Working With Orchestrators & Arrangers - Sound On Sound PDF

Working With Orchestrators & Arrangers | Sound On Sound
4.10.2016 23:33
Working With Orchestrators &

Arrangers
Production
Composing / Arranging
By Tom Flint
Arranger Sally Herbert (second from left) playing in London's AIR studios
at a string-quartet session.
Just what should you expect when engaging a professional
arranger or orchestrator to work on your own production? We
find out from some of the best in the business...
Countless musical productions in all sorts of genres have benefitted from
the addition of brass, woodwind or strings, and in almost every case a
http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/working-orchestrators-arrangers
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skilled arranger or orchestrator will have taken the ideas of the composer
or producer and transformed them into a score that musicians can work
with quickly and efficiently. Its also very common for the arranger to
conduct the recording session, and on other occasions the arranger may act
as a sub-producer, overseeing proceedings from the control room and
tweaking the arrangement on-site to better fit the other elements in the
mix.
To help give you a better understanding of what its like to work with these
skilled professionals, I spoke with two leading arrangers, Sally Herbert and
Nick Ingman you can find out more about them in the Meet The
Experts box. I asked them to reveal how they turn a composers ideas into
orchestral scores, and to describe the type of material a composer should,
ideally, provide an arranger with.
Obviously, an arranger has to be given a composition before they can start
work, but the material that they receive varies hugely from job to job. Nick
and Sally have experienced it all, from the very good to the extremely bad.
Its everything from sitting in a room and the artist playing the guitar to
you, to a completely finished track, with everything on it except what you
are about to do, says Nick. The perfect setup is MIDI files, Sibelius files,
audio, and maybe something printed out. Thats very unlikely, but it can
happen.
Sometimes Im given a song demo and theres no clue apart from what the
producer says, and its up to me, adds Sally. Sometimes the bands will
give me MIDI files, which is often difficult. A lot of people plonk something
on a keyboard and assume its an arrangement but it can take a long time
to sort out for recording with the instruments were using... If theyve
played a particular hook line then that makes total sense, but its
sometimes harder if theyve used a fake strings sound as a kind of pad or to
fill up space. Then you have to find out if they really want it to sound like
that. You have to ask a lot of questions to get to the bottom of why they put
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it in and if they want you to improve on that or add more. You dont want
to overdo it but at the same time you need to find out if the band are
expecting a lot more.
Nick is also no fan of rough approximations
played on keyboards. The worst package is
when the composer is so musically illiterate that
theyve played stuff instinctively on a keyboard
without any knowledge of what theyre doing,
he insists, specifically referring to film scores.
What happens a lot is a very successful pop
artist gets hired to write a film score because
they have whats called marquee value. It
makes very little sense because the two
Nick Ingman putting some
disciplines are so different. They tend to create
notes down the oldfashioned
way.Photo: Liz Norden
the score in the way that they work when doing
pop music and give you the most approximate thing, and thats tricky for
us in the back room. The issue is that he or she may not have been able to
completely express the idea in their head, so there is a disconnect between
that and what I am making the best of.
Nick has often encountered a similar problem when asked to interpret the
ideas of pop and rock bands. It always seems to fall to the keyboard player
[to compose the score] and inevitably they play the strings like a keyboard
player which is not the best way to make a string section sound good! It
can be alright, and there are lots of instances where that has happened and
the arranger simply transcribes that idea, but most of the time were hired
to take it a stage further.
So if you want string, woodwind or brass parts and youre not musically
literate, how best can you communicate your ideas to an arranger? On
some occasions the arranger is not given MIDI or audio, but the name of a
piece of music to use as an example of whats required. Ill often have
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someone describing a song or album they are influenced by, which is quite
a good clue as to what style they want the strings or brass to sound like,
says Sally. I like to know what they have in mind but Im happy for them
to tell me in words. If they give me a few string ideas thats fine, but Im
usually happy to hear about influences or styles. If they say We want a big
tune here, or we want something to give a bit of texture to the chorus,
thats usually gives me enough of a clue to get it right.
Nick is frequently briefed with similar requests. Most of the time they ask
you to make it sound like what we call role models. Can it sound like Led
Zeppelin? Can it sound like Olly Murs? Thats the question because they
need to know that they are going to get what they want. Thats the pop
business, in essence.
Its clear from what Sally and Nick say that arrangers and orchestrators are
usually prepared to work with most briefs, no matter how vague they may
be, but they have clear recommendations to offer those composers who are
willing to supply an arranger with high-quality source material.
You need to provide a demo of your song,
begins Sally, and if you have a guide string or
brass part, you can have one version with it
on, and one without, for the arranger to work
on. Its useful to give a MIDI version of what
you have played so the arranger doesnt have
to decipher what it is. It can be quite tricky to
work out what someone has put into a track on
a fake string or brass sound, because it can get
mixed up in guitars and other things.
Give guidelines, but keep the idea simple. If theres a theme you want the
orchestra to play, put that in, but dont take it too far or overcomplicate it.
Leave it to the people who are used to doing it.
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If you cant afford an orchestra or a strings section, which most bands

