Audun,
To be honest a lot of the works here don't fully achieve the Hollywood Sound. But they are close. The tricks are in the:
1) Orchestration
2) Motivic Composition
3) Reverb
The hardest to master being the Orchestration. There are specific methods utilized by the top Hollywood orchestrators that are no small feat. The level of craftsmanship is of the highest order on this planet. Luckily I am a Hollywood orchestrator trained by one, so I have a good grasp on it. If you ever want some tips let me know. One of the best tips I can give you is to make sure half the orchestra is playing at all times even if it's subtle. if you find that the composition doesn't call for that, then rethink your composition so that it will support it. The hollywood sound can only be achieved with orchestrations applied to compositions deserving of a Hollywood orchestration. Look to masters of such craftsmanship such as Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, Elmer Bernstein, and Bernard Herrmann. But avoid John Williams as tempting as it may be, as Williams' scores are created with a great deal of personal and unique complexity, most of which is more work than is necessary to produce the same sound actually. Most orchestrators and composers in Hollywood are adhering to the Nadia Boulangier school of technique which is second generation Rimsky-Korsakov. The standard for simplistic writing while achieving complex results with ironclad orchestration is "The Rite Of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky, a student of Nadia Boulangier. Boulangier and Korsakov both tought how to achieve complex sounding works with the simplest and easiest playing techniques.
Motivic composition is a trademark of Hollywood scores. The motives can be thematic or simply idiosyncratic technique (i.e.: the score to "Psycho" which is non-thematic and pushes the motivic concept of teh playing technique (strings atonal) as the repeating element in the film).
As far as reverb, this is a very hard problem to solve. Generally having things QUITE wet is preferred, but with some pre-delay for distance and between 2.4 and 3.9 seconds of tail. Non-linear with lot's of density. Most of the verb needs to be between 0.4 and 1.8second into the tail so as to be non-obtrusive. AltiVerb is one of the finest sound space simulators available, however at this time there still is not a perfect Impulse Response available. I go back and forth between the Amsterdam Concertbauw, Vredenburg, and Castle De Haar Chapel.
Generally mixing is not a part of the Hollywood sound except that the strings are usually not "hot", meaning they are smooth and silky (hi-cut), and the percussion is VERY distant. I say mixing is not a part of the Hollywood sound because all you need to do is capture the large orchestra in basic groups and solve some technical issues. But with synth of course, you need to make sure your mix sounds real, so mixing synth realizations becomes also an important part of this process. An essential part, that needs to be perfect before moving to higher goals such as achieving the "Hollywood sound".
Evan Evans
P.S. Although I was in a hurry, and was using only the First Edition in Logic which I had used for only 2 weeks previous, my demos online here for a documentary I scored called "American Almanacs" are fairly good examples of attempting the Hollywood Sound. Simon Raven has done a swell job as well. Oh, and I didn't have the performance set yet (ie: legato insts) either.
To be honest a lot of the works here don't fully achieve the Hollywood Sound. But they are close. The tricks are in the:
1) Orchestration
2) Motivic Composition
3) Reverb
The hardest to master being the Orchestration. There are specific methods utilized by the top Hollywood orchestrators that are no small feat. The level of craftsmanship is of the highest order on this planet. Luckily I am a Hollywood orchestrator trained by one, so I have a good grasp on it. If you ever want some tips let me know. One of the best tips I can give you is to make sure half the orchestra is playing at all times even if it's subtle. if you find that the composition doesn't call for that, then rethink your composition so that it will support it. The hollywood sound can only be achieved with orchestrations applied to compositions deserving of a Hollywood orchestration. Look to masters of such craftsmanship such as Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, Elmer Bernstein, and Bernard Herrmann. But avoid John Williams as tempting as it may be, as Williams' scores are created with a great deal of personal and unique complexity, most of which is more work than is necessary to produce the same sound actually. Most orchestrators and composers in Hollywood are adhering to the Nadia Boulangier school of technique which is second generation Rimsky-Korsakov. The standard for simplistic writing while achieving complex results with ironclad orchestration is "The Rite Of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky, a student of Nadia Boulangier. Boulangier and Korsakov both tought how to achieve complex sounding works with the simplest and easiest playing techniques.
Motivic composition is a trademark of Hollywood scores. The motives can be thematic or simply idiosyncratic technique (i.e.: the score to "Psycho" which is non-thematic and pushes the motivic concept of teh playing technique (strings atonal) as the repeating element in the film).
As far as reverb, this is a very hard problem to solve. Generally having things QUITE wet is preferred, but with some pre-delay for distance and between 2.4 and 3.9 seconds of tail. Non-linear with lot's of density. Most of the verb needs to be between 0.4 and 1.8second into the tail so as to be non-obtrusive. AltiVerb is one of the finest sound space simulators available, however at this time there still is not a perfect Impulse Response available. I go back and forth between the Amsterdam Concertbauw, Vredenburg, and Castle De Haar Chapel.
Generally mixing is not a part of the Hollywood sound except that the strings are usually not "hot", meaning they are smooth and silky (hi-cut), and the percussion is VERY distant. I say mixing is not a part of the Hollywood sound because all you need to do is capture the large orchestra in basic groups and solve some technical issues. But with synth of course, you need to make sure your mix sounds real, so mixing synth realizations becomes also an important part of this process. An essential part, that needs to be perfect before moving to higher goals such as achieving the "Hollywood sound".
Evan Evans
P.S. Although I was in a hurry, and was using only the First Edition in Logic which I had used for only 2 weeks previous, my demos online here for a documentary I scored called "American Almanacs" are fairly good examples of attempting the Hollywood Sound. Simon Raven has done a swell job as well. Oh, and I didn't have the performance set yet (ie: legato insts) either.