Writing an Emotional Piece in 30 Minutes with Eric Whitacre Choir

hi guys oliver here from spitfire audio in this video I want to do something slightly different I'm gonna do a live composition right here with you so many times I'm being asked by producers directors agencies for TV adverts etc to produce a score or a track that is emotional but then also it's gonna be there in a couple of hours so what do you do I've got a few tips and tricks that I use might be different for everyone else and be great if you guys shared your ideas as well but I thought it'd be perfect to demonstrate it with our Eric Whitacre choir because what is more emotional than a human voice and we've recorded in a way here evolutions I'm not sure if you heard of those these are pre-recorded phrases it stays in the same pitch of course what the pitch that you desire but the articulations change the dynamics change etc and it just gives a feel of amazing realism and emotion however I've made some notes here what I pay attention to when having to write a quick track and I'm gonna try to write a quick track I want to just first talk about these points here so don't overcomplicate yourself basically this is not the moment to try and be Beethoven or Mozart I think just simple things focus on what you need to do and your job maybe a dialog etc find your voice and style I think of course as long as it allows it if you need to write to temp track maybe that it's not the best time to bring in your voice and style but even then I guess you have opportunities to bring in your own maybe signature chord changes or kind of sounds that you use number 3 and that's a big one for me and I imagine for everyone don't judge your composition or idea let it flow so don't you know many times I go like and it might be like ah I don't want this you know you know and that's kind of almost like a writer's block so what I'm trying to do is getting an idea down let it be how it is and maybe later I revisit it and I change it around number four I think use beautiful sounds it refers to point number one you know don't over complicate yourself don't try and reinvent the wheel it's hard to write technically or orchestrates on a level that maybe you know people like Stravinsky have already done but what we have here is a whole new bunch of instruments technology of sounds dies that we have right under our fingertips so let's use them and try to be creative with what we have so I've made a template here and I think that's one of the most important things actually and basically what i did is i'm using eric whitacre choir because that's the purpose of the demonstration and then i've used some other sounds mainly albion neo and some other of my favorite sounds I'm just gonna take you through as I'm gonna do the composition so basically I want to start it off with Eric Whitacre choir here and basically I went in here I'm gonna use two T so I'm mainly gonna use two T patches basically means the whole choir or the whole ensemble is right on my fingertip laid out on the keyboard here so I don't have to worry where my Sopranos where are my bases where does the violin sit etc so you have it nicely mixed for you and it's gonna sound balanced and nice so if you load up this patch here evolutions as I mentioned pre-recorded phrases special these precios come up here and they're very inspirational [Music] just absolutely fantastic and already these free courts you can do a whole lot with those if we just have a fluctuating use as well so it does a little more [Music] and I mean with these sounds you are you are sorted in terms of emotion it's just pure beauty I also have like these kind of go to courts if I'm being asked this kind of task like emotional quick kind of yeah my quick go to courts I like to write an F minor and then if you just go to step down in the minor scale here if minor E flat major D flat major [Music] it already sounds super nice or maybe a GoSee minor some flak g-minor [Music] if minor [Music] it's also nice maybe we offer clumsy change the last one but you get you get what I mean so I think I'm just gonna lay down some stuff and start composing I'm gonna comment a little bit and I'm gonna try to do it I guess as fast as possible while trying and and keeping it nice my tempo is hundreds I think it's a nice it's an emotional tempo so kind of down not too slow but also not an upbeat tempo I'm gonna just actually use what I've used before so C minor G minor F I think I've used and then maybe from there try something else [Music] that's lovely okay I think I've got it here so [Music] again [Music] [Music] and again [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] okay I think that's enough rounds two minutes and you get the idea it's kind of um it goes in circles it goes around it's emotional this may be perfectly suitable for an underscore it implies a little bit of a melody which I will enhance here I play with both hands so I've got a program quickly this one here dynamics very important with our libraries so that's how you breathe life into our patches and you realized here