Virtual instruments, live players and computers

[peter5992]

Hi David:

First of all, thank you for taking the time to do this Q&A - much appreciated by everyone around here!

My question is related to lacibe's question about the use of virtual instruments, but from a different angle. Hans Zimmer is known to spend a lot of time and money creating his own custom virtual instruments, using massive computers and the latest technology. In a recent interview with German 'Keys' magazine he mentioned that for him, part of the artistical challenge is to extract from his computers exactly the sound he wants.

What's your take on this - has the specific sound of a virtual instrument ever been a consideration for using that instrument even if you had access to live players?

Thanks!

[Marty Frasu]

The film dictates the sound pallette, sometimes a synth sound is a key sound for the film. A few examples of this are in Serenity, we sampled a square old out of tune piano, for the character of River, who was broken herself. For the Cat in The Hat, I built some weird horns to sound funny, it seemed like the right thing to do, They had hoses and funnels, you can see them in action on the DVD, there is an interview with David describing the instruments. The Director called it "Genius". In Undercover Blues, there is a fight scene in an office, we used samples of a typewriter as a percussion instrument, with the "ding" bell at the appropriate points. I thought it worked really well. For the Flintstones, we have samples of rocks and stones as percussion, it's subtile in the movie. I like computers as much as Hans. I love sound design, I am always looking for new and interesting sounds. We have so many sound libraries, Somewhere in there is the right sound. It may need some EQ and reverb to fit in. Knowing your libraries or what a synth is best as it helps to get the sound in your head out of the speakers.
If I needed a pretty pad, I would go to the Albino Synth or the CA 5000, they both do good pretty pads. If I needed an aggressive bass, any bass sound would do, I would add the aggression with a distortion plug in.