So with the caveat that this is really just more of my amateur noodling, I though I'd share an experiment - I'm mostly just working out how to add reverb and mix it with libs recorded in AIR lyndhurst.
Here's what I came up with in the last couple of hours, using:
- lots of Vc + Vl flautando, and then Vl + Vc + Va legatos
- Just the tree mics
- lots (ie. *lots*) of Valhalla Room reverb. One of the cathedral presents.
- no eq or any other processing.
Some thoughts:
- Valhalla room is a perfectly adequate reverb here, which alleviates my biggest concern about buying this library. SCS, or a higher end reverb, would probably be better for such a wet piece, but all in all, I'm very happy with the sound. Although I set out to write something really drenched in reverb thinking it would be the easiest type of sound to get working - I'm really just trying to replicate SCS here, and not trying to take advantage the "studio" dry sounds. (So I'm probably not using the library in the way it is supposed to be used, in much the same way that I don't actually plan to ever write any British drama with the British Drama Toolkit).
- even with the slathering of reverb, you still hear quite of lot detail, which I really love. I'm not sure precisely how this compares to SCS, since you have both the hall sound + the fact that it has smaller sections to account for. I'd be curious to get a better sense of the difference.
- I love the sounds of the winds here, but more importantly, how they blend - which was largely the point of the experiment. I did find myself needing to quite a lot of close mic on the winds, in addition to the tree, as well a surprising amount of the Valhalla reverb. I normally wouldn't add so much external reverb to SSW, but it helped give them consistency with the strings. Probably not the most realistic orchestral mix, but that's not the sort of think I tend to worry about.
- the legatos are limited compared to other libraries, but I do find them quite expressive, and the dynamic range is better than a lot of libraries (although I tend to crank up the volume and use only the lower couple of layers anyway).
- there's a little bit of (spitfire) solo strings as a flourish at the end. I love the way it just adds a bit of even finer detail, and again it fits really nicely in the mix, for these three notes. But in general I had a more difficult time figuring out how to get them to fit. Which is something I struggle with for all solo strings libraries. So that's something to revisit.
Basically, I just really love the sound of these musicians and how they've been captured. More advanced legato would have been nice. As would a close mic (without having to go pro). And some dynamic arcs (a la L&S). And progressive vibrato longs. And rebowing (which is a must-have on the next string library I buy).
But for $200, I just don't think you can beat this for its sheer sonority.