The Symphony Strike

July 6, 2022 9:29 PM

The Orchestra Hit (SLYT): the sound that connects Stravinsky to Bruno Mars. (Playlist, paper & app.)
posted by MollyRealized (8 comments total)

That orch hit is all over the soundtrack to Goldeneye for N64 and I'm only now realizing it's probably in part in reference to that Duran Duran track.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:56 PM on July 6, 2022

Has anyone tried remaking the orchestra hit by playing MIDI of the opening of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite through synthesised approximations of orchestral instruments (from multi-gigabyte samples to FM/analogue approximations)? And then varying the instrumentation to come up with new hits?
posted by acb at 3:11 AM on July 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

That orch hit is all over the soundtrack to Goldeneye for N64

Well they had like 700k for music so whatever samples they are using at all, they’re using heavily. For instance, that reverbs metallic submariney clang noise (it’s like every four measures for the whole Facility, which still has plenty of orch hits too)
posted by aubilenon at 7:15 AM on July 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I’m going to replace all the handclaps in my music with orchestra hits.
posted by njohnson23 at 10:07 AM on July 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

I recall trying out floor models of synthesizers in music shops and always going straight for the orchestra hit. Why pick anything else? It is the most instruments, an entire orchestra at once!

It and the breaking glass sound effect that's also mentioned in the video are just so audacious that they feel like musical in-jokes. I hope to see similar histories of the stuttering air horn for modern EDM or the sound of spent brass on concrete/distant sirens for future garage.
posted by subocoyne at 10:48 AM on July 7, 2022

I was so pleased when I found out the actual source of the hit, and it's become one of my favorite bits of mainstream musical trivia to share with folks
posted by rmd1023 at 10:59 AM on July 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I've had that Robert Fink article bookmarked for probably a decade and always meant to go back and make a proper radio documentary about it. I'm glad there's now enough popular scholarship out there that I don't have to.

(Also, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is the best orchestra hit.)
posted by mykescipark at 2:19 PM on July 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Fairlight Stravinsky ORCH2 orchestra hit was the original, though by the late 80s, other digital synth manufacturers had their own versions on this, which were a bit sharper and faster than the ancestral variant; presumably the manufacturers rerecorded the sounds, tweaking them to optimise their punchiness. The Korg M1 has an orchestra hit, and the Roland JV series have one along with several more electronic variants. You see the changes popping up in music: late-80s electronic pop/R&B of the La'Face/new-jack-swing era uses the sharper variants on an actual orchestra hit that came in the ROMs of digital synths, though by the time Lou Pearlman and Max Martin arrived on the scene, the fashion had shifted to the more electronic, eurodancey hits such as the one in the JV-1080, which had more shock and awe to them.
posted by acb at 10:58 AM on July 8, 2022