Welcome back! Episode 4 of "What Lies Beneath" I'm Vito Lo Re and by my side is always Fabrizio Campanelli and today after having seen in the past episodes, by the way, have you subscribed? Have you hit the bell? Have you left a like? Have you left comments? After talking for 3 episodes - which actually are very few - and having done a nice overview on John Williams, from a musical perspective today we're going to flush the spider out of its hole, why?

We had left off right with the sound... We had promised it and we always keep promises... almost always! And let's talk about the sound of John Williams, that is how he cares, chooses, also manages his style, his sonic timbre, because each composer has his own stylistic signature, his sound. His own sound is recognizable, you can recognize Thomas Newman's sound, Look, I was saying: "Think about Thomas Newman's sound!" Maybe because one day we will also talk about him ... but who knows, who knows...

a very near future! So, let's analyze how John Williams' sound develops and how it is also recorded and even how the orchestra's layout is chosen; but let's, as they say, take a step back. Jurassic Park has a peculiarity: it is the first film whose soundtrack recordings were not directly overseen by Spielberg. Was he on vacation? We might say he was in Can we say he was in a study-vacation, because he was shooting Schindler's List. Realize what that means: switching within a very short period between two such different films.

I call you and say "Vito, will you come over? No, because I'm shooting Schindler's List." On set, Spielberg receives the cassettes. We're in 1993, there were still music cassettes. He listens to the tapes of the soundtrack that Williams is developing and thus he begins to play the themes; it's something that some directors still appreciate doing today. Hitchcock often did the same: frequently he would use music that might not necessarily end up in the film, but to set the mood; not to mention Fellini! Fellini would have Rota compose the music and then you know most of the actors would mouth numbers which were later dubbed over...

The sound of Jurassic Park is a big sound, truly wide, very wide. Not just because there was a huge orchestra. 16 first violins, 14 second violins... Woodwinds at will. Right. Loads of horns!

But also because there's a specific intent sound that is developed in collaboration with his sound engineer. In this case Sean Murphy. We will see how Sean Murphy decides to use some microphones rather than others, to develop one sound instead of another. In the meantime, let's hear the particularity of how different the sound is - as we mentioned in the first episode - how different are the sound of the soundtrack and the sound of the concert. Let's listen to the difference. This is the theme we know, the one from the soundtrack played at the Scoring Stage Studios; here instead the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Wiener in concert.

You see, first of all, it's faster, related to the concert and not to the film, which got a much slower pace, much more majestic. Here are the Wieners: not a small difference... The sound of the soundtrack, is much denser in the midrange, much less brilliant, much wider as a perspective. The sound a bit dryer, here probably beyond the added reverb, the room makes a big difference. Wiener Philharmoniker got a timbre balance very shifted in the high range, as we can hear... here.

The sound design is different. Satisfy a curiosity for me: do you think the fact that they were recorded 30 years apart changes something? Yes, it definitely changes as far as recording devices are concerned, back then it was recorded on tapes. Pay attention, even though at that time there were already digital multitrack devices on tape obviously, like the 3M and Sony PCM3348, Sean Murphy, the sound engineer on Jurassic Park who recorded and mixed the soundtrack, tells us in 1995 interview we link in the description, that he, although he used these digital systems to record soundtracks with many synths, he preferred the analog system to record orchestras for he thought the sound was better, allowing a better interface with John Williams' music editor, Ken Wannberg, who was a wizard working with magnetic tapes. The tape got a warmer sound more colored, obviously non-linear like digital, perfectly flat from start to finish, so let's say the best representation that can be of acoustic reality, which Sean Murphy appreciated, indeed we find it in the graphs of multitrack tape systems, very colored, very emphasized also on that low area, which gave us so much the feeling of warmth, of fullness, with a strong roll-off on very low frequencies, a very variable behavior in the mid-highs, which changed according to the recording speed and which offered that typical color of analog systems that today we can also have in our recordings with some emulation plugins, like this Universal Audio plugin which allows us to a have a more "colored" sound, much appreciated nowadays; a sound made of harmonic distortions we find totally sweet and agreable. Sean Murphy uses a recording model which dates back in the 1950s.

