# Mike Verta's The Race mockup



## Assa (Feb 29, 2016)

Hey guys,

here is my attempt of mocking up a few bars from Mike's incredible piece:



There is a lot of challenging stuff in there, especially for virtual orchestras, so I thought it would be a good practice for me. Maybe I'm gonna finish it someday when I have a little bit more time 

Would love to hear what you think


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## Haakond (Feb 29, 2016)

Hi! I think you did a very good job on this!
Which instruments was the hardest to do in this mockup? And what did you do to make it good?

- Haakon


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## mverta (Mar 1, 2016)

Great room modeling - feels so much like the raw tracks. Did you use the Shawn Murphy stems and guides from the Virtuosity class?


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## handz (Mar 1, 2016)

Sounds really nice and well, Mike really knows how to write in that JW style. 

What libs?


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## Assa (Mar 1, 2016)

mverta said:


> Great room modeling - feels so much like the raw tracks. Did you use the Shawn Murphy stems and guides from the Virtuosity class?



Hey Mike, thank you so much for your kind words...I was a little bit afraid of posting this here since I knew you are also a froum member, and I wasn't sure If you'd be pleased to hear somebody butchering your wonderful piece with VI's :D TBH I didn't watch the whole virtuosity class yet...unfortunately I'm so short in time right now (f***in dayjob), when I have the time to watch one of your classes, I always tend to chose the classes that have a more "musical" topic. Because this is where I have to improve the most.

I listened to the stems a while ago, and although this was helpful setting a few things up, I usually don't do that kind of stuff while mocking up a piece. A/Bing the mockup with stems or the original piece all the time just leads into frustration for me :D. I just try to stick to the score, and get out the best performance possible, as I'd do it with a composition of mine.

But with my template I really tried to create a scoring-stage kind of sound, which I personally love so much...so I'm really glad to read your kind comment 



Haakond said:


> i! I think you did a very good job on this!
> Which instruments was the hardest to do in this mockup? And what did you do to make it good?
> 
> - Haakon



Hi Haakon,

thanks four your comment  I really think there are a lot of difficult passages to create virtually, like the fast runs in the Vlns + Winds starting at 0:09, the interlocking Vlas and Cli when the Violins play the theme etc. And I think it sometimes get's tricky when an instrument or section has to play a melody without a lot of orchestration around it and it is kind of exposed in the mix. I just try to be creative, for example I tweaked a LASS patch, until I thought it sounded fine, that I now use as my go to "runs patch".

The most important thing is to have a good orchestral balance. The template should have correct volume levels of the instruments and some eq correction here and there. After that you can set up the reverb to your likings.



handz said:


> Sounds really nice and well, Mike really knows how to write in that JW style.
> 
> What libs?



Oh yes, he absolutely does!  I used:

Strings: LASS, Symphonic Sphere, Soaring Strings, a liittle bit of Cinematic Strings

Winds: BWW

Brass: Strezov, SM, Jasper Blunk

Perc: Spitfire Redux


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## rainierjmartin (Mar 1, 2016)

Assa said:


> Hey Mike, thank you so much for your kind words...I was a little bit afraid of posting this here since I knew you are also a froum member, and I wasn't sure If you'd be pleased to hear somebody butchering your wonderful piece with VI's :D TBH I didn't watch the whole virtuosity class yet...unfortunately I'm so short in time right now (f***in dayjob), when I have the time to watch one of your classes, I always tend to chose the classes that have a more "musical" topic. Because this is where I have to improve the most.
> 
> I listened to the stems a while ago, and although this was helpful setting a few things up, I usually don't do that kind of stuff while mocking up a piece. A/Bing the mockup with stems or the original piece all the time just leads into frustration for me :D. I just try to stick to the score, and get out the best performance possible, as I'd do it with a composition of mine.
> 
> ...



Great sound! I was just wondering what processing you did with LASS and SM to fit with the other instruments in your mockup. Thanks!


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## Assa (Mar 1, 2016)

rainierjmartin said:


> Great sound! I was just wondering what processing you did with LASS and SM to fit with the other instruments in your mockup. Thanks!



Thanks  All I did with LASS was using Ql spaces for the IRs. Did not even use stage & colour presets 
You can do so much with this library, only thing it can't do well imo is soaring passages...but now I have soaring strings and they blend together nicely I think.

