Creating an Otherworldly Soundtrack with Avid Tools
While no one will deny Hollywood’s tendency to overuse clichés like “years in the making” to hype their wares, director James Cameron’s Avatar is one project that truly fits the description. Cameron reportedly began working on the movie’s script as early as 1994, but waited until 2005 for technological advances to catch up to make the computer graphics-heavy movie. Technology is also what fueled composer James Horner’s compelling soundtrack, which breaks new ground, both sonically and technically.
Horner, whose previous collaborations with Cameron include Aliens and the Oscar-winning score for Titanic, took on a more experimental approach with this project than he normally would. “I didn’t rely on a written score for large parts of the film,” he says. “Instead, I improvised much of the score against the picture. There was no orchestra involved until the end — just me playing the parts into the film, using an electronic instrument or a piano. I find myself trying to move slowly away from writing conventional orchestral music, incorporating other instruments into my scores that don’t necessarily play orchestral music.”
Musically, the flexibility of virtual instruments within the Pro Tools HD® environment played a large part in Horner’s creative process, allowing him to sculpt sonic textures with little resemblance to terrestrial sounds. “More and more I’ve felt encumbered by traditional Western orchestral music, and have been experimenting with adding instruments that don’t necessarily play Western notes, or utilize Western tunings, or are even considered conventional instruments per se,” he explains.
For scoring mixer Simon Rhodes, the integration of Sibelius® into Pro Tools HD software was key to blending the score’s synthetic and orchestral elements. “Because of the way James is working, much of what he’s creating is being recorded, but not written down,” says Rhodes. “We need a record of what’s being played and what sounds he’s putting in. That’s where using Pro Tools and Sibelius really play a role, to transparently keep track.”
“We use Sibelius to notate what I’ve written and get it to the copyists,” Horner explains. “Much of what I’ve played doesn’t necessarily fall into the realm of standard notation. Sibelius becomes something of a translation tool, and we use it to figure out what I’ve done and reinterpret it so it can be played again by an orchestra… Pro Tools and Sibelius are tools that allow me to be more creative, by allowing me to think about the technology as little as possible.”
“It’s an elaborate yet intuitive workflow,” electronic music arranger Simon Franglen, adds, explaining how after they generate a tempo map from Horner’s cues, he mocks up the non-synthetic elements (which will be later replaced by the orchestra), and then uses a range of plug-ins to lay down the score’s electronic and rhythmic elements to achieve the otherworldly textures of Horner’s vision.