Online database of instruments used in recordings?

[GeneralDisarray]

This is probably a dumb question, but I wonder if there is some kind of online database that has all the technical information about specific albums, beyond the typical metadata in ID3 tags, such as the instruments used in a film score or any other recording.

I'm trying to learn music and one thing I do is try to take apart songs in my favorite genre, which is film and TV scores, and trying to figure out which instruments are used and trying to replicate them. It's a fun process and I get most of them right, but there are some that escape me.

I know this probably doesn't exist, but I've been surprised in the past to find out things I thought "there's no way something like this exists" and it did, so I figured I'd look for it and didn't find anything, but maybe someone here knows.

[Atlas007]

That’s an interesting question. 

However, nowadays, lot of music being produced within the box (using samples and plugins), that isn’t something easy to find, if even available. In the old days, contributing musicians were often listed in the credits...

[GeneralDisarray]

1 hour ago, Atlas007 said:

However, nowadays, lot of music being produced within the box (using samples and plugins), that isn’t something easy to find, if even available. In the old days, contributing musicians were often listed in the credits...

Good point, but I'm looking more for the usual Michael Giacchino or Bear McCreary score recorded in an actual studio with an orchestra, to find out what instruments were used in a particular recording. But you mentioned the credits, and that sounds like a good place to start, maybe some of the movies I like the music for might list the names. The instruments would be better, but maybe I can get to the instrument from the names.

[MikeRobinson]

Your searches should also consider the technology of the era.  For example, in the 70's, musical synthesizers barely existed ... therefore, people were not accustomed to hearing them ... therefore anything that you could do with them might make your score stand out.  However, you did it with patch cables, oscillators, and knobs.

By the 80's, microprocessors were beginning to get on their feet, and the MIDI specification came along.  But "synthesis" was still done with "ADSR" square- and sine-wave oscillators, which were just beginning to be "computer controlled."  Then, the "DX7" introduced "FM" as a then brand-new approach.  However, if you wanted to get a unique sound from these things, you mostly had to do it yourself.  (And, I should note that, with Logic, you still can(!) "do it yourself!"  It's still great fun.)

"Sampling" and "patches" finally started to come when memory-devices finally started to get "big enough," and microprocessors became "fast and wide enough."  Of course today we live among "an embarrassment of riches."

A good friend of mine actually knew "Dr. Moog," but he still won't sell me 😠 that original synthesizer that he got from him.  Nowadays when I go to the music "toy store" I'm more-and-more tempted by one of those little units that are still "covered with knobs, switches and dials." (But no plugboards.) We'll see what Santa does for me this year.

Edited March 20, 2023 by MikeRobinson

[MikeRobinson]

musescore.org (or is it .com? there are two ...) has a library of musical scores in many genres, compatible with the music-scoring software of the same name.  Some of the scores are free, while others are copyrighted and by subscription only – the subscription fee pays the royalties due.

Edited October 30, 2023 by MikeRobinson

[GeneralDisarray]

3 hours ago, MikeRobinson said:

musescore.org (or is it .com? there are two ...) has a library of musical scores in many genres, compatible with the music-scoring software of the same name.  Some of the scores are free, while others are copyrighted and by subscription only – the subscription fee pays the royalties due.

I know about Musescore, too bad they are crooked as hell. For days I kept receiving emails about their great so called "promotion" to get the service 90% off, and it's a load of BS:

So while $40/year is not a bad price for a subscription, I'm not going to give any money to people so crooked that they pretend their subscription is $416.62 a year when without promotion is a lot less than that, for what I read, about $60 or $70. This is a blatant case of misleading advertising, and they're on my black list for that reason.

 

 

[gacki]

6 hours ago, MikeRobinson said:

musescore.org (or is it .com? there are two ...) has a library of musical scores in many genres, compatible with the music-scoring software of the same name.  Some of the scores are free, while others are copyrighted and by subscription only – the subscription fee pays the royalties due.

musescore.org is the software, musescore.com is the scores. If you sign up on musescore.org because you want to use the forums you get promotions for musescore.com.

Many, many of the scores on musescore.com are complete rubbish (I'm making an exception for the official scores from the original publishers); and while there are certainly a number of usable scores I would be very cautious using stuff I find there for educational purposes. In fact I use it to show my students how NOT to write music (mostly from an esthetic point of view - structuring and layout are often atrocious).