# Matron!!



## Andy B (Nov 16, 2005)

Hi Guys,

I wrote this piece about 6 months ago. It's a bit like Hollywood meets Carry On :D . I was just interested to hear what you guys would make of it.

http://www.andrewblaney.com/index/MAD,%20MAD,%20MAD.mp3

Libraries used - normal stuff: VSL, SAM, GOLD.

Thanks,

Andy.


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## lux (Nov 16, 2005)

Very Nice Andy. Spacious and dynamic.

Cool job

Luca


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## re-peat (Nov 16, 2005)

Very, very, very good. Every aspect of it. 
A pleasure to listen to.


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## Frederick Russ (Nov 16, 2005)

Cool piece Andy - and fun! Great mix.


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## PaulR (Nov 16, 2005)

Total class act Andy. Very Matron! Very Alistair Sim, Terry Thomas and Hattie Jacques. :D


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## Thonex (Nov 16, 2005)

Love it!!!!

Great job on all counts... composition, arrangement, balls, dynamics and mix.

A "Home Run" as us Yanks would say.


BTW... great reverb. Do you mind sharing what reverb/s you were using on that mix? 

Thanks,


T


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## Dr.Quest (Nov 16, 2005)

A real fun piece! Nice job, sounds great!
J


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## Andy B (Nov 16, 2005)

Thanks a lot for the comments guys.

I've been thinking about having to write for the samples the last couple of days and how depressing it can get, then I listened to this piece and thought - that's pretty much what I was after, as you all know it just takes a little tweak here and there :D .

Thonex - I use 3 instances of Altiverb. 

Castle of De Haar: Main Hall - as a loose early reflection 
Amsterdam Concertgebouw Large Hall - as a general Hall Reverb 
Trackdown Scoring Stage - as a tight early reflection

Andy.


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## Thonex (Nov 16, 2005)

The verb sounds great!! Being on PC here, I have been thinking about how I would incorporate an Altiverb into my setup. I still use a console. Are you using the Altiverbs in your DAW "in the box" or are you going through a mixing board... or something else?

BTW... thanks for being so forthright with your reverb choices.


T


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## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 16, 2005)

You gots the skills, Andy.

Thonex, the best way to use Altiverb 5s in orchestral contexts is with in-line predelays for stage position and then shared tails.

http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Altiverb/Altiverb5Stagepositions.html (http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Altiverb ... tions.html)

That demo is too dry for my taste, but you get the idea.

So you'd probably bus subgroups of instruments from your DA7s to predelay programs on a G5 (preferably, because it runs a lot of Altiverbs without gagging), and then on the G5 bus those to hall tail programs.

But it sounds like Andy doesn't use discrete predelays and shared tails.


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## Andy B (Nov 16, 2005)

Thonex - I use Altiverb 4 in my sequencer DAW.

Thanks Nick - btw I've messed around with 5, but the CPU hit with three instances and Kontakt also was too much for my Mac, so I went back to 4. The demo on the Audio Ease site doesn't sound any better to my ears than the results I was getting with 4 - if anyone wants to tell me what I'm missing....


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## José Herring (Nov 16, 2005)

Andy B said:


> Thonex - I use Altiverb 4 in my sequencer DAW.
> 
> Thanks Nick - btw I've messed around with 5, but the CPU hit with three instances and Kontakt also was too much for my Mac, so I went back to 4. The demo on the Audio Ease site doesn't sound any better to my ears than the results I was getting with 4 - if anyone wants to tell me what I'm missing....



Very nice piece. Hard to believe that it was all done with samples. :shock: 

My only critique was that the brass was overdone, insteading of voicing them for impact and resonance it seem to me that the brass where used too much as the main melody element in places making the piece have a marching band feel from time to time.

As far as Altiverb goes your spaces sound great. Why change a winning combination. I know in this day and age that we're conditioned to want the latest greatest but why really. If it sounds good and works well then so beit. Upgrades are mostly marketing hype anyway. When Altiverb takes a quantum leap forward in it's quality then upgrade. Until then stick to the tried and true.

