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Just curious, in a basic orchestral template, how many tracks would you assign to percussion and which instruments would you typically be using (timpani, cymbals, etc)?

hummingbird wrote:Just curious, in a basic orchestral template, how many tracks would you assign to percussion and which instruments would you typically be using (timpani, cymbals, etc)?

That might be difficult to answer. It's possible if most of the percussion came from one vst, and was mixed and arranged there, only 1?? But if you wanted different outboard effects on each instrument or effects on only part of the track to have several. The purpose of a template is to have tracks set for the instruments you personally know you will be using most often. It's probably easier to add them as needed, and not end up deleting most of them in a template, that defeats the purpose of a template.

Personally I try to fill up the frequency spectrum by using instruments in the desired range instead of EQ'ing, and this mainly applies to all the orchestral sections.
It makes it feel a bit fuller, but that's only my personal opinion.
So the percussion I use, usually, goes from low boom, to shakers and hi-hats, and cymbals of course and everything in between:
bass drum, hits, djuns, taikos,surdos, dohls, timpani, orchestral snare, anvils, and gongs.
But bear in mind, I mainly use these for epic bombastic trailer music.
If you're looking for percussion section that is purely orchestral, I'd say timpanis, snare drums, cymbals, triangle and anvils

It varies, but it's usually fewer than sixteen channels. Bass drum, tympani and snare are usually featured.