Jun 14, 2011 12:48 PM, By Mel Lambert

Hans Zimmer, Alan Meyerson Record Orchestral Cues for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Rodrigo Y Gabriela record at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions in Santa Monica

Photo: Steve Ellison

Orchestral players feel more at ease in an acoustic environment that responds to the music they are performing, and that creates an ambience similar to the soundfield found in a typical symphony hall. While working on film-score dates, the same sensibilities will favor a larger room capable of housing the orchestra or section and producing a reasonable reverberation time at midrange- and high-frequencies.

Hans Zimmer produced the score and composed the theme music for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

But what if the room being used is small and offers a modest reverberation time? One solution, as discovered by the music team working on the recent Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides film score, is to use a Meyer Sound Constellation Acoustic System to simulate the room acoustics of much larger spaces or environments that mimic the characteristic sound signature of landmark recording facilities.

“While planning to work on orchestral cues for Hans Zimmer’s score for Pirates of the Caribbean IV at Sony Pictures Studios’ Scoring Stage,” recalls scoring mixer Alan Meyerson, “we heard about a Constellation system that had been installed there temporarily. The results were impressive—it sounded really, really good. Hans was interested in using the system to mimic the sound of Air London’s large room [Lyndhurst Hall], one of his favorite spaces and one that has longer mid-frequency reverberation time than the Sony Stage, and a more ‘full’ and ‘warmer’ sound.” Zimmer has composed the scores for a large number of hit movies, ranging from Inception and The Dark Knight through Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl to The Lion King.

Scoring mixer Alan Meyerson

Photo: Mel Lambert, content-creators.com

“We were very pleased with the results we achieved for string and brass sections recorded at Sony Scoring,” Meyerson continues, “and later at Hans’ post facility, Remote Control Productions in Santa Monica, where we recorded woodwinds and then Spanish acoustic guitar with the duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela using a smaller Constellation system. At both Sony and RCP we were able to provide matching acoustics for the orchestral sections, and vary the RT60 to give us precisely the type of sound and ambience we were after. The livelier acoustic also helped the orchestral players hear themselves in a more reverberant environment.” Daniel Kresco engineered the RCP sessions.

While conceding that the Sony Scoring Stage is a “great sounding environment,” Meyerson considers that “it doesn't have the long reverberation time that Hans needed on some of the string cues” for Pirates IV. Also, because the 600-square-foot scoring stage at Remote Control is more compact, he says, “we could use the Constellation system [while recording the woodwinds] to extend the RT60 and match it to the space in which we tracked the strings.” Meyerson reveals that the computer-based Constellation system was used to achieve a mid-frequency RT60 of up to three seconds. “We dialed in different settings for different cues, with appropriate levels and ‘colors,’ dependent upon what ambience we needed.”

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