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Mixing orchestral music - KNOWLEDGE BASE

Adam Lukas

Adam Lukas

New Member
Hello guys!

I was just looking for a thread here on v.i.control that deals with mixing orchestral/hybrid music in depth but couldn't find one in particular. So can we make this thread a great source of knowledge and inspiration, by posting:

.) Articles
.) Book recommendations
.) Tutorials
.) Course recommendations
.) Our own techniques
.) Tips, hints

We're heading for the top notch/cinema-ready sound here, so we might skip the beginner/basic hints and get pro:
- What are the cutting edge hints?
- The tweaks or plug-ins that REALLY make the difference?
- What are the biggest mistakes/myths/legends?

A few impulses:

- Setting up the mix: What's the best method in your opinion? Routing, Grouping, etc.

- Mix busses on STEMS like STRINGS, BRASS, PERC - how do you deal with compression and make sure that all parts of the orchestra are glued together and sound 'tight'- on their own and in tutti?

- Do you even compress? Which instruments need it, which instruments shouldn't have much or any?

- Achieving depth and 3D feeling using the EQ(!)

- Panning: We all know how to pan orchestral instruments. But what are the exakt numbers? -20 for the 1.violins? (Logic X)- too much? is it -10? What about other settings where both the violin sections are outside and 'frame' the orchestra? What works best for you? Especially the Low end is tricky - do you have your low sine wave set up in the middle and panned the basses to the right?

- How to deal with frequency issues caused by heavy percussion and low strings playing along together?

- Reverb techniques - do you EQ your Reverb?

- How to achieve great depth using reverb? How much wetter is your brass than your strings?

- Into the mix: Mixing MIDI vs Mixing rendered Audio

- Into the mix: How to achieve a great spectrum of: Balance, Frequency, Volume, Depth?

Thank you all for posting your hints, recommendations and tips here. Let's make this world a better place! Of course I will gather some infos too and share it with you as soon I'm out of the studio-shift today.
All the best from Vienna,
Adam
Click to read more...
 
Adam Lukas said:
- Panning: We all know how to pan orchestral instruments. But what are the exakt numbers?

- Reverb techniques - do you EQ your Reverb?

- How to achieve great depth using reverb? How much wetter is your brass than your strings?
Click to expand...

Hi Lukas,

I cannot answer all your questions but only that I am sure of.

Depths: I strongly advocate to read this thread: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/considering-vahalla-room-or-breeze.50957/

All replies are helpful but read Beat Kaufmann replies. There is no other method I have tried which is as realistically close to what Beat has described here. I made a quick track using his technique and the result was awesome. Keep in mind that you should use dry instruments.

Panning: I usually refer to these settings with here and there changes,

cSBtidC.jpg



Reverb techniques: Watch this video and tune the technique according to your need,



Hope this helps, sort of!
 
Those are already some great posts. Can't wait to look into that!
Thanks a lot guys and keep them coming! :thumbsup:
 
emid said:
Hi Lukas,

I cannot answer all your questions but only that I am sure of.

Depths: I strongly advocate to read this thread: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/considering-vahalla-room-or-breeze.50957/

All replies are helpful but read Beat Kaufmann replies. There is no other method I have tried which is as realistically close to what Beat has described here. I made a quick track using his technique and the result was awesome. Keep in mind that you should use dry instruments.

Panning: I usually refer to these settings with here and there changes,

cSBtidC.jpg



Reverb techniques: Watch this video and tune the technique according to your need,



Hope this helps, sort of!
Click to expand...


I've always liked this orchestra diagram:

https://www.davesguitarroom.com/orchastralayout_files/stacks_image_806.png
 
You probably need to specify what you want to learn how to mix -- samples or real orchestra.

Either way it is a long process to learn.
 
JohnG said:
You probably need to specify what you want to learn how to mix -- samples or real orchestra.

Either way it is a long process to learn.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming samples. from the jist of the OP.

As concerns samples, why would it be a "long process?"
 
emid said:
Hi Lukas,

I cannot answer all your questions but only that I am sure of.

Depths: I strongly advocate to read this thread: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/considering-vahalla-room-or-breeze.50957/

All replies are helpful but read Beat Kaufmann replies. There is no other method I have tried which is as realistically close to what Beat has described here. I made a quick track using his technique and the result was awesome. Keep in mind that you should use dry instruments.

Panning: I usually refer to these settings with here and there changes,

cSBtidC.jpg



Reverb techniques: Watch this video and tune the technique according to your need,



Hope this helps, sort of!
Click to expand...

Had anyone tried this abbey roads reverb trick with logic equalizer and east west spaces on orchestral instruments (strings brass wws percussion)? It sucks all of the life out of the reverb when I put the band pass filter before the reverb on the aux channel. Anyone else have an opinion on Using this technique? Bus it just for guitars and vocals and not for orchestral mixes??

Thanks for the insight
 
milesito said:
Had anyone tried this abbey roads reverb trick with logic equalizer and east west spaces on orchestral instruments (strings brass wws percussion)? It sucks all of the life out of the reverb when I put the band pass filter before the reverb on the aux channel. Anyone else have an opinion on Using this technique? Bus it just for guitars and vocals and not for orchestral mixes??

Thanks for the insight
Click to expand...

I use it on every mix, works great for my purposes (orchestral/modern advertising/hybrid music etc.).

I mainly use one general reverb on FX channel as a send (Lexicon most of the time) and put an EQ right before it.
 
Awesome thread guys, i have been looking for something like this.

Great stuff!

Thank you for sharing and keep it coming =)
 
Just found this thread. I too can recommend (and use) Fab Filter in Cubase. But when I was experimenting with the Abbey Road idea awhile ago, I also tried it with Cubase's own Voxengo Curve EQ, and created a curve similar to the one in the video. If you only have Cubase's EQ, you can create one there. I tried to save the Voxengo curve preset I created so I could share it with you, but alas it doesn't save correctly. So I have shared it (see attached zip file) as a CSV file which can easily be loaded in the plugin.
 

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playz123 said:
Just found this thread. I too can recommend (and use) Fab Filter in Cubase. But when I was experimenting with the Abbey Road idea awhile ago, I also tried it with Cubase's own Voxengo Curve EQ, and created a curve similar to the one in the video. If you only have Cubase's EQ, you can create one there. I tried to save the Voxengo curve preset I created so I could share it with you, but alas it doesn't save correctly. So I have shared it (see attached zip file) as a CSV file which can easily be loaded in the plugin.
Click to expand...
Does Spaces need this type of treatment also?
 
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