# Recording environments



## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

Which sound do you prefer and why? (not musically but room, space, mix, ect)


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## MartinH. (Jun 30, 2020)

Just as a first impression from a quick listen at the timestamps that you linked (not the whole tracks): 

#1 - Sounds weird to me, can't articulate why.
#2 - Sounds nice, prefer this for a "just music" context.
#3 - Sounds nice, prefer this for a "background music" context with lots of sound effects or dialog over it, or in a game. I think the "further away" sound helps as spatial separation to another layer of acoustic information.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

MartinH. said:


> Just as a first impression from a quick listen at the timestamps that you linked (not the whole tracks):
> 
> #1 - Sounds weird to me, can't articulate why.
> #2 - Sounds nice, prefer this for a "just music" context.
> #3 - Sounds nice, prefer this for a "background music" context with lots of sound effects or dialog over it, or in a game. I think the "further away" sound helps as spatial separation to another layer of acoustic information.


Interesting. Thx. 

#1 was recorded at Abbey Road in the 80's. I think they probably used Dolby noise reduction which if I recall use to replace the high end with its own artificial high end in an effort to eliminate noise. Many of us that grew up in that time period are probably use to that sound from 1000's or recordings and movie watching and I couldn't quite place it but it did sound like the whole recording had this glaze over the top. Now I remember, Dolby.

I was actually present for 2 days on recording number 2 in the 90's so I know exactly how it was recorded and I know that the score wasn't even mixed. It went from the scoring stage to the dub stage, no mix session in between. Goldsmith recorded it in his favorite studio Todd AO which use to be on the CBS lot here in Studio City. He recorded it of course through a large board directly to a hard disk recording system, then transferred the disk to the dubstage to place in the movie. To this day I think it's one of the most natural recordings I've ever heard and I actually have tried to setup my own template based on that sound as best I can. I was tossing back and forth if I wanted to go in a different direction which leads me to #3.

#3 was recorded on Synchron Stage. HZ did the theme form the Crown there and I was blown away by the sound. But, I wanted to find something else recorded there and actually the other recordings I heard didn't sound as good as his recording. So I was wondering what happened, or maybe Hans just has some secret sauce yet to make his recordings sound stellar. But, I loved the Crown so I was thinking of diving into some VSL as an alternative to my "LA" sound.


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## wilifordmusic (Jun 30, 2020)

Hi Jose, I like the Edge best. Sounds like a real band in a real space. It's the closest to the sound I heard sitting back in the brass section on similar type gigs. Nice mix.

A couple of questions since you were there.

1. Double tracked strings?
2. Percs (big drums/timp) in booths with reverb secret sauce? Mallets in the room or overdub?
3. Piano in the room or overdub?

thanks, Steve


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## Rasoul Morteza (Jun 30, 2020)

Although it's hard (if not impossible) to directly compare the 3 in one aspect as they're all different compositions, but here are my immediate thoughts:

There is simply a sense of spatiality in tracks 1 and 2 which I can't hear in the Jonas vs Meg track. The 3rd track to me doesn't portray much sense of space (as if everything's brought forth), and because of how it's produced I feel like there's more timbral clarity in the first two tracks even though they are considerably more sophisticated and richer in instrumentation.

But then again the music itself plays a huge role on how we perceive the acoustics of it so, I may be wrong.

Cheers


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## CT (Jun 30, 2020)

I love the sound of Todd AO in the second, and the first at Abbey Road is nice too, but not as nice as more recent recordings done there. The third is a little too "produced" to really say much about the sound of the space.


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## Jdiggity1 (Jun 30, 2020)

I personally would not use #3 as a reference. The brass in particular sounds like samples to me, and now that I see it was done at Synchron that makes a lot of sense. I think it's the largest "roomless" room I've heard. Maybe it helps with blending in with the synths and samples (percussion?).
#2 is my favorite, mainly due to how wiiiiidely #1 was mixed, which puts me off, even though it has a lovely tone.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

wilifordmusic said:


> Hi Jose, I like the Edge best. Sounds like a real band in a real space. It's the closest to the sound I heard sitting back in the brass section on similar type gigs. Nice mix.
> 
> A couple of questions since you were there.
> 
> ...