For Sm brass I gotta mention, I think I only used trumpets here. I usually chose steezov for bones & horns.
For positioning I used valhalla verb with short decay but turned the wet slider to 100%. Then I panned it and used eq to make it sound more distant.


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## Guy Bacos (Mar 4, 2016)

Nice job!


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## Maestro1972 (Mar 4, 2016)

I really like the sound you have achieved. Good Job!


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## handz (Mar 5, 2016)

I also wanted to ask - you did this by ear???  Or MV published score / midi somewhere? I would love to see the midi file a lot.


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## tack (Mar 5, 2016)

handz said:


> I also wanted to ask - you did this by ear???  Or MV published score / midi somewhere? I would love to see the midi file a lot.


The score to The Race is available when you pick up his Putting It All Together class, which is excellent (one of my top 3 of his classes).


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## Assa (Mar 5, 2016)

Thank you all for your nice comments, much appreciated 



tack said:


> The score to The Race is available when you pick up his Putting It All Together class, which is excellent (one of my top 3 of his classes).



Excactly, if you don't know his classes already, I couldn't recommend it highly enough...with his score it is the same experience as with a williams score. You mock it up and realize how good it can sound simply because of the great orchestration, without even adding reverb etc.


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## zacnelson (Mar 13, 2016)

Hello, I have listened I think 6 times now, what a marvellous job you have done! I know there are people with far better attention to detail than me, however to my ears this is an utterly convincing emulation of an orchestra. Bravo! I really enjoyed the orchestration, and I can only imagine that this style of orchestration must make it far easier to sound truly realistic, because the attention is rapidly diverted from each instrument before the ear starts to query the verisimilitude. I read in an earlier comment that you used about 4 string libraries, it's incredible how they all sound so consistent with each other. I was actually thinking on that more soaring, melodic line around the middle of the composition, it could do with a tiny bit of extra reverb on the lead violins, just because the tail of the notes when they end felt abrupt. I hope you don't mind me making that one `criticism' (not really a criticism, just a possible improvement?).


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## Assa (Mar 15, 2016)

Hi zac 

First of all, thank you very much for your kind words. And of course your critique is absolutely welcome. After posting this mockup here I already experimented a little bit with my reverb settings and added a little bit more of a tail, you can have a listen here and I'd love to hear from if you think it is an improvement.

http://amadeus-pakmur.com/The Race Mockupv2_MIX.wav

When it comes to my usage of my string libraries I do have some techniques and "tricks" I use to make it sound consistent. I thought about maybe doing video lectures in the future to show some techniques, but since I have not much spare time atm, I don't know if that is going to happen.


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## zacnelson (Mar 15, 2016)

Nice improvement there! Please let me know once you make your videos, I'd be keen to watch.


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## rainierjmartin (Jul 25, 2016)

Assa said:


> Hi zac
> 
> First of all, thank you very much for your kind words. And of course your critique is absolutely welcome. After posting this mockup here I already experimented a little bit with my reverb settings and added a little bit more of a tail, you can have a listen here and I'd love to hear from if you think it is an improvement.
> 
> ...



I've been looking back at this post and I was wondering if you're still considering creating some video tutorials on your string library techniques. It would be a great help to all us music creators! Keep up the great work!


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## Assa (Jul 25, 2016)

rainierjmartin said:


> I've been looking back at this post and I was wondering if you're still considering creating some video tutorials on your string library techniques. It would be a great help to all us music creators! Keep up the great work!



Hey 

I'd still love to do that, but time is always short unfortunately :( If there is something specific you would like to know though, you can always send me a PM.


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## dan1 (Jul 27, 2016)

Assa said:


> http://amadeus-pakmur.com/The Race Mockupv2_MIX.wav


omfg
instant follower


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## mverta (Jul 27, 2016)

Assa said:


> Hi zac
> 
> 
> 
> http://amadeus-pakmur.com/The Race Mockupv2_MIX.wav



That's eerie. Well done! Definitely share your process when you get time.


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## Assa (Jul 28, 2016)

Thanks guys, your comments made me smile  I just figured out how to record a screencast properly while my DAW is running, so technically I'm able to do it. Maybe next week!


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## Vischebaste (Jul 28, 2016)

Mightily impressive.


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## NoamL (Jul 28, 2016)

Wow, whatever you've done to the strings in mix 2 is really making them feel "in the room". Great mockup of a great piece.


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