What's new

Distortion in an orchestra : which, when, and what for?

ghandizilla

and .then()
All is in the title.

What kind(s) of distortion(s) do you use in your orchestral template? (Tape emulation? High-frequencies boost?) For what purpose(s)?

I personally use FF Saturn on my strings bus, but I've read some use some tape emulation on their master, or on basses. I know there is no "one solution to rule them all", but I would be curious to read what, why, and when, with A/B comparison if possible.

It's a way to approach the most important question of all: what do we really need?
 
That depends if you like the sound of old vinyl recordings.
Many music lovers who don't compose but consume go out of their way to play vinyl.
They don't realize that they like distortion.
Every year I break out the old crappy stereo 8 track player for Easter by the Pool.
Johnny Cash and Fontella Bass Gospel hits and the Ventures, Motown, etc.
Children hunting for Easter Eggs love the songs and for some reason enjoy the music a little more than usual.
I just soak everything with Tubes for my personal sound.
Otherwise the excessively wide pristine audio just bores me to death.
 
Little and often is the key. Also, of course, very genre dependent.

Tape emulation on the master is a good place to start, make sure it's on there from the get go... generally means you have to work slightly less hard on the individual elements. The Slate tape machine is good, doesn't sound much like a real tape machine but does work as an instant 'betterizer'. Softube tape plugin is much closer to the real thing, and will do some nice subtle things without fooling you with volume bumps. If you're in PT land the Cranesong Phoenix plugin is an oldie but goodie, much more coloured but good for vibe-ing things up quickly.

Programmed orch tends to lack the harmonic vitality of the real thing, so reintroducing that is generally a good thing. A bit of crunch makes brass sound more aggressive, help short strings cut through better, lets woodwind articulate more. Bit (or a lot) of carefully targetted distortion is almost essential on perc to cut through in dense arrangements.

FF Saturn is great, and probably all you'd ever need, but I do like minimal knob boxes- they let you make judgements quicker which is really key to not disappearing down the rabbit hole when mixing and acclimating yourself to something that isn't really helping.
 
Yeah here also, some sort of tape/tube saturation plugin with gentle settings on the master bus...one of those 'makes everything better' tricks.

Although, I think it depends on which libraries and what other things are going on. Ex. > I prefer the effect on a sends for more control.
 
Great insights so far, thank you ! Is there a way to determine if the saturn instance on the master enlightens the harmonics or if it 's just making things louder ?
 
As with every plugin you can level match when you ab. Use a RMS meter after your plugin to check your level before and after your processing :)
I love the free saturation plugin fromwklanghelm cause it shows you the difference in volume pre and post plugin which makes level matching easier
Some people also like to watch the harmonic b behaviour using an analyzer and a test signal, but I'd say this is more of a developer thing ;)
 
All is in the title

What kind(s) of distortion(s) do you use in your orchestral template? (Tape emulation? High-frequencies boost?) For what purpose(s)?

To me the last is the key question - why to use saturation?

Two things here:

1. Lifting a middle voice out of the frequency masking of the upper voices occasionally.
2. Making the ensemble sound more "wall of sound" like (less transparent) in order to match certain listening expectations.
 
To me the last is the key question - why to use saturation?

Two things here:

1. Lifting a middle voice out of the frequency masking of the upper voices occasionally.
2. Making the ensemble sound more "wall of sound" like (less transparent) in order to match certain listening expectations.

It's a bit like what @chimuelo wrote earlier: for instance, it may be a matter of if you like the vinyl sound or not. (Thanks everyone for your replies!)
 
Normally I'm mixing rock music but this concept should be useful in orchestre music aswell. Saturation helps the low end to translate better to crappy speakers and also to cut through the mix. If you listen to a bass guitar on a smartphone speaker for example you will probably miss a lot of the fundamentals and just hear harmpnics. By distorting the bass it will be heard better since you add harmonics that your phone can reproduce :P

So low synths and hits and stuff will also benefit from this trick
 
very interesting thread!

so does anyone use sausage fattener in an orchestral track?
Actually I quite like Gsonique's FAT+ on my master track for orchestral and string projects.
https://www.g-sonique.com/fat+.html
From the day I heard my first CD in the 80's I've had issues with digital high string and soprano voice timbres especially as opposed to their analog predecessors. This helps a bit.
 
Top Bottom