I left like little breaks there so I think with singers it's nice to create these waves of quartz if you will I've got a second patch here just in case I guess I can maybe thin out a little bit my voicings here to not have everything exactly the same maybe that here as well mmm actually maybe here they come in did it the wrong way around so maybe bring in a bit of a bass notes here and then also if you want to keep it light and prepare for a big change don't play the root note right on the bottom yet so it's still a little bit up in the air which kind of color in which chords you're going for and it helps with the build up I believe so here I'm playing in D and not G and here instead of an E flat apply a G as well [Music] [Music] and then we can dig into their bass notes [Music] it's actually here in the end I'm gonna play an E flat you know up there have you turn the volume up little bits of those bases so let's call that bass so that's a very soft base there I'm later on I'm gonna bring in I think a bit of a heavier bass I've loaded up here here are some bases dynamics well again that's an evolution as well and this is just so rich and beautiful lovely I'm actually just gonna put that in here let me just remind myself what I've played here okay I see one doing here [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in the last quart [Music] here I held on a little bit too long I think it's better to stop with the rest here as well so maybe turning up little bits here so and then here when I want to do a change here I think so not have the breathy use I'm just gonna cut this here split and take this here I've loaded up some aleatory ah so ours are usually a little bit more powerful within the vocals [Music] this is really cool so it's like this wonderful effect of like things are being passed around this is just so wonderfully orchestrated and produced by Eric Whitacre let's see how this works actually before I'm gonna play it back to you again I'm gonna add some Evo's here and I'm some really soft gentle Evo's to add a little bit of spark kind of behind my composition so I floated here bubbling and also the Mike position here I'm only using ambient and gallery or as before i'm also using closed mics and the trees to have more definition so that is something very useful within your mix that you can choose a different mic position that it's recorded at air studios in a hole so you have a lot of room to play with choose this kind of drone like sound I'm just gonna lay this down [Music] you know what and then also not to make you to listen to the whole thing again I'm gonna just here play this all the way through we'll worry about the dynamics here later maybe just do something a little bit random for the moment so it's not repetitive because obviously if I play it for two minutes we didn't record two minutes of it these Evo's I'm not sure maybe around 20-30 seconds and then it becomes a loop obviously so we don't want to hear that rhythmic poses very wonderful I think want to put that in later soprano Evo episodic evolution so it's doing a little more if we have a listen are really lovely so I'm actually gonna [Music] too early that was really I really I was really enjoying this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I think that's just absolutely fantastic I mean I love composing like that it's just pure joy and just a pleasure for the ear let me see this is the same I'm gonna try and do some Auto voices here maybe around here coming in with something [Music] yeah so I'm gonna keep it in until here as well I think it's quite nice making sure it starts there okay cool I think this bit is quite nice oh actually I've got here so this is now Albion 5 and Albion EO a mixture so I'm using here strings B section so I'll be neo the string section is a half basically so you can have a and B together to create the whole string ensemble or just have a smaller section if you have a kind of a smaller more detailed sound so I'm using it only be : e Atrato is when the player plays with the bow with the back of the bow so very soft sound just quickly showing you this just gonna add a little sprinkle right on top where the the singers can't reach basically and then I'm also using Albion Tundra these travelling trams one of my favorites works all the time it's fantastic maybe a little bit more the combination of those sounds something like this and I'm just gonna put this down maybe your aunt's here [Music] [Music] then I'm gonna add some strings here as I was saying before I'll be near the string section was divided here I'm using both Parts A and B to create a large sound I want to use that on the low ends here I'm using salt asta which is heaven on earth kind of sound [Music] something like that's maybe [Music] yeah I think that's how I'm gonna start maybe turn it up a little bit so I can hear what I'm doing gonna start here on my a flat major [Music] [Music] cool okay I think that's fine for the moment I might have to just create these waves I'm doing here a little nicer cool and then strings B I'm using what I'm calling them B