Russians // Orchestral Backing track

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Soundcloud version-audio only: https://soundcloud.com/jeffhijlkema/russians-orchestral-backing-track

November 1985, when I was a sweet 13 years of age, I instantly bought the EP vinyl from the song Russians, by Sting. It’s main instrumental chorus melody, based upon the Romance theme from the Lieutenant Kijé Suite by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, made a huge impression. It was the first time classical music was introduced to me, while as I went looking for the original I was stunned by it’s bald power and great colouring of all these different instruments all together. Now 40 years later I arranged a orchestral backing track of this song, of which the political theme is pretty actual and happening. To really finalize this project I’m still looking for someone to sing the vocal part, as this orchestral backing track contains none of Sting’s singing melody.

The intro and outro I additionally composed as an extra for this orchestral arrangement. With the rest I followed the original song structure and form. I choose to sort of temper the verses to rather softly accompany the singer, and thereby create huge contrast by arranging a powerful chorus, where the first chorus is still sort of gentle, and the 3rd is the biggest, going to the max within the boundaries of my orchestra. The original song is in g minor, however I choose to take it up half a step, to A-flat minor, because I like the sound of it more, using my favorite vst's. Beneath you’ll find some more detailed information on this mockup production.

My orchestral palette:

BBCSO Pro Woodwinds:
- Piccolo
- Flute 1-2
- Oboe 1-2
- English horn
- Clarinet 1-2
- Bassoon
- Bass clarinet

BBCSO Pro Brass:
- Trumpets a3
- Horn 1-2
- Horns a4
- Trombones a3
- Contrabass Trombone
- Tuba

Albion One & Albion Iceni Brass:
- Brass high (One)
- Brass mids (One)
- Brass low (Iceni)

BBCSO Pro Strings (100%):
- Violins 1
- Violins 2
- Violas
- Celli
- Basses

Appassionata Strings (80%):
- Violins 1
- Violins 2
- Violas
- Celli
- Basses

Spitfire Chamber Strings (80%):
- Violins 1
- Violins 2
- Violas
- Celli
- Basses

BBCSO Pro Tuned percussion:
- Glockenspiel
- Celeste
- Harp
- Timpani
- Tubular Bells

BBCSO Pro - untuned percussion:
- Triangel
- Tam Tam
- Cymbals
- Piatti
- Tambourin
- Militairy drum
- Tenor drum

Hammers - untuned percussion:
- Snare drum
- Bass drum

Some mic settings:
BBCSO Pro: Mic mix preset 1, close mic around 30%, leader mics 45%.
Appassionata Strings: Mic mix preset 4
Spitfire Chamber strings: Close 80% - Tree 88%
Albion One: Close 25% - Tree 100% - Ambient 50% - Outriggers 80%
Albion Iceni brass: Close 25% - Tree 100% - Ambient 80% - Outriggers 50%
Where it's possible I tend to pan the close mic to where the instrument is in the orchestral spectrum. With BBCSO Pro this is easily done.

On all orchestral section busses I used Sonimus N-console, warm setting +2db. After that I did some linear EQ’ing and colouring EQ.

Reverb chain:
1. Liquid Sonics – Seventh Heaven – Scoring stage - 2.20 sec. (around -11db)
2. Fabfilter – Concert hall Amsterdam classic – 2.94 sec. (around -6 db)

After the mixing I did do some very little mastering on the stereo buss, then exporting the track on 64 bit float, doing a seperate mastering in a new Cubase file.

Mix Stereo buss mastering chain:
- Sonimus Virtual Mixbuss – default setting (+12db)
- UAD Oxide Tape recorder – default setting
- Fabfilter Pro EQ3 for surgical EQ
- Fabfilter Pro Mb Multiband compressor -3 db 150 Hz and lower
- Audioscape AS MK 609 compressor -3db (+3 db gain reduction)
- Fabfilter L2 Limiter Modern preset, -9 LUFS, +2db gain.

Final Mastering chain:
- Sonimus Virtual mixbuss – 4 db
- Fabfilter Pro EQ3
- UAD Manley Massive Passive EQ, boosting around 68Hz and 12k, cutting around 390Hz.
- UAD Manley Stereo Variable Compressor, around -2db Medium attack and release.
- Avalon VT 747 sp EQ, boosting little around 32Hz, 5k and 32k, cutting around 500Hz.
- Fabfilter C2 compressor, -2db, ratio 2:1. Medium attack and release
- Solid State Logic Fusion Stereo Image 1.8 db, all above 400Hz
- Fabfilter L2 Limiter Modern preset, -12LUFS, 8db gain, oversampling 8x, -6 dBTP

The photo’s of the ‘Amsterdam Concertgebouw’ (Amsterdam Concert Hall) are chosen because of the fact that I used a fair amount of Fabfilter Amsterdam Concert Hall reverb. As I like it's strong classical sounding atmosphere.

If you like what I do consider subscribing, as I post this kind of stuff on a regular basis. Feel free to ask for more info down in the comments ;-)

Be well,
Jeff Hijlkema