Jose


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## Aaron Sapp (Nov 16, 2005)

Excellent work as always Andy! Man, I sure wish I could achieve your mixes.


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## Andy B (Nov 16, 2005)

Thanks for the comments again.



josejherring said:


> My only critique was that the brass was overdone, insteading of voicing them for impact and resonance it seem to me that the brass where used too much as the main melody element in places making the piece have a marching band feel from time to time.



The brass play a melodic role in only two places and of those, one is in support of the strings - BUT, I think what you're hearing is more-or-less in the middle of the piece where the brass play a canon of the second melody in different keys. I detuned them to make them sound a little disturbed and this might be contributing to the Marching Band feel you're talking about. :D 

Andy.


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## Andy B (Nov 16, 2005)

Thanks TJ.

Keep bleaching 8).


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## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 16, 2005)

TJ: NO THANKS!



Andy, I agree that your cue sounds better hands down than Maarten's demo on the AE site. That mix is entirely too dry for my taste. But I still think his technique is the way to do it, because it allows you to position everything forward/back and left/right.

I'm also surprised that Altiverb 5 is less efficient than 4, because on my 2 x 2.5 G5 I can essentially run as many as I want. Also, if you just use the early reflx and turn off the tails, you save a lot of processing, since the longer the impulse the higher the processing required.


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## PaulR (Nov 16, 2005)

Thomas_J said:


> I lost 4 of my front teeth in a rugby match when I was 12, and I couldn't find them..



I'm intrigued Thomas - what would you have done if you had found them?

(sorry about this Andrew)


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## Sicmu (Nov 17, 2005)

Sounds amazingly realistic, the writing is also excellent, as for the orchestration, congratulations !

My question is : do you specialize in very short pieces because it's a difficult and long job to get such results or do you compose as well longer pieces where the composition process and musical developement is really your focus, I think with such skills and gear you should write some symphonies !

Thanks for sharing.


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## Craig Sharmat (Nov 17, 2005)

Andy B said:


> Thonex - I use Altiverb 4 in my sequencer DAW.
> 
> Thanks Nick - btw I've messed around with 5, but the CPU hit with three instances and Kontakt also was too much for my Mac, so I went back to 4. The demo on the Audio Ease site doesn't sound any better to my ears than the results I was getting with 4 - if anyone wants to tell me what I'm missing....



Great Work! enjoyed the whole thing. 

supposedly with Altiverb 5 you can tone down the proccerssor hit for your early reflection reverbs. did you look into that option, it might help.


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## Evan Gamble (Nov 17, 2005)

damn 8)


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## Marsdy (Nov 17, 2005)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> TJ: NO THANKS!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I get pretty much the same result here and can run way more instances than I'd ever need. Altiverb 5 rules although it doesn't like small buffers :( 

Great cue Andy BTW.


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## Waywyn (Nov 17, 2005)

yay andy,

just excellent!!!


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## Patrick de Caumette (Nov 17, 2005)

Very cool and lots of fun 8)


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## Andy B (Nov 17, 2005)

Sicmu said:


> Sounds amazingly realistic, the writing is also excellent, as for the orchestration, congratulations !
> 
> My question is : do you specialize in very short pieces because it's a difficult and long job to get such results or do you compose as well longer pieces where the composition process and musical developement is really your focus, I think with such skills and gear you should write some symphonies !
> 
> Thanks for sharing.



That's very kind Sicmu :D . 

The track was for a library that I wrtie for (like many others here) when I don't have a TV gig on and that's why it's the length it is. At the moment I only write when I'm commissioned because of time and money. I hope to be able to write concert music at some point soon.

Thanks everyone else for kind comments - I'll have to go back to Altiverb 5 and have a closer look.


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## Ed (Nov 17, 2005)

Thomas_J said:


> Great work, Andy! Love the sense of space you're creating with your reverb selections. Cool composition too!



Thomas, your teeth look too good. It disturbs me. :?


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## choc0thrax (Nov 17, 2005)

Looks like Thomas wants to challenge Kirk Hunter for the best teeth in the sample world crown.


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## nadeama (Nov 17, 2005)

Great cue and great mix Andy. Absolutely top notch!


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