#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 As most here will know, John Williams uses synth in almost all of his scores, usually very subliminally, to enhance certain orchestral details.Does he have a regular guy who programs and performs his synth work? I can't imagine John Williams doing anything technical like that himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 John Sponsler and Tom Gire did Munich.http://www.magicboxmusic.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,468 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I always thought he did them himself. Even that techno bit in A.I. (lame as it is). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Randy Kerber performs most of the time.He even did Tintin, but not the synths (harpsichord solo).They also did Memoirs of a Geisha.(John Sponsler and Tom Gire) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 I always thought he did them himself. Even that techno bit in A.I. (lame as it is).John Williams is not very technical, it seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 He once said that he would like to learn to use synth library's etc.. but Spielberg doesn't require that sort of bussiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 Even Goldsmith used synth programmers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSM 126 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Synth in JW score are always performed along with the orchestra, never tracked. Randy Kerber usually does it, he normally does the keyboard solos.I always thought he did them himself. Even that techno bit in A.I. (lame as it is).I heard his son helped there (at least with the 'percussion'). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightscape94 965 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The celesta in his Harry Potter score I believe was not a real celesta, but rather a synth with some combined or modified celesta sounds, right? I think it was Randy Kerber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indy4 155 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 There's a brief interview with the celeste/synth player for Sorcerer's Stone on YouTube. He mentions how he knew it was a difficult piece when JW gave him the music a few days in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSM 126 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The celesta in his Harry Potter score I believe was not a real celesta, but rather a synth with some combined or modified celesta sounds, right? I think it was Randy Kerber.I was a synth in synch with a real celesta.There's a brief interview with the celeste/synth player for Sorcerer's Stone on YouTube. He mentions how he knew it was a difficult piece when JW gave him the music a few days in advance.Also the violin runs are very diffcult to play even for advanced players.In vein of the same subject, does anybody know if the oboe/organ riffs of the 1995 arrangement of The Conversation on the Williams and Williams album, are real instruments or in someway tracked or digitally speeded-up? Those oboe solos sound almost impossible. Also the (gorgeous!!) choir end sounds synthesized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I love that choir end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 796 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I always thought he did them himself. Even that techno bit in A.I. (lame as it is).I must be the only person in the world who loves that part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 7,984 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 He wrote on paper the synth stuff for War of the Worlds prologue, didn't he? And then someone else transcribed it to the electronic format.Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,037 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The celesta in his Harry Potter score I believe was not a real celesta, but rather a synth with some combined or modified celesta sounds, right? I think it was Randy Kerber.I was a synth in synch with a real celesta.Nope, it was sampled celeste with a ringing, decaying sine wave tone mixed in to give it a somewhat softer feel. Randy Kerber was indeed the one who performed it. The sheet music does call for real acoustic celeste, but only in one passage from one cue, oddly enough.EDIT: And Williams almost always writes out the synth parts in great detail, but I'm sure he leaves the technical details to others. The man doesn't know how to use a computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSM 126 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The celesta in his Harry Potter score I believe was not a real celesta, but rather a synth with some combined or modified celesta sounds, right? I think it was Randy Kerber.I was a synth in synch with a real celesta.Nope, it was sampled celeste with a ringing, decaying sine wave tone mixed in to give it a somewhat softer feel. Randy Kerber was indeed the one who performed it. The sheet music does call for real acoustic celeste, but only in one passage from one cue, oddly enough.EDIT: And Williams almost always writes out the synth parts in great detail, but I'm sure he leaves the technical details to others. The man doesn't know how to use a computer.Thanks, I must have remembered incorrectly. I am quite sure, as you also state, that it was Kerber's own idea to come up with this kind of a sound.I think a nice example of how the synth parts are done by others is his acoustic version of For Always vs. the album rendition, which is a arrangement by William Ross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,468 