1) No double tracking that I recall. The orchestra was huge though Easily 104 players. The violin section was huge. Probably close to just 20 first violins and 18 seconds and down the string section accordingly. It was intended to be a big blockbuster movie on the scale of The Fugitive. I'm surprised it didn't do better than it did.

2. Percussion was with the orchestra in the back. Everything played at the same time. Like I said they didn't even mix the score. It went direct from the scoring stage to the dub stage. Todd AO was a huge room. More like a concert hall. It had a lot of space. It was an is common though to separate the percussion with plexiglass. 

The recording engineer kind of mixed on the fly. They were using the expensive Lexicon reverbs if I recall. I just remember seeing black boxes and a remote. Many of the black boxes were the hard disk recording system. It was the best of it's kind and probably still better than everything we use today. I'll see if I can find a picture of it. Because of that it was tough to tell what remote belonged to what box or set of boxes . I had really good ears back then though having just graduated from the conservatory were I played and recorded probably close to 2 concerts a week. So by ear I picked out that it was a Lexicon 960 L. Bruce Botnik was the engineer and he was bragging about how he was mixing on the fly and that there were no synths so he didn't need an additional mix session because it was happening all in real time.

3. At first I couldn't remember any piano but now I realized that there were two pianos stage left and stage right I believe to the sides. But, don't quote me on that. I had also been at the James Newton Horward Space Jam sessions in the same room around the same time. So memory on pianos is a little vague mostly because at the time piano in my mind didn't belong in an orchestra unless you were doing a concerto . I was so young and opinionated in those days. Like I knew better than JG and JNH and pianos don't belong. hahahaha!!!!!

You know what man. It's been fun recalling all this stuff. I wish I could remember the name of the recording system they used. Gah!!! I tried so hard to remember everything but then in a blink of an eye the whole world changed and that knowledge became obsolete, but boy does it sound good.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

Mike T said:


> I love the sound of Todd AO in the second, and the first at Abbey Road is nice too, but not as nice as more recent recordings done there. The third is a little too "produced" to really say much about the sound of the space.


Do you have any favorites of the more recent recordings done at Abby Road?


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## dzilizzi (Jun 30, 2020)

I like #1 best but I also like Blackhole, large cathedral reverbs, etc.... it has a large feel. #2 is a close second, but actually sounds better as a piece, if that makes sense. Couldn't tell much about #3. It sounds right up close. Is it samples?


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

Jdiggity1 said:


> I personally would not use #3 as a reference. The brass in particular sounds like samples to me, and now that I see it was done at Synchron that makes a lot of sense. I think it's the largest "roomless" room I've heard. Maybe it helps with blending in with the synths and samples (percussion?).
> #2 is my favorite, mainly due to how wiiiiidely #1 was mixed, which puts me off, even though it has a lovely tone.


I used it because I loved the sound that HZ got on the theme to The Crown. I asked on the HZ FB forum where it was recorded and Lorne Balfe responded that it was recorded in Vienna. I assumed he meant Synchron. But, then I listen to a tone of other recordings done there and boy they didn't sound nearly as good. I thought they sounded rather poor. 

For some reason I didn't chose the Crown as an example. Because it is so vastly different than the other examples.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> I like #1 best but I also like Blackhole, large cathedral reverbs, etc.... it has a large feel. #2 is a close second, but actually sounds better as a piece, if that makes sense. Couldn't tell much about #3. It sounds right up close. Is it samples?


No it was supposedly recorded in Vienna's Synchron Stage.


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## Jdiggity1 (Jun 30, 2020)

josejherring said:


> No it was supposedly recorded in Vienna's Synchron Stage.


