Goldsmith used a Korg Wavestation synth celesta for Basic Instinct. Looking at a lot of the written scores that have been published, it appears that perhaps the great majority of scores recorded in Hollywood after 1985 or so that I though used celesta was in fact using a synth version (Home Alone, Batman Returns, etc).
Probabbly only for control - by using synth celeste you can control volume and inhibit the sound ringing though all the other micrphones above the orchestra
and you can have it perfomet right along with the orchestra still
In the quiet immediately after the cacophonous splashdown in an alien lake, Goldsmith employs the celesta in dreamy runs through three variations of his E-flat serial row as the astronauts sleep chambers slide open and Taylor, Landon and Dodge come awake and begin to move about. Behind the celesta, celli harmonics doubled with a marimba create a disquieting "time-ticking" device on the E-flat pitch (while Emil Richards drums a barely perceptible E-flat on a tuned cowbell) and the violins murmur in their high registers.
To me, a perfect example of Goldsmith using the celesta.