Everyone today still uses: Hollywood uses it, we use it. It's something born in the '50, called Decca Tree. Why is it called "The Decca Tree?" Well, because it was born in Decca Studios. Otherwise it would have been called "Philips Tree" or "EMI Tree," okay? But not just that. In London we have two Decca sound engineers Roy Wallace and Arthur Haddy who study how to evolve the sound of recordings that was moving out of mono.

And what do they do? They decide to build a tool with metal rods,to put three microphones on top. Which microphones? Three M49 microphones this. This is M149 which is the modern version of the M49 that were the first microphones to be mounted on this Decca Tree which is called Decca Tree because Haddy, walking in the studio, looks up, and says "It looks like a damn Christmas tree." Since then, looking at all this stuff, it will forever be called Decca Tree. So what did they use?

They used this microphone in the classic edition which is the same I use still today. The same that Goffredo Gibellini - my sound engineer - still uses on the Decca Tree. In the microphone field the structure is always the same, isn't it? As I always say: this microphone can last 100 years if you don't use for hammering a nail in a wall. Note that there are marks here which are the symbols of the polar pattern that gives the idea of how the capsule captures sounds around it. The polar pattern used in the Decca Tree is this all on the left, namely the "Omni" figure, So we specify though that this omni-directional pattern was not on the M49s, but on the M50s.

The M49s were "cardioid", for they captured a region of sound in front of them in the shape of a heart hence "cardioid" is the definition, while the M50s were only omni-directional. Thus the Decca Tree developed later by Kenneth Wilkinson used these microphones: the M50s. Then some engeneers used M49s and others used the M50s. As we see in the diagram, it was placed 3 meters above the conductor with two microphones on the right and on the left positioned towards the front of the orchestra used to reinforce the stereo image. I wonder if they realized they were making history in this field. Exactly, in fact we come to Jurassic Park and to Sean Murphy who tells us exactly what he used.

It gives us a way to introduce also the second part of the construction of the sound of the orchestra which is given by those called "spots," These are microphones that do not capture a panoramic view of the orchestra, but they specifically target the sections and give that sound more detailed, more close-up that allows us in the mix, to enhance the timbral character of the different instruments, to allow the possibility to have a more distant and wider sound front or a closer and more detailed one. How does Sean Murphy say he uses the spots? I'm all ears, tell me. Well, he doesn't want to use many spots, he uses three on the strings, more on groups than on individual instruments. Just like he uses the Decca, just like we all do, he tends to use three spots on the strings, three on the front of the woodwinds and then go to pick with stereo mics, not used to pan everything left and right as if it were a stereo front, but to take the small front given by the line of horns, for example a stereo, which then he will pan to the left because, as he says, he wants to reinsert on the sound front the original position of the horns as it relates to what the conductor hears. Similarly for the brass and he also tells us what he uses.

When for example he records the piano, he sometimes uses the U87 from Neumann; on percussions he uses some over-head mics, microphones that from above point down, but he uses spots for example on the timpani, where he needs them. It provides a combination that is not reproducible even with samples. This is one of the many reasons why you never use samples, you always record everything real. Everything I can I record real at most I use samples to sum, to go and enrich. We saw it last time! And in fact even our John Williams we have seen that he uses and we can also see here the photos - here is the piano - our John Williams loves to use synths, loves to use keyboards, but what does he do?

He records everything in the hall. So he doesn't just put a sequence after. Is there a synth to play? There is a keyboard player who plays the synth with his beautiful monitors as if it were a section of woodwinds, of brass or whatever else. So coming back to Sean Murphy, he loves to use few spots and utilize a distant sound. Thus the sound of John Williams that we hear is actually a sound chosen in collaboration with his sound engineer.

Note that John Williams arranges the orchestra in a classic manner: first and second violins side by side, violas in front, cellos, double basses, the woodwinds, brasses, horns almost always separated from the brasses, percussion at the back, piano and harp when necessary. Exactly, we also note that recording everything together, naturally with the spots there is an ease to go also to raise in the mix the individual sections. By the way let's remember something very important: Sean Murphy tells us that he uses the spots generally, about 6 dB below the sound of Decca Tree. This creates that typical sound of John Williams that we perceive as very wide, drawn quite distant and in this sense also monumental because we combine this distance with the numerousness, the vastness of the orchestra; we have the perception of something monumental. Let's see in detail though. Okay, the sound is created by the Decca Tree, is created by the spots, but synthesis how do how these microphones sound?

