# Coolest mixture sounds



## Krisena (Jul 21, 2012)

Topic title speaks for itself. Tell us about your favourite mixture sounds. Can be anything from good old flute + oboe to running water + wooden feng shui wind chimes or the sound of your wife cooking spaghetti while whistlig the overture to The Thieving Magpie.

For the unknowing, a mixture sound is what you get when you combine two instruments to get a new and unique sound. This is a trick composers have used since the dawn of time to captivate listeners! Some instruments mix very well, like string instruments with eachother - this is the basis idea for the string quartet - while some do not, like clarinets, which is the reason why there are no clarinet quartets or any clarinet _groups_ playing in unison in the orchestra. Some other specific examples of a mixture sounds where the instruments blend really well is accordion + violin _or_ harp + pizzicato strings + glockenspiel.

To start this thread off, I'll say the *bass clarinet + cello*. Not because they blend well, they don't. At all. But because a friend of mine used it to great effect in a jazz song he composed. If I find the song, I'll show you.

Edit: Here it is! Starts at 2:34.






Okay, go thread!!


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Electric guitar and harpsichord.






such a great sound, I wound up using that doubling in one of my own pieces.

and electric bass guitar and marimba.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

bump because its interesting


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Pipe organ and Alto Sax ... a rather haunting combination, but both compliment each other since they are 'winded' instruments.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Voice and percussion-wind ensemble:






Violin and Rhodes electric piano:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Piccolo and bass clarinet.






It's in there somewhere. Can't be bothered finding the exact part.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Thunder and rain. 

Multiple acoustic guitars always sound good together to me.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Upvote thunder and rain. Running water, whispering leaves, plus birdsong (and filtered sunlight) are also effective.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

This is a thread I have made in the percussion forum, but since I doubt that it will be read there, I will post it here too  (since is about this topic).

Classical music which features Bongos.

I really like the combination of the traditional orchestra with the Bongos. Particularly when there's a very colourful instrumental section driven by a fast rhythm in the bongos. Like this (third movement of Ligeti's piano concerto):






I love the sound, the rhythm in the bongos sounds very 'tribal' and 'primitive', but the 'dissonance' and the richness of tone colour give me images of something very modern, very clear and iluminated, maybe an abstract idea of modernity, glass buildings, angular details, etc. So I have this image of something modern, but 'deformed' and chaotic, in a 'primitive' sense. Something similar to cubist images (like Picasso):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...,_1911-12,_La_Femme_au_Cheval_-_The_Rider.jpg


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

science said:


> Thunder and rain.
> 
> Multiple acoustic guitars always sound good together to me.


Steel string or nylon string?


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