Why do musicians choose synthesizers over real instruments?

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auntblabby
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26 Sep 2020, 2:18 am

most likely.



ironpony
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26 Sep 2020, 2:47 am

Oh okay, but you can get more realistic sounding samples, than what that movie provides, and that movie is a multimillion dollar so I thought if musicians I know can afford more real samples, then perhaps the movies chose for it to be less real sounding, artistically, rather than by budget, but I am just guessing of course.



auntblabby
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26 Sep 2020, 3:47 am

ironpony wrote:
Oh okay, but you can get more realistic sounding samples, than what that movie provides, and that movie is a multimillion dollar so I thought if musicians I know can afford more real samples, then perhaps the movies chose for it to be less real sounding, artistically, rather than by budget, but I am just guessing of course.

could also be a matter of taste as you say, or a lack of taste by the persons chosen to do the movie soundtrack.



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27 Sep 2020, 10:16 pm

Oh okay. So when you listen to movie scores, where there is a mixter of real instruments and synth, is it because they couldn't afford samples of all the sounds they wanted, or could they but they just wanted synth whenever they liked the sound of it?

For example The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a very acoustic score. One part of the movie however, they use a synth in. It's this part here at 0:59 into the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCSNIl2Pls&t=357s

I think that may be the only part in the entire score they use a synth, but why only there for that sound? Was there a particular reason, why they didn't just use an instrument, like they did for the rest of the score?



auntblabby
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27 Sep 2020, 10:19 pm

IMHO not a synth but an organ with a leslie speaker. that was a tiny bit before synths first started to be in vogue for pop culture/used in movie soundtracks.



ironpony
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27 Sep 2020, 10:24 pm

Oh okay, but that's not a real acoustic organ though is it? Isn't that synth version of an organ?



auntblabby
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27 Sep 2020, 11:05 pm

ironpony wrote:
Oh okay, but that's not a real acoustic organ though is it? Isn't that synth version of an organ?

back then, there was the moog modular synth, it was fairly new, just a few years old at that point, there weren't too many people using it in 1965 when the film was produced, so i am fairly certain it was an analog organ such as a hammond, the most common studio organ.



ironpony
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09 Oct 2020, 3:19 pm

Oh okay, thanks, that's interesting. I thought it was some sort of synth.

Well when it comes to how good pre-recorded samples of real instruments sound, one instrument, I cannot find good samples of is a guitar. A classical guitar specifically. My friend who uses pre-recorded samples as well, says it's very difficult if not impossible to make pre-recorded samples, of a guitar sound real, compared to actually playing the instrument.

Other recorded samples of instruments can sound real, but not the guitar he says. Is this true though, and there are none out there, or it's just physically impossible to make for a guitar, compared to a lot of other types of instruments?



auntblabby
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09 Oct 2020, 7:46 pm

never had to look for guitar samples so i would not know. strange if it was true.



ironpony
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12 Oct 2020, 12:30 am

Oh okay. Well when it comes to choosing synth over real instruments, when it comes to composing a score for a movie project, how do you decide what instruments should be real and what should be synth. Do composers have any guidelines or methods for deciding?



auntblabby
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12 Oct 2020, 12:35 am

good question, it is an interaction between commerce and art. a synth hooked up to a puter, or MIDI, is a LOT cheaper than studio musicians and studio engineering time.



ironpony
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12 Oct 2020, 12:47 am

Oh sorry, what I meant was, say you have recorded samples of real instruments. How do you choose those between those samples, and a pure synth, if that makes sense?



auntblabby
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12 Oct 2020, 1:23 am

ironpony wrote:
Oh sorry, what I meant was, say you have recorded samples of real instruments. How do you choose those between those samples, and a pure synth, if that makes sense?

i'm sorry i didn't catch your meaning :flower: a film composer's first job is to augment or telegraph a scene's emotional "feel" - synths [those not emulating a natural instrument, such as some yamaha synths] can impart a different feel than more natural sounding instruments. historically, filmmakers have used unusual or uncommon instruments to convey a feeling of fear or dread, and a synth is one more arrow in their eerie quivver.



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12 Oct 2020, 1:49 am

Oh okay. Well so far I have only been using samples of real instruments when it comes to instruments I want to give a certain feel. For example, for some tracks, I want to give a western feel, and one instrument that gives that feel is the harmonica. So I will want the harmonica to be real samples of one, but I feel every other instrument could perhaps be synth, for those tracks.

But is that a bad way of looking at it, and I should use more real instrument samples?



auntblabby
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12 Oct 2020, 1:51 am

ironpony wrote:
Oh okay. Well so far I have only been using samples of real instruments when it comes to instruments I want to give a certain feel. For example, for some tracks, I want to give a western feel, and one instrument that gives that feel is the harmonica. So I will want the harmonica to be real samples of one, but I feel every other instrument could perhaps be synth, for those tracks.

But is that a bad way of looking at it, and I should use more real instrument samples?

that depends on your [as music director of a film or video project] or the producer/director's intent. what do you want the audience to FEEL?



ironpony
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12 Oct 2020, 1:53 am

Well I guess for the pieces with the harmonica, I want them to have a western movie feel. But is it not going to give them that feel if the other instruments are a synthesizer, other than a harmonica?

Or, for one piece of music in a scene for example, I want a duduk. I want the audience to feel seduction and romance, and I thought that the duduk would convey that, more than a synth. But am I wrong on that?