Live Musicians
As mentioned elsewhere I’m a big proponent of live musicians. Sample libraries are getting better and better and have their use, but for most instrumentation I think it’s better to use live instruments for a number of reasons, including:
To avoid ones music sounding generic (using sample libraries that lots of other composers also use)
When working with a musician who understands their instruments technical capabilities, more ideas of how to play a part, or additional techniques you didn’t know about and creative ideas can present themselves while working with the musician. Traditionally, with classical composers, you hear stories of how for example a composer working on a violin concerto would consult a violinist throughout the process, so it’s not new and I think more relevant than ever now with film scoring.
The amount of nuanced subtleties a musician can control from one split second to the next are virtually infinate. Some sample libraries these days can control amount of vibrato, dynamics, maybe even bow direction, some other things like changing to sul pont (bowing close to the bridge of the instrument) and differences in articulations. That is only a very crude fraction of what a real violinist has in their toolbox. For example, if we just look at vibrato, a violinist can vary the style of vibrato, the speed, the width of the vibrato, whether it’s a continuous vibrato or if it comes in and out and how it comes in and out, just to name a few things. You can listen to Perlman and Vengerov and Menuhin and they all have their own styles, they can play the same exact note and sound worlds apart.
Let’s not kill music by exclusively sitting in front of computers. Let’s respect the incredible artistry and technical acheivement of musicians and support them by hiring them. A doctor starts their education in college. A musician who really masters a difficult instrument like the violin often starts their education and hours of daily practice as a kid. Okay this point might be a little unfair and get me some angry comments, but you get the point I’m making. I used to have a community chamber orchestra, and was talking to a fellow composer, telling him that I’m off to my orchestra reherasal, and he made a comment about being glad he doesn’t have to deal with real musicians sitting in front of his sample libraries…ARRGGGHHH that comment didn’t help me respect him.
It educates you as a composer. If you’re a composer, try to be a professional in that field. Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t yet, but take the challenge to continually educate yourself. I’ve found that composers who spend all their time working on a MIDI keyboard develop a bit of a disconnect between the realities and technical capabilities and limits of an instrument. With a sample library whatever notes you press, however you press them, they’ll play back that note. However the realities of an actual musician playing a real instrument are different, there’s so much to learn. For example I’ve seen an arpeggiated part written for violin that would be 100% impossible to play, no matter how talented the violinist, which I helped rearranged to have the proper string crossings and chord inversions to work. Or you might write very soft woodwind parts in the highest register of a flute, and not realize what a challenge that is to a real flautist (possible but comes with challenges), or there are certain notes are impractical to trill (like write a fast low B to C trill for a flautist and see what happens).
The Expense of Live Recording
Live recording is expensive, I can’t afford it! Okay, yea it can be, however I’ve found that my appreciation of the value of live musicians led me to be creative about how to get live musicians.
One technique is called sweetening, which is when you use sample libraries and record just one or few musicians over it doubling the samples. Like if you need a big string section sound, but the LA Phil said they’re not interested, using good samples and then having 1 violinist and 1 cellist overdub multiple takes over the samples can be a good compromise.
On festival films I was surprised to find out that the Musicians Union has incredibly affordable rates and the musicians are usually happy to take the work. The benefit of this approach is, at least in a city like Los Angeles, you can get the top, A list studio musicians — and I can’t overstate how talented these folks are.
One of the first film scores I did was a passion project that I didn’t get paid anything for but I really needed a live violinist, so I asked a violinist from the orchestra I played and he was happy to do it. I offered him $100 of my own money but he wouldn’t take it no matter how hard I tried.
Some resources for musicians I’ve found helpful:
I went to a student recital at a local, high-level music conservatory. One of the students impressed me so much — her playing not only being technically flawless but her artistry set her apart from all the other musicians. I introduced myself after the concert, told her I’m a composer and started hiring her for recording session.
Fiverr. Yup. The benefit of fiverr is you can find musicians from all parts of the world playing all sorts of instruments and often very affordably. The downside is you don’t know for sure what the quality will be until you work with a particular musician on there. I have, however, had good experiences, I needed balalaika, found a balalaika player in Russia, he sounded great. Needed clarinet, found a clarinet player in france who sounded fantastic. Recorded a harpist in Argentina that also turned out beautiful and was very affordable. If you can record locally, support your musicians, but if there isn’t the budget for it, this could be a resourse.
Musiversal. Musivesal is subscription service that allows you to record “unlimited” recording sessions per month. I used the quotation markes because realistically it’s not unlimited but one wouldn’t really expect that to be possible. However for the price, it can end up quite a bit less than it would cost to hire musicians normally would, depending on how much one records per month. In my case I record live on a weekly basis, often more than once a week. My suggestion with Musiversal is to find the musicians who’s playing you like and you you like to work with. I don’t work with all the musicians on there, but have found quite a few who I love recording with. They also do do a great job of continually hiring more musicians and the musicians I’ve hired were all very friendly and great to work with. You can check them out here, and save 25% on the first 3 months: Musiversal
For orchestral recordings or full string section recordings I’ve found that Budapest Scoring is great and they have a shared session system that works very well. Basically it allows one to book just half our slots which they say you can record up to 5 mins of music in (depending on the complexity of the music). I believe a 40 piece strings section for half an hour is only $899. That’s incredibly affordable, considering you get 40 professional musicians, a conductor, a studio, engineer and protools operator. For a full symphonic orchestra including strings, woodwinds, brass, harp and percussion it’s $1,165 for the half an hour. They also offer videography of the session so you have footage that you can use. I also have experience with a couple other similar orchestras in other parts of Europe but my experience is that Budapest is the best out of the ones I’ve tried. I base that on musicianship, and also the conductor, engineer and protools op being attentive and helpful, in dialogue with one while recording. Vienna I know also has a great orchestra but I haven’t personally worked with them since they are pricier than Budapest.