cant, you can sometimes find players who will help you out, but, she
advises, keep it really simple again, and use the strings or the brass more
texturally to bring out one line. Dont try to create a masterpiece if you are
not sure what youre doing! And if you are producing a manuscript, ask the
players for advice. You may think that it looks all right in Logic but its
always worth asking someone if it is readable and in the right clef.
The scoring facilities built into DAWs such as Logic might be all you need
to produce a score for basic pop/rock arrangements, if not for more
complex classical styles. But remember that the MIDI information
required to play some virtual string or brass instruments is very different
from whats needed to generate a score that musicians can follow.
A lot of bands say theyve done the scores, but when you get there you find
the violin in the bass clef and they havent realised that violas play in a
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different clef to violins. Or they have played it on a keyboard without

quantising and just printed it out. MIDI files can be confusing when not
quantised. Even if it sounds alright as MIDI, the score can be unreadable,
and if you are asking people for favours that doesnt go down so well!
Logic is fine for scoring a small section like a quartet but I do quite a lot of
classical crossover for people like Sarah Brightman and Catherine Jenkins,
and its pretty awful for things like that, so I get an arranger called Olli
Cunningham, who works with me occasionally, to put it into Sibelius and
then we make a clearer set of parts. Thats important because often those
artists will take that on tour. I literally print out my Logic score, write notes
on it, scan it back, and give that to him.
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When presented with a basic score from DAWs such as Logic or Cubase, an
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arranger might make manual annotations, and have someone turn their
scrawls into a tidy score using a dedicated application such as Avids
Sibelius.
Avid Sibelius.
If you are expecting the musicians to listen to the song and pick it up
thats fine, but make sure they are pre-warned. Experienced players are
usually quick at picking up a line, as long as its clear and they can hear the
track a few times.
Sally also has some advice for anyone wanting to avoid paying for a
commercial studio. Id rather not try to record strings in someones
bedroom because the acoustics can be a problem. If you havent got an AIR
Studios or an Abbey Road, where the instruments sound glorious whatever
you do, you sometimes pick up horrible frequencies, particularly with
strings, so its probably better if it is acoustically dead you can add the
reverb later. You also need space. If its just one violin or cello you dont
need much, but if you have a quartet sitting down with four music stands
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and four chairs it takes up more room than you might think!
If you are not sure what you want then the best thing is to have a chat with
the arranger and describe how youd like it to sound overall, what your
influences are, and how big a part you want the arrangement to play.
Flowing, melancholic, lovely and uplifting are the sort of words I hear a lot!
I dont usually get sent lyrics but sometimes the artist feels its important
that I understand what the tracks about, which is fair enough.
Nick asserts that the arrangers skill is to take whatever theyre given and
make it work, and he says that he is always keen to receive instrument or
group stems along with the main mix so he can properly analyse the
material and match his score.
Its always helpful to have stems because then I can really get into the
track and find out whats happening in each bar, he explains. If the
bassist is playing sevenths in the chord, for example, that could be
interesting, but thats sometimes hard to hear when you get the whole
track.
If I am adding a string section which has a bass part, Ill want it to play
along with the synth or electric bass and I need to be very precise so that
the harmonic structure and the rhythm are correct. But Im also listening
out for mistakes! Thats always interesting because if the bass player wasnt
absolutely on it you have two options. You can go back to the producer and
say Do you really mean that in bar seven where he is playing an A and the
band is playing a B chord? He may say Yeah, its fine, whats your
problem? In that case then you go with the mistake, and you make a meal
of it. Unless its really catastrophic, you have to underline it and make an
issue of it, otherwise it gets lost in the undergrowth and sounds wrong.
There are thousands of instances where there are wrong notes in a pop
tracks, particularly where people are singing a note thats not in the chord,
and often the track is massively interesting and successful, so the rules go
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out the window. You have to make a judgement as to whether it is

