piece, I bit the bullet and just used a ton of tracks:

It sounds as though your HWO pre-recorded runs give you the classic John Williams harmonic minor ups and downs, but maybe I just can't tell because they are so fast. I'd love a video tutorial on how you did this!
 
WOW @sIR dORT this is excellent!! John Williams is my inspiration as well and I have tried to emulate him a little bit with minimal success. Your composition reminds me of Anakin vs Obi Wan.

I use the East West HWO Gold as well, and when I have done runs I have programmed them in using the playable runs patch. The one thing I don't like though is that the strings keyswitch patches are pretty useless, and you are forced to put all articulations on separate tracks in Studio One. I prefer keyswitching and fewer tracks. However, in my latest piece, I bit the bullet and just used a ton of tracks:

It sounds as though your HWO pre-recorded runs give you the classic John Williams harmonic minor ups and downs, but maybe I just can't tell because they are so fast. I'd love a video tutorial on how you did this!

Thanks Josh! That piece definitely inspired this one quite a bit.

Your track here is great, I really liked it! I agree about the keyswitch patches in HWO, they aren't the best, but I actually prefer laying out each individual articulation in Cubase to using expression maps or keyswtiches just because they give me more control and the ability to combine articulations (this is the @Blakus strategy). But I think you can still get a good sound from keyswitches.

I know people around here sometimes hate the "it works well in the mix" idea, but with those runs, that's exactly what's happening, because if I remember correctly they're natural minor (with a bit of a sliding/portamento feel) not harmonic. I'm sorry to say I don't think I can do a video right now (I'm at school), but if you have any questions just pm me and I can flesh it out a bit.
 
Thanks for your input! Yeah, having the articulations on separate tracks does give you more control, but what a mess of chopped up tracks. So hard to find your way around after a while.
 
Top Bottom