"Tripling" versus "Doubling" in Orchestration

Truthfully doubling is tripling and more. Doubling is the addition of other instruments to a musical line, color, or shape. So doubling includes tripling. But in Blockbuster Hollywood orchestration, to give the sound an unfaltering level of production quality, doubling has to be at least … “tripling”.

”...tripling sounds great. Thnks :)” - Vivian Khor, Composer and Sound Designer

It’s psychology. The mind can deduce a foreground by eliminating a background. But when you introduce a third element, it cannot separate two things since it can’t combine either of the other two into just a foreground or background category to then subtract from the rest.

And this is why at least tripling all your compositional elements, creates a presentation of them at a higher level that cannot be broken down by the mind, thus giving it an uncrumbling foundation of richness … a hallmark of a great orchestrator.

Anything less than tripling could be subject to the listeners critique of any single element’s qualities.

I like to say:

“Everything can be broken down to a triangle.”

There is no simpler complete piece of information that can be conveyed by less than a triangulation of points.

If you want your music to sound more expensive, make sure the listener cannot break it down into cheaper components. No one can hear through “triangulation”.