# Blending Albion and LASS



## stevenson-again (Mar 9, 2012)

With all the talk of cinematic strings and LASS 2.0 I thought some of you might find this sketch interesting:

http://idisk.mac.com/rohan.stevenson/Public/stuff/FaysTheme.mp3 (Fay's theme)

This is blending Albion with LASS (not LASS 2.0 I haven't upgraded yet but I will). I initially tried using one of the LASS desks to feather in behind Albion, and while that worked incredibly well in places, generally Albion was too awkward to make all the musical nuances work. Sometimes the Albion strings just nial it, and at other times they absolutely will not bend musically, especially compared to the way LASS can.

So what I did was change to the full mix of LASS and feather Albion in behind it. I set the strings up with Vlns and Vlas on 3 seperate tracks exactly as I would as if they were seperate sections, and panned them slightly. I took out the tree mics and just used the ambience mics, except for the cellos where I even included a little of the close mics just to give them a bit more definition. The Basses are entirely Albion and use the tree and a bit of ambient mics. It's the basses that make the big difference. The basses in LASS are fine, but they lack that really deep bassy richness that basses playing in tune and in phase with one another can achieve. And really you don't vitally need the legato transitions in the basses. All the Albion patches are the non-legato ones, which to me aren't really that satisfying.

Anyway - I thought some of you might find this interesting in a geeky sort of way....


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## jleckie (Mar 9, 2012)

Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. I'd comment on the recording but I'm on crap headphones.

I can hear the harshness of LASS cutting thru and Albion is stunning. Your control over dynamics is fantastically spot on. Doing a version with CC info at 'null' would be an amazing way to demonstrate to beginners how important it is to ride the faders at ALL times. You have breathed life into an already dynamic composition.


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## José Herring (Mar 9, 2012)

Sounds absolutely fantastic to me.


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## RiffWraith (Mar 9, 2012)

Many times said:


> Any lib can blend with any lib if you know what you are doing.



See!!!! 8) 

Good job *stevenson*!


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## PMortise (Mar 9, 2012)

Wow, I _had_ to give that a few listens. Just beautiful.

Bravo!


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## jackal (Mar 11, 2012)

Big Applause !! 

Really great work stevenson-again


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## wexberg (Mar 11, 2012)

I also thoroughly enjoyed that piece. Great work.


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## George Caplan (Mar 13, 2012)

good.


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## Dracarys (Mar 13, 2012)

This is the definition of articulations, 2:15 sounds very realistic, exceptional piece.


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## stevenson-again (Mar 14, 2012)

Thanks guys. Yeah - really liking the sauce spitfire strings adds to the expressivity of LASS. And I am using the same programming. The dots and cc's are being sent to 2 kontakt instances, 1 with LASS and the other with Spitfire. It's just a matter of tweaking the balance between the 2.


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## adg21 (Mar 14, 2012)

Wow love it.

I wonder how this would sound under Hollywood Strings, how do you think that would sound with this?


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## stevenson-again (Mar 14, 2012)

I am sure if I spent enough time, HS would sound wonderful. It would actually suit their sound somewhat - although in general I am going for a slightly more intimate sound than you get from HS these days, which more easily achieved with LASS. You've piqued my curiosity though. I might give it a go if I get the time....


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## adg21 (Mar 14, 2012)

How are your EQ's? Are you EQing either, that's pretty amazing if they're both untouched to make them merge like that.


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## flashman (Mar 14, 2012)

Wonderful piece and really well written. Do you do that straight into the sequencer? Sounds like it's been worked through in Sibelius the *proper* way

I do the same with LASS and Spitfire and sometimes LASS and Hollywood Strings but I think LASS and Spitfire works best. I have found it's the reverb you put on LASS to place it in the same room as Spitfire which makes the biggest difference. LASS is incredibly useful for providing the close focussed smaller sound that makes the larger more ambient libraries sound more real.


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## adg21 (Mar 14, 2012)

Also are you using a reverb with LASS? Or is Albion basically your tail?


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## Polarity (Mar 14, 2012)

wonderful track!!!
really...

I wish to ask what piano you used in it.

LASS and Albion blends very well together.


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## Polarity (Mar 14, 2012)

stevenson-again @ Fri 09 Mar said:


> The basses in LASS are fine, but they lack that really deep bassy richness that basses playing in tune and in phase with one another can achieve.



I agree, LASS basses aren't so rich as other libraries.
I double them all the times with something else.


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## stevenson-again (Mar 15, 2012)

Thanks for the warm words fellas.

Lass is Eq'd my usual way and placed into its own space as well. I use slightly less of its own ER reverb and I am also using some Lex small church on my old MPX 110 because that works wonders as an ER type reverb. Then the whole thing is knitted together with the inbuilt reverb on my Konnekt 48, Which the Fabrik R reverb. I spent a lot of time doing a shoot out of the Fabrik and the Lexicon PCM reverb plug-ins and came to the conclusion that the Fabrik was as good if not better and therefore wasn't worth the bother.

Spitfire is not really eq'd - maybe just a touch of lift because I am NOT using the tree mics for most of the sections - which are by far the nicest of the mic settings. I am using the ambient mics to give body to LASS. I use the tree mics for the cellos and basses and the basses are boosted because the overall level of spitfire is 1/2 to 3/4 of LASS. If using the ambient mics on the low strings, the sound becomes too muddy - especially the cellos.

The eq is favouring bringing out the "air" so you can hear a bit over 10k sizzle now and then. It's a bit "pop-mixing" I know, but I quite like it - it gives a nice sheen.

Listen to the 3rd and 4th phrases. The repeated notes in the violins are something I think only LASS can do so well. It doesn't sound soggy like most libs would - that's LASS working. Also the second version of the theme, the mordents and grace notes can be heard pretty well although a live band would make this much clearer.

The piano is actually ivory - although I am favouring emotional piano these days.


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## dedersen (Mar 18, 2012)

What a magnificent piece of music! Wonderful composition. Was this sketched out in the DAW or on paper/sibelius/finale first? I completely lost focus on the whole "LASS with Albion" thing on the first listen and just got swept away with the music. Great work.

And I agree, LASS blends perfectly with Albion. I am using them together a lot lately. With the new Stage & Color features of LASS it's even easier.


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## stevenson-again (Mar 18, 2012)

Hi dedersen,

Thanks for the kind words! It really is great to hear it is appreciated.

It was sketched v roughly on paper, but mostly it is my usual sketch form of short score string pad (Albion these days) and transferred to my string section - all in Logic.

Yes - I want to see how much I can get LASS and Albion to blend but there are limitations. Because LASS has the more comprehensive articulations, what do you do about when Albion can't cover and articulation you want to go for? One of the key things about LASS is well is that you get great consistency between articulations. What I don't like is a sound world that sort of jumps around. Sure; one patch from one library might sound better than a patch from a different library, but at what cost to the consistency of the sound?

The thing is the blend of these two libs are making the most of their relative strengths so it's really hard to pass up.


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