'When You Use Real Instruments Instead Of Synthesizers'

***Panther_99FS*** · April 14th, 2010, 20:33

Note the sound/harmony of the strings, horns, and woodwinds....

[youtube]Lum4usLXMO4[/youtube]

***PRB*** · April 14th, 2010, 20:41

I agree. I love it when good rock bands use huge (real) orchestras. It makes for a rich and deep and complete sound. Good stuff.

***TARPSBird*** · April 14th, 2010, 20:49

Panther, you come up with some good videos.

***Panther_99FS*** · April 14th, 2010, 21:02

Originally Posted by PRB

I agree. I love it when good rock bands use huge (real) orchestras. It makes for a rich and deep and complete sound. Good stuff.

Agreed 100%....

**David_L6** · April 15th, 2010, 02:41

Originally Posted by PRB

I agree. I love it when good rock bands use huge (real) orchestras. It makes for a rich and deep and complete sound. Good stuff.

I agree. The Moody Blues live at Red Rocks is another good example.

harleyman · April 15th, 2010, 03:05

Originally Posted by PRB

I agree. I love it when good rock bands use huge (real) orchestras. It makes for a rich and deep and complete sound. Good stuff.

Then you should listen to the Metalica double CD of them with the Los Angeles Philharmonic..the entire HUGH Orchestra is Miked up...Outstanding...

**Quixoticish** · April 15th, 2010, 06:55

If there is one sound that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end it's the sound of an orchestra tuning up just before a performance.

There is a real palpable sense of excitement, a feeling that something spectacular is about to occur.

It is something of a quiet cacophony, with moments of absolute lucidity when you catch the odd strain or melody of something you recognise amidst the commotion.

Wonderful.

**cheezyflier** · April 15th, 2010, 07:29

i like when orchestras play classical music. i hate it when rock bands use them in an effort to appear more artsy.
case in point, mettalica. as for elton john, he's not on my radar

**TomSteber** · April 15th, 2010, 07:32

Kansas was just here a couple of weeks back and played with the Green Bay Symphony.
Too bad I was out of town. Heard it was great!

**Brian_Gladden** · April 15th, 2010, 07:47

Meatloaf with the Melbourne Symphony is awesome. I have the DVD but I could only find this audio only vid on youtube

[YOUTUBE]ZfMubD4kJTk[/YOUTUBE]

Brian

**Bjoern** · April 15th, 2010, 17:00

Never quite got the grip of the concept of "famous dude/gal/band forms up with big orchestra from xyz and plays their music the classic way".
It's either entirely classical or entirely modern for me. But something in between? No, thanks.

Ken Stallings · April 15th, 2010, 17:41

Originally Posted by Bjoern

Never quite got the grip of the concept of "famous dude/gal/band forms up with big orchestra from xyz and plays their music the classic way".
It's either entirely classical or entirely modern for me. But something in between? No, thanks.

Wow! A rather surprising personal decision to limit the scope of one's musical sources!

In truth, this combination is entirely natural and has been a hallmark of rock and roll since the start. Buddy Holly was doing this -- putting full orchestration together with his music on stage. It was awesome!

The thing I don't often see is bands putting a large group of guitars together as happens routinely with violins. Take 20 acoustic guitars playing together. That would be a rich and powerful as any symphony string section working together!

Ken

**cheezyflier** · April 15th, 2010, 20:42

Originally Posted by Ken Stallings

The thing I don't often see is bands putting a large group of guitars together as happens routinely with violins. Take 20 acoustic guitars playing together. That would be a rich and powerful as any symphony string section working together!

Ken

in your mind (mine as well) it sounds like a great idea. but in reality, it's VERY difficult to pull off. the "sound" becomes too "fat" and it just doesn't work out most of the time. i briefly experimented with this idea many years ago with a project called "the mountain band". we had 5 guitarists, 2 bass players, 2 drummers, and 5 singers. it was a nightmare for the sound guy, let alone everyone else. it has been done effectively but it's really tough to pull off.

speaking of strings, one of the reasons i love the twelve girl band so much is because they play a blend of folk, modern, and classical, and chinese, but with traditional chinese instruments that go back more than a thousand years. so it's classical, but yet it's not. it's rock, (some of it) but it's not. it's "ethnic", but in more than one way. that, and the skill involved is monumental. i would love to try this piece with all guitars:

[YOUTUBE]qEuMcHh1KhQ&[/YOUTUBE]

**MudMarine** · April 15th, 2010, 21:14

Originally Posted by Ken Stallings

Wow! A rather surprising personal decision to limit the scope of one's musical sources!