Indeed. Here are some pictures: http://scoringsessions.com/2018/08/10/harry-gregson-williams-scores-the-meg/


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## CT (Jun 30, 2020)

josejherring said:


> Do you have any favorites of the more recent recordings done at Abby Road?



Well, these three scores have gotta be some of the best examples!


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## purple (Jun 30, 2020)

I'm torn between 1 and 2. The music between them is too different for me to pick one. I prefer the music of the second one, so I think that is biasing me towards it. If it is true that the star wars prequels were all recorded there, I'd say I have to prefer abbey road. Those are some of my favorite soundtracks ever, musically, acoustically, mix-wise, creatively.... I can go on.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

Mike T said:


> Well, these three scores have gotta be some of the best examples!



I actually love this because the room becomes part of the sound and not a thing by itself. It adds to the sound and reinforces it. That's what I heard in the Omen as well but it's hard to get past the noise reduction and the tape wobble.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

Spitfire hasn't recorded anything at Abbey Road have they?


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## CT (Jun 30, 2020)

The Garritan CFX is the only VI I can think of done there.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

Mike T said:


> The Garritan CFX is the only VI I can think of done there.


I found also a few drumsets which I'm actually using now were recorded there as well. 

Too bad no orchestra. I guess we'll have to aspire to get the real deal to get that sound.


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## José Herring (Jun 30, 2020)

I found it!!! It's still around. The recording system they used on score to The Edge.

Back then though it was just a black box with a few buttons on it. Didn't have the fancy flat screen.









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## Scoremixer (Jul 1, 2020)

Interesting exercise Jose. 

As one of my mentors is fond of saying: “there’s no honour in recording”, which means do whatever necessary, even if cruel and unusual, to get the desired result. The more contemporary the score the more that’s likely to be true, making it very difficult to compare the sound of different rooms unless you know exactly how the score was done. 

That being said, #2 sounds fantastic, great to know it was straight to disk. Anyone clock the edit @ 3:02? Also, the Lex 960 wasn’t around till 2000! Probably a 480 (or several).


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## José Herring (Jul 1, 2020)

Thanks for the clarification. It's weird because I remember seeing the Lex 960 in a few rooms in the late 90's. Paramount and Todd AO to name some but the 480 looks exactly the same so I'm sure over the years I probably just substituted one for the other.


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## José Herring (Jul 1, 2020)

Scoremixer said:


> Interesting exercise Jose.



I'm trying to solve a problem here at my home studio. Looking into the future a bit.

I use to do a lot more live recording here in Los Angeles. I've never recorded in Abbey Road or in London. I did one remote recording in Prague.

What I want to do is set up a full sample template that would be a good representation of each recording environment (except prague which is neither here nor there).

Todd AO is a great place to reference because it was so typical of so many LA recordings. I'm probably closest to that sound or to the old Paramount stage sound using HO and a good reverb.

But, I'm miles away from anything that even remotely resembles the sound of Abbey Road. Sometimes I think that I could get close with SO but the room in those samples is so overwhelming that in spite of hearing many great things from those samples, I just am having an hard time with justifying the expense for a sound that I'm only partially in love with.

So I was thinking BBCSO but since it's recorded in a room that sounds surprisingly similar to the scoring stages of LA, I'd be like duplicating my current setup with just a different set of samples that have far less dynamic capability than what I already have. But, my eye is on that for sure.

Todd AO to me was a brighter room with immaculate clarity. I kind of find that it an odd way Teldex is similar in sound to Todd AO. So between HO and OT and my future plans to get more of both, I'm fairly good at getting that LA soundstage sound.

I wanted others opinion because I go back a forth between my classical symphonic roots and my LA scoring roots. So I go back and forth between should I be getting samples recorded in a more symphonic setting or should I be getting samples in a more studio setting. SO would be the more symphonic sounding samples and HO and OT the more studio sounding samples.

