An awfully interesting question about “INSTRUMENTS COMBINATI

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Nestor
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Post by Nestor »

Well, for me, it is a very intricate and important part of the compositional process to choose the right instruments for the right song. This is not as obvious as it may sound due to the fact that we have at hand, tens of thousands of possible sounds to perform with: standalone virtual instruments, VST synths and others, Pulsar Synths, all kind of samples, natural instruments, special FXs and so forth, to be combine and included in a song.

I would like for you to suggest groups of instruments YOU would like together!

I wouldn’t like to ask it under any kind of style restriction, i.e. for the use of a particular kind of music. Rather, you would be the one who is going to explain what kind of music your chosen instruments are good for. I’m not asking you to guess, nor to restrict it to what is used in the market or you have heard out there. I would like simply for you to tell us what you like, your personal unique taste!

Think this is exceptionally important, to say the least! The chosen instruments are going to change the way you compose, the outcome of what you compose, the way things are going to HAPPEN and the final stereo master as well… no doubt.

If this is not enough for you to get convinced of the extreme importance of “which” instruments you choose when composing, remember that old songs which did not have any effects over the listeners anymore, when played again with different instruments, became hits! Said that, please, get involved and give your ideas to everybody. We are going to learn much about this. I’m going to give mine in a separate post. I nee to think.

A few necessary rules to remember:
1) No more than 7 instruments together
– from two to seven in combination.
2) Explain what your combination is for – give a clear, concise description of what you would do with it.

Thank guys, for your participation :smile:
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alfonso
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Post by alfonso »

a bit hard...but maybe a general rule for me is that instruments together must play a different role, also timbral...

for example i hate acoustic (folk) guitar and acoustic piano together...

two acoustic guitars are ok, as they can be heard as a single instrument...in this case is good they have a different tone, so they mix better when in similar ranges...

it's a bit like in cooking...(i like cooking)
if you make a dish with some vegetable that sweetens the taste, like big peppers (we call them peperoni), is good to have some contrast and let the peppers bring the sweet
in it, so some fish or some cheese will be ok...but if you add a different shape of sweetness, like adding carots, they will fight with the peppers and turn something nice to a crappy thing....

this way, a piano is fantastic with a saxophone, but add an acoustic guitar and depth and perspective are lost...

saxophone is like butter, piano is like bread...you cant add fried potatoes(acoustic guitar). but a slice of cheese (trumpet) can be very good...

mmm getting hungry....
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Nestor
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Post by Nestor »

Exelent explanation Alfonso, very useful concepts there…

Anyway, there is a matter of loudness too, I’ve not thought about, cos you can mix in fact any instrument the way you want once is recorded, through your channel strips. But now that makes me think the real thing, if you want to reproduce some real sounding instruments atmospheres, would be that every instrument has, more an less, the loudness that corresponds to it’s natural loudness. I have to think about that… there is much to think about… Cheers…

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-01-31 22:29 ]</font>
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Nestor
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Post by Nestor »

BTW: which instruments did you use in your famous Penthotal song?
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alfonso
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Post by alfonso »

On 2003-01-31 22:31, Nestor wrote:
BTW: which instruments did you use in your famous Penthotal song?
i play an acoustic ovation elite, for the solo part, together with my friend salvatore who plays a classical takamine. then we added some anx1 (if i remember the name of the synth, it's my friend's one), all recorded without click, by hand. a lot of the atmosphere is given by the fact that the guitars are recorded live with rode nt2 mics placed in a common home room with open windows in a hot summer afternoon in Napoli.

the name penthotal comes from our sensation of altered perception, due to the smell of flowers(you can guess wich... :wink: ) and the extreme truthness of inspiration, as it was recorded in a couple of hours, with no doubts, on a chord progression found in few minutes, the solo totally improvised on it, and the synth too, and as you can hear the mix too is a rough mix, but sharing that spirit and the moment, so any other mix wouldn't be so effective, not being part of the same creative process.
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Nestor
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Post by Nestor »

Where can I find the plug-in “A Summer Afternoon in Naples”? :lol: just kidding... It's a great song indeed.
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