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Any films you know that had a digital score?

So I searched here first for a discussion about this and found none similar.

Do you know of any famous film(s) that had its entire score created by computer music (i.e. DAW and virtual instruments/plugins)? Therefore the score was the final music composed in and rendered in the DAW and used in the film and a recorded orchestral score was not used.
 
Are you specifically talking about digital film scores that are meant to re-create orchestral music? or just digital in general? Because there are tons of digital scores that are obviously digital synths and things like that.

If you're talking about digital orchestral music, that's a little bit more rare for a feature film. However it's very common in television shows.
 
Only a few thousand indie features every year. That's the budget, and there are tons of new composers every year looking to gain experience. The features on which I've done the audio post have almost all been entirely digital - orchestral scores, "synth" scores, and those that mixed the two. Those that were not 100% digital had real instruments mixed into the mostly digital score.
 
Are you specifically talking about digital film scores that are meant to re-create orchestral music? or just digital in general? Because there are tons of digital scores that are obviously digital synths and things like that.

If you're talking about digital orchestral music, that's a little bit more rare for a feature film. However it's very common in television shows.

When I say digital score I mean an orchestral score that was created for music for the entire film (i.e. where music is required), using VST orchestral instruments etc. e.g. the EastWest Symphonic orchestra.
 
I don't know of any large-scale films that have used orchestral samples (as a whole) for the film score. There are many films where orchestral samples have been used in conjunction with a live orchestra to really fill the sound out (especially if it's a smaller ensemble that's recorded). Same with choir and vocals.

Two film scores that come to mind immediately are The Lion King and U-571.
 
Would Tangerine Dream fit into this as they are an electronic group. They provided the US score for Legend. (There is also the original European score by Jerry Goldsmith)

Interesting question, as they were using a lot of analogue synths at the time. Some of the sounds were Yamaha digital FM (ala DX7 type synths).

The problem with this thread is that the poster is looking for scores done with "Sampled" orchestral instruments, period. However, "digital" would be anything scored with a modern synth (Access Virus), sampler, or computer instrument.

I am a long time fan of digital and analogue synth music, whether it be a John Carpenter (HALLOWEEN) or Tangerine Dream (LEGEND) score. Many of those scores include sampled orchestral instruments, like the TERMINATOR orch blasts, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 strings (done with a NED synclavier) or the instruments used in a movie called THE FINAL APPROACH (also synclavier). See also, 2010 (SPACE ODYSSEY sequel) score.

There are many all digital scores, but a lot of them combine either samples and electronic, or samples and live players (solo instruments on certain tracks, which add realism).


Check out this 1991 movie scene, from FINAL APPROACH. Watch from 3:30 to about 8 minutes, which features a cool score and sound FX. I believe most (or all) of the music and FX were done on the synclavier sampling system.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2srIjpsYaU



TERMINATOR orchestra samples, with electric violin player:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KeniFoiT-0


Of course, a lot of indies use East/West and Vienna Symphony style sample libraries. Check out the TERRITORY 8 trailer music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIRGrw62IAc
 
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Interesting question, as they were using a lot of analogue synths at the time. Some of the sounds were Yamaha digital FM (ala DX7 type synths).

The problem with this thread is that the poster is looking for scores done with "Sampled" orchestral instruments, period. However, "digital" would be anything scored with a modern synth (Access Virus), sampler, or computer instrument.

I am a long time fan of digital and analogue synth music, whether it be a John Carpenter (HALLOWEEN) or Tangerine Dream (LEGEND) score. Many of those scores include sampled orchestral instruments, like the TERMINATOR orch blasts, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 strings (done with a NED synclavier) or the instruments used in a movie called THE FINAL APPROACH (also synclavier). See also, 2010 (SPACE ODYSSEY sequel) score.

There are many all digital scores, but a lot of them combine either samples and electronic, or samples and live players (solo instruments on certain tracks, which add realism).


Check out this 1991 movie scene, from FINAL APPROACH. Watch from 3:30 to about 8 minutes, which features a cool score and sound FX. I believe most (or all) of the music and FX were done on the synclavier sampling system.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2srIjpsYaU



TERMINATOR orchestra samples, with electric violin player:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KeniFoiT-0


Of course, a lot of indies use East/West and Vienna Symphony style sample libraries. Check out the TERRITORY 8 trailer music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIRGrw62IAc

Nice to know. Good examples. Also to clarify, I said 'digital' in my thread's title but I meant any sampler digital or analogue that was connected and played through DAW software and composed in the DAW software.
 
To a large extent, you're ignoring the development of synthesised/digital music and therefore asking a question which doesn't make much sense or which isn't really relevant. The first film with a synthesised score was Forbidden Planet (1956), although it obviously wasn't created in a DAW, as DAW software didn't really mature enough until about 15-20 years ago. Scores were created in computers before this though, using MIDI sequencing (rather than DAW) software, starting around the mid '80s.

Specifically orchestral sampled scores didn't come on the scene until much later and were generally used for testing/approval purposes before recording a live orchestra. The first major film I'm aware of which used a synth orchestra was Gladiator but that was a synth orch mixed with a live orchestra. Quite a few major films have done this since, Avatar for example. Sample orchestras have gradually improved over the years and the best ones are now pretty close to the real thing. However, you have to take into consideration several facts: Some instruments have been effectively perfected, the piano being an obvious example, and the string instruments very nearly so but the brass is not as good yet and some of the woodwind instruments are a bit ropey. To use a sampled orch so it's indistinguishable from the real thing, means composing around the weaknesses, using expensive sample libraries and very powerful computer systems (often two, powerful, linked computer systems in the case of a full symphony orch), plus considerable knowledge and even more computing power to mix the orch samples convincingly. A pro system (just the samples and computer/s playing back those samples) is likely to cost $20k -$40k, which might sound like a lot but it's about a third of the price of just one day of recording with a good quality live orch.

There's no absolute rule about all this, it's entirely budget dependent. Low budget TV will use cheap composers, using cheap orch sample libraries which don't require masses of computing power. Higher budget TV and micro budget films will expect far higher quality. The highest budget TV and low budget films will generally require the very best which is possible with sampled orchs but more commonly will require live musicians mixed in with the samples or just the live musicians. Blockbusters will sometimes use a full live symphony orch plus sampled orch to create a sort of super orch. There is the occasional exception to these rules of thumb and the situation is fluid, as computer power increases and as sample libraries and their software improves.

BTW, the best orch sample library is not created in samplers or VST plugins, it's run on proprietary software rather than a DAW but provides VST, AU and AAX plugins for routing it's outputs to a DAW. This is mainly because of the limitations of MIDI.

G
 
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