To shorten the waiting time, maybe a question would help
What do you guys use to blend Infinite Woods n Brass with other libraries? What do you use for positioning / spatialization?
I know - this has been partially discussed before, but it’s very hard to screen such a monster-thread for snippets of information, and I wonder whether there is a consensus on what works best?
Do you bypass the internal seating tool / impulse responses?
I am still unexperienced in this field and would find your thoughts on this very interesting.
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Longer Version
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So maybe I could start with a list with the basic possibilities that crossed my mind and what I tried (beginner in this field, so bare with me). First the obvious:
1. Use the built-in seating tool and reverb (one of the two bigger halls, depending on which matches more closely with the other libs used in the project). In addition a bit of glue reverb on the section bus or master channel.
2. Use the built-in seating tool and reverb (studio hall, to keep it as dry as possible). In addition more glue reverb on the section bus and / or master channel to put all libs into the same room.
This very basic approach in some ways works surprisingly well for me depending on which other libs are involved, but I don’t have the ear yet to really judge the finesses and I assume that things can get messed up fast. For example: the seating positions in the AV libs will not precisely match the ones in the other libs (and every one is slightly or even drastically different in this regard), both with regard to stereo field and depth. I can personally not hear when e.g. a Trombone is slightly more to the left or right than one from a different lib, but even I can hear if the Trombone suddenly sits in another section or when the differences in depth are too pronounced
I would then try to remedy this with Precedence or just some low pass filter or so to push the AV instruments a bit more to the back or front if needed, but this is probably highly unprofessional and not recommended (because combining the internal spatialization machine with a second external one seems to call for trouble in so many regards).
3. Completely turn off the inbuilt impulse responses, set all instruments to center position, and then use an external positioning tool + reverb (e.g. MIR or Precedence + Breeze, or more complex with separate ERs and then tail using different reverbs).
Rationale: As the AV libs depend so much on internal impulse responses for spatialization and reverb, I thought that it might not be the best idea to introduce yet another set of additional impulse responses on top.
I did not find a way to turn the reverb impulse responses completely off without messing in the depths of the Kontakt settings - how do you do that? And: I assume this is not intended at all, otherwise it would be mentioned / documented somewhere?
I tried to center position the AV instruments, choose the studio hall (as I don’t know how to turn it completely off), then position the instruments with Precedence, and either used Breeze as an algorithmic reverb (which can be linked with Precedence), or also Spaces II as the reverb. Advantage: I can then position the instruments correctly with the instruments of the other libs. Disadvantage: Depending on the situation (and probably mood - sometimes I think it sound horrible, sometimes I feel it’s adequate), the sonic result is less than optimal. Especially when also including other dry instruments in the same way (I tried with the Chris Hein Orchestra and Sample Modeling), there is something very artificial, even „metallic“ in the end result that I do not like.
I do not have MIR and have not tried that.
In case someone uses Precedence: do you then use it in combination with Breeze (or another algo reverb), or with a convolution reverb (like Spaces)? I think here basically my question is whether it’s a good idea to use (on top of the plethora of internal impulse responses) yet another convo reverb (for example the positioning info in the impulse responses in the convo reverb will also slightly differ from the internal stuff, introducing trouble).
So in essence:
what is the recommended method to match AV libs with others? What gives you the best results?
As I’ve spent the last year or so (since entering this fascinating world of sampled orchestras) predominantly with testing, comparing, learning stuff and suffering a bit from „paralysis by overthinking“ instead of actually composing something worthy to show off, I can unfortunately not simply post several projects using different methods in context and ask „what do you like the best?“, but I hope that this day will come soon
Of course, I also hope so much that we can soon simply use the full AV orchestra on it’s own as an „internally coherent“ package, including strings and percussion
I found out that being forced to use keyswitch libs is against the human rights
