In this article, I’ll be going over how we use Ableton Live 10 to organize MIDI and Audio channels for an orchestral arrangement. Film music is something we are very passionate about, a soundtrack can make or break an emotional scene so we make sure that our channels and tracks are in a classical arrangement as if you were to watch an orchestra.
I’ll start by letting you know that I personally use around 42 different instruments for a normal track. However, I have made a full song with only 6, so the possibilities are quite endless. The order of instruments I generally use is strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and any miscellaneous instruments or sounds that don’t fill any of those categories such as synths or custom sounds I’ve designed. As I grow this buisness I will release different sound packs for any aspiring artists out there to use.
Having experience with playing in an orchestra I like to use around two channels per instrument type to help with different chairs. Typically you will have four to five people playing the same part and three to four parts per instrument, this helps with harmonizing and octave changes. Later I will go over how I make one instrument sound like multiple.
Here’s a list of the usual sections that I create. In the parenthesises I’ve put the number of channels I use per instrument.
- Strings
- Violin (3-4)
- Viola (3-4)
- Cello (2)
- Double Bass (1)
- Woodwinds
- Flute (3-4)
- Piccolo (1)
- Soprano Clarinet (3-4)
- Bass Clarinet (1-2)
- Contrabass Clarinet (1)
- Bassoon (1-2)
- Oboe (2-3)
- Brass
- Trumpet (2-3)
- English Horn (1-2)
- French Horn (1-2)
- Baritone (1-2)
- Trombone (1-2)
- Tuba (1)
- Percussion
- Timpani (1)
- Snare (2-3)
- Bass Drum (1-2)
- Any Bells (3-4)
- Marimba (1-2)
- Misc. Percussion (3-4)
- Misc.
- Piano
- Synths
- Custom Sounds
You may have noticed I did not include any saxophones and that is because I use saxophones in very specific pieces. This is the typical layout that I use most frequently for any style of orchestral music. I do use saxophones and a lot of different percussion types like gongs and hi-hats.
The number of channels per instrument I use is a simple idea and format that I follow. Any high register instruments such as a piccolo or lower register instruments like the Contrabass Clarinet, or Double Bass only ever get one channel since the more extreme frequencies can stand out alone easier than a soprano or alto instrument. For the same reason, I use more woodwinds than brass. Percussion is dependent on the type of instrument; obviously you wouldn’t use five bass drums and only one snare.
Going back to a point I made earlier, it’s possible to make one instrument sound like multiples and there are a number of ways to do this.
One of which is using a very small amount of reverb with a delay effect. For this technique to work it is trial and error for getting the correct ratio of reverb to delay per instrument which can be tedious and not always the most accurate when trying to offset the sound enough to double.
The method that I use most frequently can be done by detuning and oscillating the frequency of the sound. Since not every instrument is tuned to the exact same frequency when you rapidly shift the parameters of the tone you create a mimicry like vibration between its wavelengths.
Native Instrument’s Massive has a very easy way to do this by using multiple voices and detuning, it makes harmonizing different synths very easy.
In the next set-up and explanation article, I will be discussing ways to use Mashine in Ableton Live 10 and route the sounds to different channels.
Cheers!
Alex