In truth, this combination is entirely natural and has been a hallmark of rock and roll since the start. Buddy Holly was doing this -- putting full orchestration together with his music on stage. It was awesome!

The thing I don't often see is bands putting a large group of guitars together as happens routinely with violins. Take 20 acoustic guitars playing together. That would be a rich and powerful as any symphony string section working together!

Ken

Just goes to show what a personal experience music is to each person! AC/DC with a string section........NEVER; bagpipes are ok!!

**tonybones2112** · April 15th, 2010, 22:00

Sometimes orchestra can be integrated successfully, as a rule I don;t care for the mix. Deep Purple's actual first album with Glover and Gillain was the one they did with the London crew.It rocked. The Moodys and Yes are favorites of mine, Led Zeppelin had a string and brass set for the song Kashmir, it really worked. The Beatles did some great work too with orchestras. Black sabbath integrated Tibetan monks into Sabotage in 1975 and was great. In 1966 The Outsiders had a spiffy little brass section in their one hit, Time Won't Let Me.

The king of them all was Mason Williams and Classical Gas from 1968.

There is next to no, what was once called, progressive rock left, but I think orchestras worked with the right groups, I just would not base a band on it.

"Now in darkeness world stops turning,
Ashes where the body's burning
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of God has struck the hour..."

Bones

***TARPSBird*** · April 15th, 2010, 22:35

Different strokes for different folks. Ya post your video, some folks like it and some don't. I'm no musician but I'll betcha if Charlie Daniels got together with that 12 Girl Band they could come up with a very unique version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". :d

**Bjoern** · April 16th, 2010, 11:40

Originally Posted by Ken Stallings

Wow! A rather surprising personal decision to limit the scope of one's musical sources!

My friends call me a "music nazi". :d

Very rough rule of thumb for my musical scope: Bass, guitar, drums. Makes for the best bands. You don't even need a specialized singer either.

***Henry*** · April 16th, 2010, 12:12

thanks P
very powerful
beats synthesizers any day
speaking of the moody blues
they used to use a melotron
basically a keyboard with tapes of a particular instrument
nothing beats a human musician
as far as a bunch of guitars goes
here in shreveport lives a guy called James Burton
some of you may know who he is
last year he went for the record of i believe 2000 guitars
playing at the same time
he came up short but a fine musican
and a great guy to help others
H

**Odie** · April 16th, 2010, 12:57

I remember when Emerson, Lake, & Palmer came to the forefront in the 70's using a lot of synth in their music. Let's see, 70's was how many decades back...Ack, I can't be that old!

**Snuffy** · April 16th, 2010, 13:04

Originally Posted by Bjoern

Never quite got the grip of the concept of "famous dude/gal/band forms up with big orchestra from xyz and plays their music the classic way".
It's either entirely classical or entirely modern for me. But something in between? No, thanks.

Must have a problem then with this:

[YOUTUBE]Oy_PxHOuwGw[/YOUTUBE]

Ken Stallings · April 16th, 2010, 14:27

Originally Posted by MudMarine

Just goes to show what a personal experience music is to each person! AC/DC with a string section........NEVER; bagpipes are ok!!

I bet you AC/DC would translate into a symphony orchestra show very, very well -- excellently in fact!

Imagine the intro guitar solo in "Thunder" being played by a standard string section.

Oh yeah! I can see that being rather tasty indeed!

Ken

**Snuffy** · April 16th, 2010, 14:30

AC/DC eh?

Try this ...

[YOUTUBE]RVMuhUBvpbk[/YOUTUBE]

Ken Stallings · April 16th, 2010, 14:37

And Ed, the video you posted was awesome!

Ken

Ken Stallings · April 16th, 2010, 17:58

Originally Posted by cheezyflier

in your mind (mine as well) it sounds like a great idea. but in reality, it's VERY difficult to pull off. the "sound" becomes too "fat" and it just doesn't work out most of the time. i briefly experimented with this idea many years ago with a project called "the mountain band". we had 5 guitarists, 2 bass players, 2 drummers, and 5 singers. it was a nightmare for the sound guy, let alone everyone else. it has been done effectively but it's really tough to pull off.

speaking of strings, one of the reasons i love the twelve girl band so much is because they play a blend of folk, modern, and classical, and chinese, but with traditional chinese instruments that go back more than a thousand years. so it's classical, but yet it's not. it's rock, (some of it) but it's not. it's "ethnic", but in more than one way. that, and the skill involved is monumental. i would love to try this piece with all guitars:

That was great! Yeah, I think that would sound powerful with acoustic guitars.

Ken