Is it possible to make instruments sound natural through audio editing like this?

[Brian Drysdale]

The music only helps if you're using some to get your thought processes going, however, the instrumentation shouldn't make much difference. I used the music I had used during the writing of the script as temp tracks, but it was the mood and tempo that mattered, not the instruments used. It was an eclectic mix that worked with the film, but the final sound track was more homogeneous in nature.

[Paul R Johnson]

I'm in the office, which has the cheapest version of Cubase installed on it - the Halion SE VSTi has two flutes that would fit perfectly sounding very similar to the clip you posted - it comes with the software. Buy your composer Cubase and stop worrying - and then maybe he can learn some modern music technology skills, which will have developed by the time your movie gets made?
This is what it looks like

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay thanks. Well my composer already has logic pro X, and he has a variety of instruments already on it. I just thought maybe we need more flutes to choose from buy maybe we don't... But is logic pro x, not up to task?

[Josh Bass]

I would think Logic is fine...theyre all just DAW programs that do the same thing in slightly different ways, just like various brands of video editing software.

I know Im farting into the wind at this point, but, again, instead of wasting your time with this (and it is at this stage a complete waste of time at this point since, as others have said, youve not even finished the script), you could use this downtime to make short films on your own, starring only yourself, and experiment with the seven million cinematography/sound/editing techniques youve asked about for the last two years. Thats what someone who REALLY wanted to get better at filmmaking would do.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. Well I have been expirementing more with the sound and editing. I usually like to leave the cinematography up to a seperate cinematographer while I direct, and thought that would be better, but I can expirement there as well.

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

The music only helps if you're using some to get your thought processes going, however, the instrumentation shouldn't make much difference. I used the music I had used during the writing of the script as temp tracks, but it was the mood and tempo that mattered, not the instruments used. It was an eclectic mix that worked with the film, but the final sound track was more homogeneous in nature.

Oh okay, maybe it's just the way I hear things, but to me, an instrument can make a huge difference in terms of feeling and tone, but that's just me.

[Brian Drysdale]

I think that's just you, it's how the musician plays an instrument together with the orchestration and arrangement that has the bigger impact than a particular instrument without these factors coming into play. Otherwise what you could do with instruments would be extremely limited.

Your difficulty in selecting an instrument would tend to confirm this.

You still seem to be copy and pasting. Thrillers can have many types of music, depending on their world. "The Third Man" used a zither, the composer was heard playing the instrument at a party in Vienna by the director.

The Third Man - Anton Karas - YouTube

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but I thought that different instruments would evoke a different feeling though. For example, if you were to take a piece like this and replace all the brass with strings, or non-brass instruments, wouldn't that give a very different feel:

Main Titles - YouTube

Or wouldn't a more electronic sounding track like this one, sound very different it were replaced with mostly brass?

To Live and Die In L.A. Track 5 “City Of The Angels” Wang Chung - YouTube

I think it would but that's just me. But also what makes you think I have difficulty selecting instrument. I picked a lot of the instruments I like so far, so why do you say I have difficulty?

As for copying and pasting, I don't want to copy and paste but I feel I need to give the composer some examples as to what I want, and then he can make it his own from there, as long as it's not hugely different from what I am looking for.

[Brian Drysdale]

You seem to obsessing about selecting instruments and then asking people, who don't know much about your proposed film, what they think about this instrument or that instrument. How do we know what will work with your film? That's for you to discover, you're the director. From your limited examples it sounds like copying and pasting.

A cigar box guitar might work just as well or better, we don't know.

Dusk Brothers - Hold On [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay thanks. I don't think that that guitar would work well for mine, at least not from hearing it in that playing style so far. But thanks. Well in terms if choice of instrument making a difference, in this track for example, which is also one of the example tracks, why did they choose a tuba?

Sub-Main Title / Cussing Out the Joker / I Had a Bad Day (From The Episode "Joker's Favor") - YouTube

If instruments don't matter so much, then why didn't they go with a double bass for example? Why did they choose a tuba specifically?

[Brian Drysdale]

They used the tuba because it can be a humorous instrument - the Joker. However, I suspect the director didn't sit with the composer saying I want a tuba.

[Ryan Elder]

Yeah I thought it was because the tuba was humorous. Well what I could do is let the composer do it without making suggestions, but if it doesn't sound humorous enough, should I just tell him that then, and then maybe he will pick more humorous sounding instruments? Or since it was suggested to me before on here, that maybe I shouldn't go for as humorous of a tone, perhaps a double bass would be better because then the music sounds a little humorous without being too humorous perhaps.

[Brian Drysdale]

If you tell them that you're after humour, a composer will know what to do with their instrument choice, without any backseat driving.

Edit Leave this to the composer. If they don't want the tuba to sound humorous, I'm sure they can do it.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but if I want them to pick something that sounds like brass or a viol, for the majority of it, is it okay to tell them that too without backseat driving?

[Brian Drysdale]

You can say you want a brassy sound, but it to them.

A more serious tuba

Heavy Tuba Experience "Sick Hammond" - YouTube