Trailer Music: Hybrid Orchestral 2022 – Randon Purcell

1 Let’s talk about the basics

The first section focuses on some of the fundamentals of hybrid orchestral trailers. Randon discusses the different acts of a trailer, the general structure and length for each of the acts, and some best practices to help make your music easier for a trailer editor to use. Finally he explores some helpful tips and ideas for each of the 4 acts.

This section will make sure you have a strong fundamental understanding of all the concepts Randon is going to build upon. After this section you are well prepared for the more advanced concepts in later sections.

He covers topics like:

• fundamentals of hybrid orchestral trailers
• structre
• best practices
• tips on each act

2 Favourite instruments and libraries

Randon is often asked what libraries and instruments he likes to use for hybrid orchestral music. With so many options out there on the market, it can be overwhelming and difficult to choose. In this section, Randon will discuss a number of his favorite instruments for this style of writing, complete with some examples of how they sound and how he likes to use them. Randon explores percussion libraries, brass libraries, string libraries, synths, trailer FX and some favorite audio processors. He teaches his students how to achieve a huge and impactful sound by layering different instruments and effects.

This section will equip you with everything necessary to create largen than life tracks.

You will learn about Randon’s:

• layering techniques
• essential sound combinations
• favourite sample libraries
• favourite plugins
• favourite synths

3 Fundamentals

After building the strong fundamentals in the previous lessons, section 3 is where the fun really begins.

Randon jumps right into action by guiding you through different composing workshops. He dives deep into writing for the various instrument and fx groups such as strings, brass, percussion, synths and more.

By following Randon as he composes live and unscripted, you will gain a deep understanding on how to write for the different orchestral sections.

Randon made sure to include all the midi files for his students to study, to provide even deeper insights on how he approaches orchestral writing.

To finish of this section Randon explores the writing of Ostinati. As Ostinati are so common and such a powerful tool, this workshop will make sure you are well equipped with techniques on how to write them.

He teaches:

• how to write for strings
• how to write for brass
• how to write for percussion
• how to write for synths
• how to write ostinati

4 Ground Up Composition

Building on all previous sections and especially the individual workshops, Randon dedicates section 4 on composing a complete hybrid orchestral track from beginning to end.

Students follow Randon in realtime, composing his next trailer hit, while absorbing every detail of the production process. This makes sure they will gain a deep understanding of a proper workflow and all the compositional aspects of producing hybrid orchestral music.

Randon starts out by sketching the piece and explaining his thought process. Based on this sketch Randon then starts producing the different acts of his piece. To finish up this wonderful section Randon mixies his complete track so that it can be presented to major publishers.

Follow Randon:

• structuring a track
• sketching out a track
• creating act 1-4
• layering instruments
• using fx
• mixing the complete track

5 Deep Dive: “Black Mirror”and “Chaos Theory”

In section 5, Randon dives into his track, “Chaos Theory”, published by Exodus Music. This track has been used in World of Warcraft advertising campaigns and is definitely more of a standard trailer format for an action-based hybrid orchestral piece.

Randon starts with an overall analysis of the track and follows up with an exploration of each of the acts, breaking them down into each of the instrument groups and showing examples of layering and composition for each group.

Randon then walks you through a second track called “Black Mirror”, published by InfraSound Trailer Music. This track would fall into the “slow burn” side of hybrid orchestral music, which can be very different from your typical action hybrid orchestral trailer.

In a last bonus deep dive video, Randon analyzes the music used for the course introduction itself. Strings, brass, percussion, FX all explored in detail.

He teaches:

• how to focus on ideas
• how to make your tracks licenseable
• how to write for the different sections
• how to structure a track