interesting or just a mistake.
A mistake can be something very basic, like plagiarism: people copying
ideas consciously or unconsciously. Or notes that are not happy in the
chord and sound wrong. More normally though, too many ideas is the
problem. Embryo arrangers always make the mistake of using too many
ideas. The reality is, in pop particularly, that the string part is not a big part
of the picture. So if the embryo arranger comes along with 10 ideas it
becomes a sonically crowded mess. Its better to have two really good ideas
and put them fairly upfront in the mix and then live with that, instead of
having a whole bunch of stuff in the background which you dont really
hear.
When asked if one of the problems is instruments clashing in terms of their
sounds and articulation details, Nick is insistent that there is no simple
rule to adhere to, only professional knowhow. I think its a choice thing,
he says. Its not wrong or right instruments, its just what works with the
track. If you listen to Motown records from the 60s or 70s, they had pretty
much everything there brass, strings, woodwind, harp, you name it
but it was done with such skill that it works. They were trained classical
musicians and knew what combinations would make a good sound, so that
was their skill as hopefully ours is now.
Although orchestral arrangements tend to be added to pre-recorded
productions, the arranger often has to be ready to alter their work when
there are late changes to the mix or basic arrangement. Sometimes the
arranger gets asked to write the score with reference to a demo, only to
find that by the time they start recording the orchestral parts, the track has
moved on! Needless to say, it is better to keep the arranger in the loop and
indicate, if possible, whether or not the track is finished or in a state of
development.
Pop is difficult because it is a work in progress until it becomes a record,
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confirms Nick. Its being constantly tampered with because thats how it
works, but when I come in I need to know where they are in the timeframe.
Often, they are not finished and you have to keep going back to them, so
when you finally get in the studio you are not surprised to find the track is
in a different key or tempo!
I worked with Oasis a lot and they were constantly changing things. On
one occasion, I turned up to a session with a string section, having written
this score to a track Id been given, and they were playing something in the
room. I said, Thats a nice song, what is it? and it was the same track! It
was unrecognisable, so I had to rewrite the score there and then.
Part of my job is to be there during recording, and if things need changing
on the spot I have to be able to do that, adds Sally. You often have to cut
or add things, which is stressful when you first start, and I used to take it
terribly personally, but that happens all the time. If you are recording
guitar or drums in the studio youd do that, and orchestral parts are no
different, its just that you might have 30 people waiting for you to change
the part!
Sallys solution to the vagaries of pop production is to work with a regular
group of players, who are capable of adapting to changes very quickly and
improvising when necessary. During a typical recording session, she is apt
to consult her players to ensure she is getting the best possible results from
them, and this is especially true when tweaks and changes are being made.
If you have a quartet, she explains, then thats small enough to discuss
what you are going to do, and I always take on board the ideas of others,
but I dont encourage it in a much bigger section, she continues, because
if everyone has an idea its time consuming. For a bigger section youll have
the leader. There is a guy I work with a lot called Everton Nelson, and quite
often well discuss the part and he becomes the mouthpiece for the section.
Or the lead cellist will come into the control room and well listen to the
recording, so you have three or four people with ideas.
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If the arranger is also playing on the session, then that adds a layer of
complexity. If its a big orchestra, Sally continues, Ill be conducting, or I
will be in the control room listening, but sometimes when its a string
quartet Ill be playing the violin and Ill be going in and out of the control
room all the time, because you have a very different balance through the
headphones in the live room and you have to hear how it is sitting in a
track... You might have the drums loud in your headphones if its a
rhythmic part, but the track will be fairly quiet and the likelihood is that
the vocals will be low because vocals can interrupt the tuning. When you
are trying to concentrate on tuning you need to listen to, say, the piano or
acoustic guitar. The voice or an electric guitar thats moving about a lot can
be really off-putting. So you need to hear how it is sitting when the vocal or
the guitar is up, and make sure the tuning is working and not interrupting
the vocal.
The things that I change the most are those that get in the way of the
vocal, and I usually have to simplify them. The tendency is to be too fussy
because it is hard not feel your instrument is the most important! And
because the strings are often in the vocal range, when you hear the real
strings against the vocal you sometimes find that they are covering up a
word, complicating a rhythm or not sitting quite right.... Most of the time
strings are not important on the track; they are just another element, so
my job is about keeping things very simple. The main thing Ive learnt over
the years is to stay out of the way and not push it.
The modern arranger is multi-skilled, flexible and creative, which is great
news for composers, producers and artists who want orchestral
instruments on their tracks. Even if your idea is sketchy, the arranger
should be able to develop it to fit the track, adapt the score to changes
made in the studio, and instruct musicians accordingly. Ultimately,
though, the composer must understand what an arranger will and wont
do, and be able to provide them with suitable material to work from.
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Sally Herbert was classically trained at the