What is the difference? We have the possibility of picking up a track that I did for a documentary film soundtrack of which we can also see the photo of the recording session where I am at the top right. There it is. Then we see Enrico Goldoni who is conducting. We see above the conductor, Enrico Goldoni, the Decca Tree. We also see the two microphones to the side, one in front of me and one we see in front of the cello case, which are the two complements of the panoramic structure of the Decca Tree that we saw earlier in the diagram.

Here we see that we have the spots near the sections for I really like the "spotted" sound because I like more definition, I like to have incisiveness, I'm a harsh person and thus you want to impose your musical ideas Exactly. I'm not interested in vastness, I'm interested in harshness. Exactly. Less but more harsh! And so from this recording session we now go to listen to how the Decca Tree sounds and how the spots sound. This is the recording session with MIDI as well which represent a chapter that we will discuss in the future.

Here is the organ which is real organ, recorded near Monza. I know: you always record real istruments, not samples. Synths must do synths and real things must do real things. There aren't many other options. So let's go through our little mixing session. This was a project that I mixed myself in my studio because sometimes due to many reasons, it happens that I mix myself.

These are the individual microphones of the spots. First violins, abcd, second violins, abc, double basses, abc. All these end up in Goffredo's mixer which is a wonderful Neve 88, in my opinion the best mixer ever; and they are distributed across all channels. Now we are going to hear our Decca Tree and our spots. There are the 3 mics of the Decca Tree. Let's now hear the central one.

Here is a mixdown of the Decca Tree which I called "panorama" Now let's hear the left one and then the right one. No effetc is used; it's simply the sound coming out from the Decca Tree. Let's see how the spots sound instead. And now let's compare them with the sound of the panorama. Here it is. Now, besides the spatialization which is dictated by how you pan the sections how you narrow the stereo front, there is a very different focus on the instrument.

Here if we were to add the two this is the sound I generally achieve. Dry, no effects. Sean Murphy would keep it like this. This is the "John Williams sound": 6 dB between the spots and the Decca Tree. I'd rather prefer like to keep them a bit louder. Because you're arrogant.

Because I'm arrogant, harsh and a bad person. So the sound that we obtain then gets reverb obviously. I have here several reverbs, of course let's listen with just one reverb. We hear that we've created more dimensions in this room. So that if I stop we hear the "tail" of the reverb. So this is an example to make us understand how much we can vary the sound we get from the orchestra which has inside a multiplicity of variables that allow us to sculpt, in my opinion, our own sound.

Sound is a communication vehicle and we use it to share emotions through the scene we must write the music for. So the sound construction is a pillar of a soundtrack, especially nowdays. John Williams belongs to the Hollywood Golden Age and he reached incredible artistic goals but then the orchestral sounds has developed in a different way and has blended with electronic instruments. Just think about what Zimmer did! One day we'll talk about him. It's a different sound and a different way to use music in the movie; Tha's why having this know-how is so important.

It is. That's why we need to blend music with all other sounds a movie got, especially nowadays. Music must rely with many other people in a movie, such as the foley. One day we'll talk about what a sound-designer does. A movie hits us with so many sounds and music must find its own place In next episode we'll discover that John Willam's orchestra layout does not apply to "Mission Impossible" We'll find an orchestra layout that we often find in classical music; for example as Lorin Maazel did How did you find that? Got any secret agents?

This is a note of the Philharmonia Orchestra used during a tour in 2002 As you can see Violin 1 and 2 are not side by side but face to face; cellos on the left, violas here, woodwinds right here; trumpets and horns separated Timpani alwasy in the back and Double basses on the right rather than on the left. Violins are put as a stereo; this placement is particularly useful if we play something very rithmical. Playing something very thematic would rather have violins side by side, as John Williams does and as we do almost always. I'd say that we said a couple of interesting things, didn't we? So don't miss nex episode. Meanwhile please subscribe the channel, put a like and a comment.

See you next time with "The Mission Impossible sound". See you!