it's a bit irritating so maybe two and one here I just want to have a little bit of a stronger sounds here so I have salt a stir but layer with flour tons of Consort so it gives a little bit of a stronger sound because I want to play some low notes there I guess we just turn this up as well [Music] his drinks and it's just so good [Music] cool these are a little too loud now the bends I'm not sure we reckon I can bring them in maybe because it bends from 1/5 up so I can't do a flat and being given a D flat basically I slice up from D flat which will actually I could probably do it here I love that sound again these are just sounds to have floated that I've been playing with Albini Oh recently so I quite like that kind of bends there and that sounds so let's just put that in here [Music] very lovely cool just turn that down a little bit woodwinds I love these long hollow sounds very coral like but it's got a saxophone in there so you hear that brass penis you hear that the reed sound in there which is kind of warm it's almost like a tape saturation within the orchestra itself it sounds also very coral like so I'm not sure where it's gonna add so much maybe I can just give a hint onto the melody here seconds here we go [Music] as a little clumsy they're going to be flats I don't like that maybe I do what the strings to just go to an F there I liked it here you could hear the the timbre of the woodwinds there or I guess the saxophone then the long pulses are quite interesting here on the brass could do something like that [Music] so obviously going to add here dynamics swell up up and die down cool [Music] [Music] just doing some adjustments here I reckon already here makes wise but this shall not be kind of a mixing tutorial I want to show you my approach of writing here which I believe is very interesting to see how everyone has their different approach of doing this so I loaded up here some arpeggios from Albion EO as well again prepared to sound a little bit filter it out how I like to hear it I put a sample delay on it so basically at a later right side a little bit so it sounds like it's coming from both sides I love these Brunel loops on Albania check them out they're absolutely fantastic I mean I think I'm just gonna add a little bit of movements here this for me this is the modern touch so these kind of synthesizer Juno 60-ish kind of sounds very kind of trendy at moments I'd say [Music] cool I quite like that I'm gonna do that until here here I'm planning a change let's see where we have kind of enough time to do this okay here we are then yeah for the change afterwards I've chosen and our Pesci oh that's it's kind of the same thing but spit up let's see [Music] I guess it could work maybe a matter of taste I guess well like pretty much everything there we go I'm just gonna use them for now bring in some movements again I probably wouldn't do it exactly like that's usually but just for a moment maybe a bit of tempo I've loaded some shakers here they're my own from my sample library just because I know them pretty well that could work [Music] quite like that [Music] [Music] [Music] okay there I'm running maybe a little bit into a dead end I need to see how I'm gonna continue this a quiet like the mood I mean it could continue like that really and just the sounds evolving here these are they're already opening up so I might just prolong these Arps and and the shaker loops as well I'll be in one easier Island hits whenever something important is happening with a big change these guys are absolutely fantastic cool hits there floated up some Tycho's because I always liked them but not sure whether I can make them fit [Music] [Music] kind of I could possibly make it work but let's mute them for now the idea is there and then I've got my sup here so I'm gonna add a base and then my sign even lower than this up 60 here Oliver Arnold's tool kids I'm using pretty nice sound [Music] pretty cool so I guess that would be goods here for a change or maybe I could bring it in in this year's load [Music] [Music] cool I'm going to different chords here I believe a flat major okay so I would say I'm gonna finish probably the last bit by myself with the same kind of approach I think you got the idea here why do usually with the sine wave is double this up no modulation because the modulation makes it wobble so that's not necessary and then I'm basically going to pitch this down one octave and double up with a sub 60 there so if you have a subwoofer or big speakers then you can really hear the whole composition shaking so I hope this was insightful for you please check the mix below I'm gonna finish the track and so you can listen what I've added and how I've altered the mix and thank you very much for listening and watching I'll see you in the next one take care bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Spitfire Audio

Views: 85,596

Keywords: Spitfire Audio, Tutorial, VST, Making music, writing, composing, emotional, eric whitacre

Id: e89Xtux6vmo

Length: 37min 17sec (2237 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020