Todd AO is right in the middle for me. That's why I always loved it. It has the bigness of a concert hall but the clarity of a studio. It's easier for me to get that type of sound using samples recorded on a scoring stage like EW or OT rather than recorded in a huge cathedral like SSO. I'm figuring that just based on SO demos because I don't have it yet. But, using some good algo verb and samples recorded in a more "LA" type scoring stage I get that sound.

For filmscoring I had always reasoned that for hybrid recording on an LA type scoring stage was better because you had a better chance of mixing orchestra, drums, vocals and synths in a tighter studio environment. Then of course HZ completely disrupts that with combining all that in a recording environment that is more similar to a lush boomy church--and he even has brass in the rafters for Christ sake. It shouldn't work with guitars and synths, ect but it does!!! He can be so frustrating challenging all my conceptions!!!!  I mean for symphonic scoring ala John Williams I get it, but I can't for the life of me think of why a score like Inception sounds as good as it does recorded the way he recorded it.

At any rate since I'm not Zimmer. I've grown to like his stuff immensely over the years a lot more lately than in the Media Venture "The Rock" days but there's really no way I'll be able to figure out how he makes work what he makes work. I've tried but he is who he is and I am who I am.

For the past 15 years using samples I've strayed way away from what I do best which was live orchestration of my pieces and on the spot recording of ensembles with some prerecords yes, but more out of necessity of budget than of really wanting to do it that way.

I'm probably more closely aligned for scoring to recording environments like Todd AO and I'm actually pleased that the sound is still very viable 20+ years later and with all that's happened since then. As I develop my "José Herring" hybrid sound I find that I'm gravitating a lot towards what I know best and The Edge was the first major Hollywood score that I personally witnessed and so personally saw every element of its production. I can use that as a base and build on it.

I'm much more classical, jazz and rock based in my thinking rather than in box and studio base and a lot of times when I'm writing I see in my mind real people playing at the same time on the same stage. I'd like to get that idea and that sense of space in my home setup more and then transfer that to the real deal budget permitting so my studio and the eventual live recording environment have to at least be compatible so I can go from environment to environment without there being a sudden shock and drastic change of sound. I think HZ gets that with his samples recorded with the LSO. I want to get that with a sound that's more similar to LA's Todd AO.

I'd don't know. Maybe I've just become too much of a crass American growing up the southwest and eventually going to the bruising artistic environment of New York and I've just gotten use to a less refined more raw aesthetic as it's a bit more natural sounding to me so the more I can mimic that in my studio then eventually transfer that to a real environment the more I'll be able to get my own voice happening.

And, yes I know about Altiverb and their IR's of Todd AO before it closed but I'm not really always fond of convolution. I'd rather get samples that are close to that sound already and then get the rest of the way there with Algo verbs, ect.

Thanks for your help on this ever expanding journey.


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## CT (Jul 1, 2020)

Another stunning Abbey Road recording:




This is also great to hear how beautiful the string writing is during the climax.


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## patrick76 (Jul 1, 2020)

I like the sound of "The Crown" that you posted after your initial three options. It is well balanced, cohesive, and clear. It just sounds very well done. Like everything about it was intentional and done successfully.


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## José Herring (Jul 1, 2020)

patrick76 said:


> I like the sound of "The Crown" that you posted after your initial three options. It is well balanced, cohesive, and clear. It just sounds very well done. Like everything about it was intentional and done successfully.


Yeah, it is very well done.


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## CT (Jul 1, 2020)

josejherring said:


> That's what I heard in the Omen as well but it's hard to get past the noise reduction and the tape wobble.



I've been thinking about this myself recently. As far as real recordings of orchestras go, I will almost always prefer modern digital ones with simple mic setups and a short signal path to disk/ProTools, bypassing any colored preamps, desks, tape, etc. But when dealing with samples, I can't help thinking that a little tape/console emulation is a plus. One of those weird things that seems to work in the opposite way in sample land.

