Spectrum

Harry Gregson-Williams: Follow Your Instincts

Harry Gregson-Williams is a world-renowned composer, orchestrator, conductor, and music producer. We caught up with him to talk about how he begins work on a new score, the importance of collaboration, and the valuable lessons he has learned throughout his prolific career.

LA Sessions

Larissa Ruppert: The Voice of ‘Two Against’

LA Sessions is Orchestral Tools’ new studio production toolkit assembled to recreate the sun-drenched LA studio sound. Because this collection is designed specifically for song production, we thought we would take the chance to speak to Larissa Ruppert, the voice behind Two Against—the song featured in the LA Sessions video. We spoke with Larissa to find out more about the track, and her musical journey so far.

Creative Soundpacks

Maenad: Introducing the verrophone

To celebrate the release of Orchestral Tools’ latest Creative Soundpack, we sat down with Philipp Marguerre—the musician behind the samples, and one of a handful of professional verrophone players—to talk about this unique instrument’s primitive origins, and how the verrophone is stepping out of its traditional setting to influence contemporary composers and producers.

Scoring Tools

Modus: Interview with Jeff Russo

Back in January 2019, Jeff Russo approached us about creating a custom library for his work on Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. This marked the beginning of Modus—Jeff Russo: The new toolset for TV and underscoring. In this interview, Jeff talks about the challenges in scoring for TV and how the unique articulations and features of Modus helped him overcome them.

Spectrum

Phoenix Orchestra: Meet Wan Pin Chu

Wan Pin Chu is an accomplished erhu player and talented film composer based in Hong Kong. He has written film scores that have made waves from his homeland all the way to Hollywood. We caught up with Wan to learn more about his progression into film composition, the challenges he has faced writing for both eastern and western audiences, and the difficulties of sampling Chinese instruments.

Creative Soundpacks

The Dagu road trip

Back in December 2018, we embarked on a road trip with composer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey, to visit some very special drums. We decided not only to film the experience but later to record these drums, sparking the beginning of our Creative Soundpack: Dagu—Chinese theater drums.

Spectrum

Phoenix Orchestra: Interview with Richard Harvey

Catch this short interview with Richard Harvey as he discusses his career, Chinese instruments, and the Phoenix Orchestra. Richard is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has collaborated with artists ranging from Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello to Hans Zimmer and John Williams. TV and film highlights include The Little Prince, Luther, and The Da Vinci Code.

Spectrum

Harry Gregson-Williams on writing the score for Mulan with Phoenix Orchestra

Commissioned to score Disney’s live-action Mulan movie, acclaimed composer Harry Gregson-Williams worked with Richard Harvey and Orchestral Tools to build the sample library that would become Phoenix Orchestra. In this video, Harry describes the challenges he faced, and how he overcame them. Essential viewing!

Magazine

Education at Orchestral Tools