I come from a strong recording background, and through my dad (who was a classical musician his whole life) I know that most classical orchestras embraced digital years ago primarily because of the noise/hiss issue -- very soft passages weren't covered in analog hiss for the first time. There were sonic tradeoffs with that, especially in the old days of digital, but not as much these days.
So many libraries seem to prefer having hiss on there (I'm NOT talking about room tone or bow noise -- I'm only talking about actual tape/mic/older mic pre hiss), like it's somehow a good thing. Engineers were always trying to get rid of hiss in the analog days. It's a cute nostalgia thing but has no place in modern productions, unless you want to add it yourself for some reason. Libraries, from Spitfire to CSS, have huge amounts of noise on every patch that's highly audible in softer dynamics, and I can't understand who thought that it's a good idea to not address that as best as possible. Recording to tape? Well, OK, but not at the cost of hiss that adds up hugely in sampled orchestra projects.
I think it's a mistake and it bugs the living hell out me when I have to deal with it. I've even had a couple of clients for my scores ask me if I can get rid of the hiss because they're used to hearing things clean and clear. For my pop song mixes, if I have plugins that add audible noise my clients will almost always ask me if I can get rid of it.
I've even considered using Izotope RX to reduce the hiss on the actual samples for these libraries, but that's a huge project. There is no reason to be stuck with the bad parts of analog in these modern times -- you can record with great pre-amps and mics and not have nearly as much noise as many of these libraries have with softer dynamics -- I know because I did that all of the time when I was recording. Are they all going to tape? I know Spitfire does, not sure about other noisy ones.
I would strongly urge library companies to give people the option to add their own noise with plugins or something if for some reason they think it makes things sound better. It's nostalgic for no reason whatsoever otherwise, IMO.
Thoughts? Opinions? Note: I know extremely well how to mix (I do it professionally as well as composing/producing - not saying this to be egotistical) and record, and I know all about how things used to be --that's not the issue here. The issue is that in 2019 we need to have the utmost flexibility to do whatever we want to do creatively, and excessive noise like these libraries have can and does get in the way of that, for me and many other composers I know. Don't agree? Don't be haughty or prideful about it -- just tell me your opinions, I'd love to hear them.
So many libraries seem to prefer having hiss on there (I'm NOT talking about room tone or bow noise -- I'm only talking about actual tape/mic/older mic pre hiss), like it's somehow a good thing. Engineers were always trying to get rid of hiss in the analog days. It's a cute nostalgia thing but has no place in modern productions, unless you want to add it yourself for some reason. Libraries, from Spitfire to CSS, have huge amounts of noise on every patch that's highly audible in softer dynamics, and I can't understand who thought that it's a good idea to not address that as best as possible. Recording to tape? Well, OK, but not at the cost of hiss that adds up hugely in sampled orchestra projects.
I think it's a mistake and it bugs the living hell out me when I have to deal with it. I've even had a couple of clients for my scores ask me if I can get rid of the hiss because they're used to hearing things clean and clear. For my pop song mixes, if I have plugins that add audible noise my clients will almost always ask me if I can get rid of it.
I've even considered using Izotope RX to reduce the hiss on the actual samples for these libraries, but that's a huge project. There is no reason to be stuck with the bad parts of analog in these modern times -- you can record with great pre-amps and mics and not have nearly as much noise as many of these libraries have with softer dynamics -- I know because I did that all of the time when I was recording. Are they all going to tape? I know Spitfire does, not sure about other noisy ones.
I would strongly urge library companies to give people the option to add their own noise with plugins or something if for some reason they think it makes things sound better. It's nostalgic for no reason whatsoever otherwise, IMO.
Thoughts? Opinions? Note: I know extremely well how to mix (I do it professionally as well as composing/producing - not saying this to be egotistical) and record, and I know all about how things used to be --that's not the issue here. The issue is that in 2019 we need to have the utmost flexibility to do whatever we want to do creatively, and excessive noise like these libraries have can and does get in the way of that, for me and many other composers I know. Don't agree? Don't be haughty or prideful about it -- just tell me your opinions, I'd love to hear them.
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