Scoring Session 101 - Part 6: Recording 2

One of the most important things when recording real musicians is to be efficient and precise when communicating with them.  Having a clear vision of how things should sound is great but if you are unable to communicate this to them, it's not going to be a particularly pleasing end result.

It of course helps to have a knowledge about orchestration and instrument's specifics as the musicians will most likely have more respect if they realize that there is someone who knows what they are talking about in the booth. Also, being proficient in the instrumentation side of things will most likely make your communication clearer and less of a trial and error.

Ideally, the scores and parts should be as precisely written as possible to avoid any guesswork on the musician's side but there are certain parameters that can not be notated that will still cause a need for communication during the session.

And even if your instrument or notation knowledge is limited, there are ways to communicate that will be clearly understandable by the players. In fact, I have worked for clients who knew almost nothing about orchestral instruments and still were able to communicate their musical intention during the session through more broad terms like "Play it as if you were scared" etc.

Nevertheless, there are some communication standards that you should follow in a scoring session to make the session as smooth as possible and also to keep the spirits up.

The usual communication chain from the booth to the orchestra is through the conductor. He or she will listen to what you have to say and what you want to be changed and translate or distribute your comments to the musicians.

Most scoring sessions have set up two technical paths to communicate. The first one is a speaker in the room so everybody can hear what you're saying, the other one is a direct feed to the headphones of the conductor so the musicians will not be hearing what you say.

The second one is psychologically not great and should be avoided if possible. In fact, some studios (like Teldex) consciously don't have that path of communication as it will drag down the mood if musicians have the feeling that someone from the booth is talking about them "in private". So even if you address something to the conductor, you should prefer pressing the button that puts you on the speaker for everybody to hear.

Depending on your proficiency and experience in leading scoring sessions, you can even communicate with musicians directly and specifically ask things like "Trumpets, bar 49, forte" as such a clear indication doesn't need to be repeated or translated by the conductor. However, this is a delicate matter as you should not constantly undermine the authority of the conductor and let them feel like a visual metronome, so it is always a good idea to involve them in the discussion. For example the direction from above you could also direct at the conductor like "Trumpets, bar 49, this was a bit on the soft side for us here, we would tend to have it a bit louder, how was the balance out there?"

Things will go wrong in a scoring session, entrances will be missed, notes will be out of tune or misread, timing will be loose etc. There usually is no need to address this with the musicians as they will know when they did wrong. Only when things are repeatedly happening or you are working on the details, it might be a good idea to address specific issues. Especially things that are not clearly audible for the musicians in the room are worth addressing. Things like "Horn 1, bar 24, that concert F was a bit flat" are reasonable comments as the player might not hear the other musicians as well as you do in the booth. But again, this is a very delicate matter. Try to avoid singling out individual musicians in your comments if possible. Especially if it happens repeatedly, they might feel like being picked on which will kill the mood. This is particularly not necessary on obvious mishaps that they are completely aware of and already mildly annoyed about.

Sometimes on repeated problems that are obvious it might be a better idea to deflect the problem to something else. "We need to do another take as we had a noise somewhere in the room" is better than "Horn 1, you missed that note again, let's do one more". They know that they missed the note and appreciate if you don't point at them with the finger but give a plausible reason to do one more take (even if it's a lie).

Musicians also appreciate if you involve them in decisions. It is better to ask on a loud and taxing piece something like "Brass, are you okay to do one more take of this or shall we focus on another section frst to give you some rest?" instead of "Ok, let's do one more". These things help to keep up the spirit and give the musicians the feeling that you know what they are going through.

Even though many of them are professionals and behave professionally they still appreciate once in a while to be praised for particularly good playing. "Wonderful playing by the Celli bars 30-34" will lighten the mood. In fact, even critizism can be sugarcoated like that. Especially on passages that are tricky and are already past a "normal amount of takes", it might be helpful to address issues like "That sounds great already, I love the tone, we just need to make sure that bar 36 is better together".

Especially in tight sessions and after tricky cues, it will be very helpful to lighten the mood once in a while with some fun comment. Usually the conductor will take over the task to balance between concentration and light mood but if you can contribute to that balance from the booth it is an even more enjoyable experience for everybody.

You should also make sure to not just be "that voice from the booth" but personally pay your gratitude for their work by starting off the session with shaking hands with conductor and concert master and explaining a bit what the project is and what to expect. Even though many composers feel intimidated speaking in front of an orchestra, it is really worth doing as it will raise motivation. Also, after the last take you should come out again and thank the conductor and concert master again through a handshake and address some words of gratitude into the room.

The most important thing is to see the conductor and musicians as fellow artists and not as your employees. If you communicate in that spirit, your session will run smoothly and you can be sure that the musicians will give everyting they have to deliver their best possible performance.