This Is Halloween – Oboe Recording Session (EastWest Orchestra)

This video shows a moment from the oboe recording session for my full orchestral instrumental remake of "This Is Halloween" — the opening number from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), composed by Danny Elfman.

You can see my hands on the keyboard, performing the oboe part using EastWest orchestral libraries, with the DAW running on screen and the orchestral score as reference. Having the original orchestrator's PDF score was absolutely essential for this project — the original mix has the voices at such a high level that hearing individual woodwind parts by ear alone would have been nearly impossible.

The oboe was just one small part of a massive undertaking: I spent over 30 hours recording all the orchestral instruments for this remake — 8 hours on woodwinds alone (clarinets, bassoon, oboes, flutes, English horn), 6 on brass, 2 on saxes, 7-8 on strings, and 4 on harp, celesta, and xylophone. The final result was combined with Malinda's vocal performance for her channel Translator Fails, with the mix handled by Johnny Deltoro.