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Enhancing Realism In Orchestral

Samples Part 3 – Percussion

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Enhancing Realism In
Orchestral Samples Part 3 –
Percussion
Part 1 and part 2 of this three part series dealt with the
melodic instruments of the orchestra of strings, winds and
brass and here we are in the final part of the series talking
about percussion.
Percussion instruments are all about the rhythm. There are
A LOT OF THEM and I do mean A LOT. They come in
different sizes, materials, even different mallets or sticks;
you name it. There are even pitched melodic percussion
like tube bells, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba,
glockenspiel, celeste… There are wooden and metal
percussion instruments as well.

The possibilities are endless and the percussion section is

the foundation of the big cinematic sound and all those
heart-pumping action scenes you see in the movies.
Remember that cue from Man Of Steel by Hans Zimmer?
That’s the power of percussion. Let’s dive in.

THE RANGE:
Percussion instruments are mostly unpitched, i.e. they don’t
produce playable notes but there are exceptions. Tube
bells, timpani, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone,
xylophone and celeste (even though it has keys) are
considered as tonal percussive instruments. In other words,
they can play a melody.

For more information on tonal ranges of percussion

instruments, visit Vienna Symphonic Library.

THE SEATING:
The percussion section sits in the back of the orchestra but
there are no particular rules when it comes to positioning.
They are usually spread out in the back and there is no
special seating place for each instrument in the section. It
usually depends on the size of the scoring stage or the
desires of the composer and the mixing engineer. They are
usually grouped depending on the type of material or size
of the drums. There is usually one percussionist playing
multiple instruments so you will see small metallic
percussion placed around one musician who plays them.
Timpani come in pairs so you will also see maybe one or
two musicians at the most playing them.

PERCUSSION SETUP IN A TEMPLATE:

I usually place my percussion below the rest of the
orchestra and that’s also how it usually is on the score
sheet. Since I use a lot of percussion in my template, I
divide them into folders for melodic and metals. Timpani
have their own folder and everything else is based on
personal preference. When it comes to my articulations,
they are also one per midi channel as with the rest of the
orchestra, just to make my orchestrator’s life a lot easier!

Blending various percussion libraries is not as extensive as

with the rest of the orchestra because you can use one
library for one type of instrument, just tweak the mic
samples if they have them, and most of the libraries
nowadays do. Your percussion needs to sound snappy and
massive, so blending close mic with the room mic samples
is something you should pay attention to because too much
room reverb can wash away the transients. I usually have
my close mic samples at full and room mic samples at half
and by doing so I get a nicely balanced tone.
VSS 2 is always there to help me position my percussion in
the same space as the rest of the orchestra, I just place
them further to the back so I get a full sense of drums being
in the same room as the orchestra. My pre-delays for
percussion are a little bit lower (even though percussion is
in the back) because I need those snappy transients for
action scenes. Same room and same mic setup are used as
with the rest of the sections.

RECORDING THE PERCUSSION PARTS:

Percussion is all about dynamics and rhythm and most
percussive libraries have their dynamics controlled by
velocity. Some rolls and crescendos of the timpani and
cymbals are controlled by modwheel.

So when it comes to percussion and short notes you have

to get into those velocity layers and tweak them to create
slight variations. Don’t make note velocities the same
because you will achieve that machine gun effect and your
percussion will sound mechanic and unnatural.

Pay close attention to low frequency drums and don’t make

them play fast lines because they will result in building up
your low end which will eat up your performance. Even
though all percussion instruments are capable of playing
fast, some are just not played that way. Use your lowest
drums to accentuate on each start of the beat and no more
than that.
If your percussion libraries don’t have recorded rolls and
crescendos samples, one way to simulate that and make it
sound realistic is to create 32nd of notes and raise the
velocity of each following note in order to make that nice
dynamic rolling effect of rising. This goes for both pitched
and unpitched percussion instruments.

This covers our series on how to make your orchestra

sound realistic enough to fool the average listener, so get
out there and start practicing!

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Enhancing Realism In Orchestral Samples

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Part 1 – Strings How to get THAT sound
with your orchestral samples is one of the
 most commonly asked questions among
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right thing to do is to mix the guts out of your tracks by
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How To Make Your Percussion Sound Big

How To Make Your Percussion Sound Big
Aaaaah the elusive ways of massive
hard-hitting cinematic percussion... We’ve
all been there when we were starting out
our careers as young composers. One of
the most important aspects of making a good action or epic
cue is making your percussion sound massive…

Written by Nikola Nikita Jeremic

• Posted on July 18, 2019 • in Orchestral, Percussion, Sample

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