Film Orchestration - Part 8 - Brass Section 2 - Seating

For no other section in the orchestra the seating of the instruments is more relevant to the overall sound than the brass section. Particularly in scores that make use a lot of it, the seating of the brass should be a very conscious decision.

There are two main reasons why brass seating influences the sound alot. First of all there is the sheer volume of the section, especially when they play in loud dynamics. They will easily dominate the sound unless you employ percussion grooves that might be even more prominent in the perception. But with traditionally more sparse percussion writing, the brass will dominate. If you want to boil it down even further, the section leaders of each brass section will define the sound. First Horn, first Trombone but most importantly first Trumpet will put their sound on top of the entire orchestra. The first trumpet player is probably THE most sound defining player in the entire orchestra and the difference between a great and a bad lead trumpet while all other parameters remain the same can not be understated. Several times I made the experience how an entire orchestra sounds and even plays differently when there is a great lead trumpet player in it and the music is brass heavy.

The second reason why the brass seating is so essential is the strong directionality of the players. 80% of the sound of brass instruments comes out of the bell. Consequentially, it is much easier to pinpoint their location in the stereo field than with any other instrument.

These two main influence a lot of how the orchestra sounds.

Traditionally, we would have the Trumpets, Trombones and Tuba in the far right of the orchestra sitting in two rows behind each other (usually trumpets front row, trombones and tuba back row).

In a brass heavy, loud score this seating can cause a considerable drift of the perceived center of the orchestra to the right. If these loud and heavy instruments play a lot and create a lot of clearly directional volume from the far right side, the stereo image of the orchestra can quite easily become "limp-sided".

The usual counterweight to this are the horns who sit in the far left corner of the orchestra. Traditionally, the horn quartet sits in two rows of two players each. However, horns project their sound backwards so they are not as directional but also not as loud as trumpets and brass as their sound usually reflects from a back wall to the front of the orchestra.

In a classical orchestra setup with constrained brass writing these balance issues will not be a big problem, however with film and media music usually being quite brass heavy (and also considering the gigantic line-ups discussed in the last part), it is usually a good idea to take some counter measures.

If space permits, we quite often see trumpets being moved closer to the center of the stage, not sitting in two rows together with the low brass but having them all sit in one row starting at the center of the stage (with the first Trumpet) and spreading out to the far right to the Tuba. 

We can see this seating in this picture from Air at an isolated brass session:

This kind of seating only works in very large spaces or isolated sessions as usually there is not enough space between the woodwinds and timpani to squeeze the trumpets in. But if space allows, it is extremely beneficial for the overall sound to have the trumpets in the center.

On the picture above we see another more unusual thing which are the horns on the left. In classical seating you would have them always sit in two rows. In this case the 6 horns would be sitting in 2 rows of three behind each other. This again is usually a space issue but also has the advantage of the players hearing each other better and being able to interact as a section better.

However this seating on one row has a striking advantage which is the more filmic sound. In a double row, the front row basically plays into the back row which diffuses and absorbs the sound and makes it even less directional. With all horns sitting in one row, they all project towards the back wall with a relatively clear reflection from there into the room. They also take up more space in the stereo field so the usual result of this single row seating is for the lack of a better word a more epic horn sound. In instances where balance with the low brass on the right side is needed, it really helps to have the horns sit like this. Again, as mentioned above, this comes at a price of intonation and interaction between the horn players as the outermost players of this single row will barely hear each other and when they need to play a unison line tightly, this can cause problems and need a few more takes to get right but from my experience, the "film horns" sound you get with a single row outweighs the cons of this configuration.

Again, the decision for this is whether the space allows for such a seating. In small spaces like for instance Smecky Studio in Prague, there is no chance to divert from the standard seating with a full orchestra but large Studios like Abbey Road definitely allow to adjust the seating to the needs of the music.

All these considerations from above are only relevant if the music has a lot of loud brass passages in there. Soft brass chord pads etc. don't really need such a consideration as in such cases the brass section will not be dominating the overall sound.

With individual brass sessions, it is possible and common to push these seating considerations even further. Again, Hans Zimmer is well known for using the room he records in to its maximum extents. Particularly the former church that now is Air Studios is predestined for seating experiments as it has surrounding galleries in the room. For instance for Gladiator, Hans Zimmer placed 16 horns in four groups of 4 players center stage, gallery left, gallery center and gallery right basically creating a larger than life horn sound that was filling the entire space of the room.

It makes a lot of sense to have a clear idea of the seating and space before writing and orchestrating the music as you can use this knowledge in the music. For instance with traditional seating of the brass in the far left and right corners, it is possible to write music that uses a back and forth between horns and tpts/tbns and create a stereo effect with it, which you don't get if the trumpets sit center. However with the trumpets sitting more to the center, you don't need to worry about brass voicings falling apart in the space and you can allow for more experimental voicings that wouldn't work that well in a traditional seating.  For instance creating a brass voicing that excludes trombones/tba could very easily create the feeling of two distinct elements with a traditional seating which might not be desirable if you go for homogenity of the voicing. With trumpets basically sitting next to the horns, this issue is considerably less problematic.

So whenever there is some flexibility to talk about brass seating in a recording, it is a good idea to consider these options and chose according to what the music needs. However, you should stick to one configuration throughout the entire project, as it might technically not be possible to change halfway through but also might change the sound of the music in a way that it doesn't feel like a homogenous recording anymore when listening to different tracks of the same score where there are noticable changes in who sits where (unless of course this is part of the concept).