Guildhall School of Music, but in her final
year she landed a job in a quartet touring
with the Communards, and decided that
working in pop was more fun than
following the classical route. After a brief
stint as one half of the pop duo The
Bandaras, she found herself arranging for
producer Mike Hedges. I was doing
sessions as a violinist for Mike at a time
when the Manic Street Preachers were
recording A Design For Life and there
Sally Herbert
were lots of big-sounding tracks about, explains Sally. One day, his
arranger didnt turn up and he asked me if I wanted to do an arrangement.
That was it and I started building a career and meeting other producers
and bands.
The producers Ive worked with now trust that whatever band they get in
Ill be able to come up with something or Ill be able to pick up what they
want very quickly. Occasionally a band or composer hears what Ive done
and contacts me, but it tends to be through producers. I work with whole
orchestras, but for pop I generally do strings, brass and choirs.
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Arranger and conductor Nick Ingman studied

under jazz composer Graham Collier before
following in his mentors footsteps and
heading to Berklee College of Music in the
United States. When he returned to the UK
he landed a job working for producer Norrie
Paramor, alongside Tim Rice. That was a
massive learning curve, says Nick. I started
to do arrangements when Norrie was too
busy to do his own and when he was
preparing to retire he handed over all the
arranging and conducting to me. In those
Nick Ingman
days, it was bottom-up arranging in other words, the full score including
drums, bass, guitar, strings and brass, and everything was played together
in one room. The big rooms like Abbey Road were the main studios, and it
would be 40 to 60 people recording four tracks in a three-hour session,
complete from top to bottom. It was a huge discipline on everyones part,
and the performances had to be absolutely flawless first time. All these
huge names like Jimmy Page and Jim Sullivan were just jobbing musicians
and would come in and do sessions.
As an arranger, I had to know all the instruments, their ranges and what
sounded best you are a multi-instrumentalist, even if you are not
actually playing stuff! One of the good things they did at Berklee was make
you learn to play the C major scale on every traditional instrument, so you
had a working knowledge of pretty well everything.
The modern pop scene, as far as an arranger is concerned, is adding
strings or brass or whatever onto existing tracks created by the producer or
the artist in a small MIDI studio. Very rarely any more do we arrange from
the bottom up, including drums and so on.
Anyone intending to add orchestral arrangements to their recordings
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needs to consider whether or not it will be necessary to supply a click or

guide track. A dance or rock track with a strong drum part effectively has a
click already, but a piano ballad, for example, might be based around the
ebb and flow of the performance, and that can be difficult for a section to
follow without a more obvious guide.
If it is just straightforward drums and bass we wont need a click, its only
when thing are sparse, confirms Sally. Overdubbing is tricky if you are
trying to match things exactly. It can be hard to pick up the starts of bars,
especially when there are four or more of you trying to come in at the same
place after a gap.
Mostly we work to click tracks, but not always, adds Nick, referring to
film score work. Some composers believe clicks make the music too rigid,
so sometimes we free-conduct. But there is a whole bunch of software
Auricle is one example that helps you do that. You have your own screen
showing the film and on it will be flashes that tell you where you are in the
bar, and so on. Its the music editors job to produce these, but you may sit
down with them and say Can I have a blip here, a spot there, a flash
there?
Alongside his career arranging for pop tracks, Nick works as an orchestral
arranger and conductor for film scores. Here, he explains where the
differences lie.
The film business is very tricky because right until the last minute films
are being edited quite drastically, and if the composer is working as
mostly they are to cues that are very precise, and the edit is screwed
around with, then suddenly whats written is wrong. Thats where the
music editor comes in, because they are constantly updating the composer
with the latest versions. They are a link between the composer, director or
film editor, and are very crucial to that process.
And then I come in and turn the composers approximate ideas, mostly
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presented as electronic demos, into reality. The demos are usually very
good and precise, making use of string libraries and a whole bunch of stuff
thats out there.
When we record an orchestra, I usually conduct, although thats not
always the case. Film music conducting is a very special art requiring lots
of techniques that are not used in any other field. The main thing is that
the conductor has to be precise. He or she has to bring the orchestra
around to the right place at exactly the right time. If you listen to scores
that were recorded in the 1940s, before click tracks were common, you can
hear the music coming to a cadence, a climax, where the cowboy shoots the
bad guy. Therell be a big chord, and you can hear how the conductor
brought the music to that point and held that chord until the Indians ran
away! You can hear the music being manipulated.
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