I really identify with the search you described above, too. I probably get more fixated on small details about this stuff than is necessary, but I really care about getting a particular sound with what I have. Especially since I have no clue if or when I'll have the fortune of doing real recordings. I'm more uncertain of that than ever, so I've kind of doubled down on my commitment to doing the virtual thing right. It's liberating in a way, since now I'm not treating this stuff like an annoying stopgap, and I do like the complete control that being able to create virtual performances gives me.


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## Scoremixer (Jul 2, 2020)

josejherring said:


> For filmscoring I had always reasoned that for hybrid recording on an LA type scoring stage was better because you had a better chance of mixing orchestra, drums, vocals and synths in a tighter studio environment. Then of course HZ completely disrupts that with combining all that in a recording environment that is more similar to a lush boomy church--and he even has brass in the rafters for Christ sake. It shouldn't work with guitars and synths, ect but it does!!! He can be so frustrating challenging all my conceptions!!!!  I mean for symphonic scoring ala John Williams I get it, but I can't for the life of me think of why a score like Inception sounds as good as it does recorded the way he recorded it.



Maybe you've got your answer - go with the boomy church and see what happens (I may be biased).

In all seriousness though, samples are samples. They're not directly analogous to what happens with real recordings, even though they've been recorded in the same way in the same rooms. Embracing the technology will allow you fabricate something better and more 'real' than restricting yourself to one library, one hall, one reverb. That's what HZ would do anyway. 

Although here's something pretty great sounding that was all done tutti in the aforementioned boomy church anyway:


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

Scoremixer said:


> Maybe you've got your answer - go with the boomy church and see what happens (I may be biased).
> 
> In all seriousness though, samples are samples. They're not directly analogous to what happens with real recordings, even though they've been recorded in the same way in the same rooms. Embracing the technology will allow you fabricate something better and more 'real' than restricting yourself to one library, one hall, one reverb. That's what HZ would do anyway.
> 
> Although here's something pretty great sounding that was all done tutti in the aforementioned boomy church anyway:



Firstly don't get me wrong. I like the boomy church sound, but this is an exploration and like I mentioned before, I'll end up having both sound palettes, I'm going with LA first.

In the end I do think a homogeneous sound palette is noticeable and can be detected in samples. I think that's why somebody like HZ goes through great lengths and unimaginable expense to get a sample set that is first his own and second all done by the same orchestra.

I spent about 3 years away from samples and doing only live stuff and when I came back the first thing I noticed was that so many more people had great sounding samples all done in different rooms and different sized ensembles all with a different unique sampling approach but the samples didn't fit together. Like I can't for the life of me figure out why people are trying to fit a 6 violin section and press it into a large orchestral type setting. 6 violins are chamber strings size. Trying to do epic with it and pair it up with gigantic sized brass ensembles just doesn't make sense.

Your baby boss is a great example of a homogeneous sound. I've used HO as my base for a long time and every other library I get complements that in some way and as an orchestrator/digital orchestrator of my own works I'm really conscious of many factors when putting together a virtual orchestra and one factor for sure is that the rooms need to match, the section sizes need to balance and the performance of each sample note has to have some consistency. I know that there are many ways to do all of that but I've always started with a sample set that serves as a base then I match other samples to that base.

So first, since I'm like nearly 80% there already, I will complete my LA scoring template. Then I'll also build another template comprising of SSO for that huge room sound.


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## MartinH. (Jul 2, 2020)

josejherring said:


> Interesting. Thx.
> 
> #1 was recorded at Abbey Road in the 80's. I think they probably used Dolby noise reduction which if I recall use to replace the high end with its own artificial high end in an effort to eliminate noise. Many of us that grew up in that time period are probably use to that sound from 1000's or recordings and movie watching and I couldn't quite place it but it did sound like the whole recording had this glaze over the top. Now I remember, Dolby.
> 
> ...



