# Help taming/EQ French Horns



## maestro2be (Nov 20, 2017)

God morning all,

I am on vacation this week and wanted to try to tackle something I have not been able to accomplish. I bought a breath controller and WOW Sample Modeling is pure magic how it responds! However, I simply cannot figure out how to best tame the French Horn in a solo and quartet scenario, where they are performing in a more clear and up close intimate stage.

I am finding that from F above middle C, up to C above Middle C (perfect 5th) all notes have incredible amounts of ringing that make my ears bleed.

To see if it was just Sample Modeling I loaded up all my VSL horns individually and they do it (I own them all from dimension to full brass library solo instruments). I then loaded up Solo horn from a few other vendors and they all do it as well so perhaps this is a fundamental aspect of the instrument. I loaded up trombones and played the same notes from all vendors and none of them do it so I am leaning towards this is just a French Horn thing.

So far I did an EQ sweep to find the problem area and did a very narrow width but deep cut to remove the ringing. The problem is that I have to do one narrow cut for all those notes in that area and I feel it's destroying the sound of the instrument.

Anyone willing to share some expertise on how to tame this beautiful instrument in this setting?

Thanks!


----------



## Gzu (Nov 21, 2017)

maestro2be said:


> God morning all,
> 
> I am on vacation this week and wanted to try to tackle something I have not been able to accomplish. I bought a breath controller and WOW Sample Modeling is pure magic how it responds! However, I simply cannot figure out how to best tame the French Horn in a solo and quartet scenario, where they are performing in a more clear and up close intimate stage.
> 
> ...



I'm fighting with the same problem.
But I've been able to get good results, with some tweaking.
My Sm french Horn chain is :
High pass filter at 485hz with a Q of 0.46
With the high pass filter you are going to kill most of the ringing frequencies.
Most problematic zone is between 150 to 300 hz.
You can use the timbral shaping and try to tame those frequencies but I've done that without great results.
Then it goes to MIR Pro to give some ER and placement.
All this is done in VEP 6, in Cubase i use Altiverb for each section.
So the SM FH goes to Cubase, enter the Slate digital Virtual console and then as a send to Altiverb.

Yes it's a very long chain I and maybe not the best, but I've tried so many ways, and this one is the one that give the best results.

Later on I will try to upload a sound sample so you can judge for yourself.


----------



## Dan Drebing (Nov 21, 2017)

I was able to successfully use multiband compression to tame some ringing that popped up in a narrow range of notes at only certain dynamic layers in french horn, so maybe try that. This avoided the issue of pulling down the levels of the ringing frequency across the entire performance.

That being said, if all your samples have the same ringing in the range then that's probably just what a french horn sounds like in that range. You may be shooting yourself in the foot by altering the sound to eliminate the natural ringing of the instrument and ending up with something other than a french horn.


----------



## maestro2be (Nov 22, 2017)

Thanks for the responses and tips. I am seeing issues in the same frequency range.

I am finding that I can get good results when there is only 1 horn. The moment I introduce more horns, the problem is being amplified. Mostly because I am attempting to chord them close to one another.

This is a recognizable piece of music I decided to use to show where I am at sound wise. It has 4 solo horns. I performed all parts in live using my new breath controller TEControl BBC2. This actually was the purpose of the mockup, and has lead to me now being obsessed with this frequency buildup.

I have exported a mixdown of it to WAV which can be downloaded here:

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/wCWyHc13TdlIRmbEGImgXORojaStEDyVqjW4WncvFaC

I tried several other avenues of showing the sound and they all made it much worse, assuming from the degradation of being put into mp3 or whatever other format these sites use. If you have issues getting the file please let me know.

Appreciate any feedback.


----------



## Serg Halen (Nov 23, 2017)

Actually, fighting with picks and loud resonances with help of equalizer is bad idea. Cuz, yes, this is destroy sound. More usefull tip, is use multiband compressor. MB compressor will reducing those resonanses.


----------



## jamwerks (Nov 23, 2017)

If you are hearing that in all the instruments you load up, could just be your room!


----------

