Hiring an Orchestra cost

[DDman465]

How much money would you need if you wanted to hire an entire small-medium orchestra?

[ForNoReason]

At 5/26/11 12:10 PM, DDman465 wrote: How much money would you need if you wanted to hire an entire small-medium orchestra?

A LOT! I would see if your city has a local orchestra and just ask if they would be willing to perform your music. If you wanted to hire them for an event then maybe they will take a donation. Most orchestra's that are hire-able will set you back thousands of dollars. That is why you should get friendly with your local musicians and see if there is a small town orchestra in your area that can help you out.

If anything you can go to the high schools or colleges in your area as well. Maybe for a donation to their band program they can help you out. Ask around.

[Rig]

$50 per hour per person. It will cost you tens of thousands of dollars, including renting out a studio and hiring the engineer to take care of it all.

[NickPerrin]

At 5/26/11 03:43 PM, Rig wrote: $50 per hour per person. It will cost you tens of thousands of dollars, including renting out a studio and hiring the engineer to take care of it all.

This. Renting out an orchestra is not only extremely expensive but the logistics are very complex. You would need to prepare far in advance to make sure everything follows a tight schedule because every minute costs money and the instrumentalists will fatigue.

If you haven't had anything recorded by a small orchestra before do that instead, like a community group or school/college/university orchestra or band, so you can get used to the arrangement difficulties and recording techniques.

The truth is though, apart from that kind of recording, a proper in-studio recording of a world-class orchestra is really only something you'd do if you A) are working on music for a big project with a big budget, like a AAA videogame title or a film, or B) are filthy rich and have too much money. Of course, an orchestra would more than likely reject an offer to record from an unknown with no big name to vouch for them, regardless of how much they could pay, because it would be a huge pain in the ass for that orchestra to have to deal with what might potentially be an incompetent recording crew (whether or not that's the truth)... Then again, orchestra members do practically live in poverty and might want any cash project they can get. Varies from group to group.

[Gario]

50$/hr/person sounds about right. Some orchestras offer fixed rates on a per minute of music basis, which could be a good deal if you want a large orchestra (generally in the range of 4k-5k per minute of music). Either way, though, it's expensive.

My suggestion, if you're near a university/conservatory - buy drinks for the school conductors and get to know them really well. Then BAM, hit them with a request to perform your music, and you set up recording equipment and capture the sound. Yay.

[GhandiBoi]

Theres plenty of thing you could do, and they really depend on the difficulty of the music, and the quality you'd like to hear based on that.

1) If you have an extremely difficult piece, you could hire a professional orchestra. It will cost you and it really depends on what you're willing to put into your project. Hiring the unexperienced will most likely not give you the sound you would like to hear.

2) If it's an easy piece, just try finding a local orchestra, such as one at a local high school. This is cheaper, and all you really need is a donation towards there fund. (Although don't randomly confront the orchestra demanding they play for you because you will pay them.) And make sure you have equipment for yourself, seeing as they probably won't have their own.

3) If you're really looking for cheap, just ask your friends. Your friends will probably have other friends (or even themself) who are willing to play for cheap, and it's an effective way at keeping the price low.

[BrokenDeck]

I can arrange a live demo via Skype if you're interested. I'm no live orchestra, but I have a decent setup that sounds close.

[Knoxius]

At 5/28/11 02:51 AM, brokendeck wrote: I can arrange a live demo via Skype if you're interested. I'm no live orchestra, but I have a decent setup that sounds close.

Vouch!

[Ahseyo]

Just get the Nexus plugs and use the Orchestra presets, do a little bit of tweaking and you're off.

[Decibel]

At 5/26/11 12:10 PM, DDman465 wrote: How much money would you need if you wanted to hire an entire small-medium orchestra?

May I ask why you would want an orchestra?

It would be cheaper to buy East/West stuff.

[Chris-V2]

At 5/28/11 01:05 PM, Decibel wrote:

May I ask why you would want an orchestra?

It would be cheaper to buy East/West stuff.

And you'd have East/West forever.