Thanks a lot for the in depth reply! It's quite valuable to get some insight on how something was recorded from someone who was there on the day. 

I have a plan for experimenting with a different kind of template setup, with a one-template-fits-all approach, which honestly probably is stupid, but I kinda want to try it just to see how far I get with it. The idea is to set up the routing so that the instruments go to different sets of processing tracks that each go into their own set of busses and masters, so that I can basicly just flip a switch and place the whole orchestra into a different room and recording setup, and quickly compare which sounds better for a thing I'm working on, without waiting minutes to load a different template and moving midi data around. I might use your #2 example as a reference track for one of them. Don't think I'll be able to get super close, because I don't have the most suitable sample libraries for the tasks, but it should be fun to try either way.


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## JohnG (Jul 2, 2020)

My favourite JG score sound is probably "The Mummy," although I am such a fan it would be hard to choose.

"The Mummy" sounds like the orchestra is in the room with you. Rattling, buzzing, wheezing, scraping -- right THERE!


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

JohnG said:


> My favourite JG score sound is probably "The Mummy," although I am such a fan it would be hard to choose.
> 
> "The Mummy" sounds like the orchestra is in the room with you. Rattling, buzzing, wheezing, scraping -- right THERE!


The Mummy was JG at his absolute finest. The other one I loved was Total Recall. It's like he finally completed Capricorn One from the 70's.

My guilty pleasure is the score to The Shadow. It's overly campy and I'm ashamed to admit how much I love that.


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

Funny. It says Air Lyndhurst at the beginning but then they have a shot of Abbey Road. 

So...what am I missing? Air Lyndhurst and Abbey Road aren't the same.



But I gotta admit, this sounds lovely


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## Rasoul Morteza (Jul 2, 2020)

josejherring said:


> I spent about 3 years away from samples and doing only live stuff and when I came back the first thing I noticed was that so many more people had great sounding samples all done in different rooms and different sized ensembles all with a different unique sampling approach but the samples didn't fit together. Like I can't for the life of me figure out why people are trying to fit a 6 violin section and press it into a large orchestral type setting. 6 violins are chamber strings size. Trying to do epic with it and pair it up with gigantic sized brass ensembles just doesn't make sense.


May not make any sense but it might work, somehow, who knows. But I completely agree with your first point, everything is a pain to sort through if you're trying to blend different libraries together. Some newer libraries are including a zillion different mic positions that ultimately if you explore them enough, you can do crazy things with. But I wonder if there's a workaround... I'm increasingly looking into ambisonic recording and that may fix one of the many issues you just mentioned.


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

Rasoul Morteza said:


> May not make any sense but it might work, somehow, who knows. But I completely agree with your first point, everything is a pain to sort through if you're trying to blend different libraries together. Some newer libraries are including a zillion different mic positions that ultimately if you explore them enough, you can do crazy things with. But I wonder if there's a workaround... I'm increasingly looking into ambisonic recording and that may fix one of the many issues you just mentioned.


The one ambisonic recording I heard I really, really liked. Could be a solution to the ever increasing mic arrays.


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## Scoremixer (Jul 2, 2020)

josejherring said:


> Funny. It says Air Lyndhurst at the beginning but then they have a shot of Abbey Road.
> 
> So...what am I missing? Air Lyndhurst and Abbey Road aren't the same.
> 
> ...




Ha, what a great video... Quite a few familiar faces in there, 20+ years on. 

One suspects the shot of the AR entrance might be a hapless editor with a bit of filler.


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## Rasoul Morteza (Jul 2, 2020)

josejherring said:


> The one ambisonic recording I heard I really, really liked. Could be a solution to the ever increasing mic arrays.