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I always thought he did them himself. Even that techno bit in A.I. (lame as it is).I must be the only person in the world who loves that part.Well, I'm a hardcore electronica fan (esp. goa and psytrance) and that little tidbit is just terribly transparent as composed by someone out of his element trying to approximate what he "thinks" constitutes techno. But it's just a few seconds, no big deal. And it has fun curiousity value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinspace 8 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 I think for the War of Worlds prologue the synth stuff would have been prerecorded and then they overdub the orchestra with a click track to keep in time. In any case, whether the synth is performed live with the orchestra or not, a click track will normally be used to lock the music to picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrchDork 0 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Randy Kerber does practically all of the synthesizer programming for Williams - meaning the actual synthesizer parts ("Synth Celeste," "Synth Bells," etc.), not the material in Munich and Memoirs from the Magic Box folks. I actually had a conversation with Kerber about this, back in 2008; he said that Williams writes out the type of sound(s) he wants in the music and that he (Kerber) then crafts the sounds with Williams' approval. I wish I had had more time to chat with him about that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSM 126 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Randy Kerber does practically all of the synthesizer programming for Williams - meaning the actual synthesizer parts ("Synth Celeste," "Synth Bells," etc.), not the material in Munich and Memoirs from the Magic Box folks. I actually had a conversation with Kerber about this, back in 2008; he said that Williams writes out the type of sound(s) he wants in the music and that he (Kerber) then crafts the sounds with Williams' approval. I wish I had had more time to chat with him about that...Nice info!So, referring to the OP, who does the magic box stuff for JW? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ymenard 54 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Those "electro pop" pieces that are in some of his scores (Return of the Jedi SE, A.I., etc...) are written by his son no? he might be involved a lot more with the smaller electronic pieces elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TownerFan 4,983 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Randy Kerber does practically all of the synthesizer programming for Williams - meaning the actual synthesizer parts ("Synth Celeste," "Synth Bells," etc.), not the material in Munich and Memoirs from the Magic Box folks. I actually had a conversation with Kerber about this, back in 2008; he said that Williams writes out the type of sound(s) he wants in the music and that he (Kerber) then crafts the sounds with Williams' approval. I wish I had had more time to chat with him about that...Yes. In the music featurette on the War of the Worlds DVD Williams actually explains how he tries to write for an electronic instrument: (@ 4:55) Craig Evans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russds 8 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 This is an interesting topic. I'm listening to Home Alone a lot these days (holiday season), one of my favorite scores. There are so many variations of the celeste sound in there, and I've always been curious what's synth and what's not. Yes. In the music featurette on the War of the Worlds DVD Williams actually explains how he tries to write for an electronic instrument:That's a great featurette, I've seen it before, but always enjoy seeing these sorts of things again. (JW on the scoring stage). Also I never noticed, it appears to be Steven Spielberg @11:00 holding the video camera and talking to JW. Funny to think of world class director SS carrying around Sony Handicam, getting these scoring sessions on video. Craig Evans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,037 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 This is an interesting topic. I'm listening to Home Alone a lot these days (holiday season), one of my favorite scores. There are so many variations of the celeste sound in there, and I've always been curious what's synth and what's not.I think we can be quite confident that there's very little or no real celeste in there. Perhaps if we get complete sheet music, I'll be proven wrong, but consider HP:SS, which only has one minor passage (as far as I know) that calls for real celeste.One logistical thing I've wondered about is whether the orchestra can hear what Randy's doing on his keyboard as they play. They'd have to either use speakers or headphones, and I figure the former is right out...anyone have any insight on this? From that video, it's clear that he's playing live along with the orchestra, in any case. Craig Evans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,326 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Real or not real, synth or no synth, if it sounds good, who cares? Remember the sampled choir piece on A.I.? It's not real, it doesn't want to be real. But it's good. It works. We love it! Craig Evans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheCity 140 Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Home Alone was the first score JW and RK used fake celeste on. Its continued since then. Craig Evans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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