Orchestral Intro #3
By NWSPR on January 23, 2022 11:58 pm
This one became an unwieldy beast in the final hours before uploading.
I'm playing around with a more cinematic approach based on many layers of monophonic synths in different ranges to create polyphony similar to a traditional orchestra. There are about eight layers of Moog Grandmother and M32 and six layers of Pro One. During recording I manually detuned the oscillators to the rhythm and discovered that volume swells manually played on the lower Moogs create a really great bow effect making the synths sound more like strings.
Most of the individual tracks are analog synths manually played but in the middle I added some BBC string samples and piano to add some percussive quality to the droning synths. Also some white noise mixed in from the Pro One. In total, 28 tracks and admittedly I got lost and started to have trouble mixing and keeping track. So as a goof I ended on a different vibe.
The two best things I learned technique-wise were manual rhythmic detuning and volume swells as live expressive controllers that brought the synths to life. This is also the first time I've run the entire mix through a single stereo reverb patch. I know that is common but not for me but seemed appropriate for this composition. Sounds really cool but I feel like I lost some distinctiveness in the stereo delay effects so it was a trade off.
Thanks for listening!
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)