Yes the spatiality of ambisonic recordings lets the instruments "breathe"... and the post-production limitations help that cause if anything. There are problems with it of course but it just needs more time, but it is a, if not the smarter way. Same goes with library sizes that are going out of control, whilst I know some good folks here who are working on some incredible modelling that may sound like the real deal in 5-10 years, and only weight a few MB.
If everything goes right I should be doing 4 ambisonic recordings this October, will try to share the results here.


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

Rasoul Morteza said:


> Yes the spatiality of ambisonic recordings lets the instruments "breathe"... and the post-production limitations help that cause if anything. There are problems with it of course but it just needs more time, but it is a, if not the smarter way. Same goes with library sizes that are going out of control, whilst I know some good folks here who are working on some incredible modelling that may sound like the real deal in 5-10 years, and only weight a few MB.
> If everything goes right I should be doing 4 ambisonic recordings this October, will try to share the results here.


Please do. 
I started out doing indie films in New York with chamber size ensembles and I wish that I had had this technology. I was always happy with the results I got down in the east village studios but ambisonic recording would have elevated my scores a lot.


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## Rasoul Morteza (Jul 2, 2020)

josejherring said:


> Please do.
> I started out doing indie films in New York with chamber size ensembles and I wish that I had had this technology. I was always happy with the results I got down in the east village studios but ambisonic recording would have elevated my scores a lot.


For sure, and let's not forget the glory of not having to deal with wasted session time figuring out why the oboe mics are going berserk.


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## NoamL (Jul 2, 2020)

On the "Meg" score, it sometimes sounds like the orchestra is quite a ways behind the pre-records (especially the synth) and the percussion feels slightly unnaturally clear and present compared to how it all kinds of blends in on the other two recordings. So the overall impression is "well mixed" but there's like a tiny 2% uncanniness. BTW that's no judgement on the score as a whole, would have to hear it with the film!

What do you think of this @josejherring ?


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

NoamL said:


> On the "Meg" score, it sometimes sounds like the orchestra is quite a ways behind the pre-records (especially the synth) and the percussion feels slightly unnaturally clear and present compared to how it all kinds of blends in on the other two recordings. So the overall impression is "well mixed" but there's like a tiny 2% uncanniness. BTW that's no judgement on the score as a whole, would have to hear it with the film!
> 
> What do you think of this @josejherring ?



Firstly Henry Jackman is probably one of my favorites of the "young" ones. Him and Lorne Balfe I have a geeky music crush on. I just think they are so inventive. 

I like the recording a lot. Nice tight room which leads to punchy brass sounds and crisp clear high strings. Maybe some of the orchestration choices I would have done differently, but we're taking about room and mix in this thread. 

I purposely didn't look up were it was recorded. But, it doesn't sound like an Air Lyndhurst recording to my ears but I could be wrong.

I'll probably check now to find out the details.


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## José Herring (Jul 2, 2020)

Recorded at Fox. Funny. I've been there at least a 1/2 dozen times and it's never been my favorite stage. I mean don't get my wrong if I ever score a major blockbuster I'd be more than happy to score it there. 

There has to be a lot done in the booth to get that stage to sound right. You can barely hear the stings on stage. It's really hard acoustically. But, you can get some great recordings out of it.

I was there for 2 days on this session.


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## NoamL (Jul 2, 2020)

Yep. his brass writing leaps out as being among the most antiphonal of any current film composer. Only thing I can think of to compare it to is prequel era JW. But instead of the prequels sound he really goes for this punchy scoring stage sound. Same thing on the Jumanji scores! I think it works well, helps with the clarity.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jul 2, 2020)

Mike T said:


> Well, these three scores have gotta be some of the best examples!




Absolutely, the prequels are some of the best recordings out there in my mind. 

However, I do not like this remastered version. They seem to have boosted the highs way too much, which makes it sound unnatural. The original CD's which I have are way better and more natural.


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## CT (Jul 2, 2020)

Didn't notice it was a "remaster." The CDs sound great. Can't imagine what needed to be changed!


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