Technical
Orchestra hit is defined in the General Midi sound set. It is assigned voice 56, in the ensemble sub group.
The Fairlight CMI synthesizer included a sampled orchestra hit voice, which was later included in many sample libraries. The voice was given the name ORCH5, and was possibly the first famous orchestra hit sample. The sound was a low-resolution, eight-bit digital sample from a recording of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite – specifically, the chord that opens the "Infernal Dance" section, pitched down a minor sixth and at a reduced speed. It was sampled by David Vorhaus. Music magazine The Wire suggests that the prototype sample is owned by Vivian Kubrick.
Early orchestra hits were short in duration (often less than a second) both due to the nature of the sound (a staccato note) and the restrictions on bit rates and depths. A compromise for longer durations would be lower bitrates, which would leave the sample with little timbre.
Fairlight produced a number of orchestra hit samples, including a chord version (TRIAD), a percussion version (ORCHFZ1) and a looped version (ORCH2). Samples ORCH4, ORCH5 and ORCH6 were located on the CMI's disk 8, within the STRINGS1 library.
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