Abdulrahman
Active Member
Hi fellow mixers,
I've recently began my journey to discover how we can simulate the acoustics of a scoring studio. I've been working and experimenting endlessly on reverb for a very long time and I've been doing tutorials on it as well. It seems I may get happy at first with my sound, but then after I hear a live recording, I immediately hate my reverb!
In the world of live recording, there's this magnificent sound that results from blending different frequencies and timbres of different instruments together to create this coherent and all-in-one sound that I'm so desperately trying to make. No matter what room or mic setup you make for your orchestra, once they play together, you will love the outcome. Everything sounds balanced and homogeneous.
I could bring you a piece of only 3 sections playing (Say Violins, Violas and Flutes) and yet somehow it still sounds full and they belong to each other. I don't know how else can I describe this, but you get my point. I know there is mic bleed which results on the instruments on the left to play on the right as well which helps sell the "same room" principle, but when I remove them with just simple EQ, I can still feel they're together, so there's no loss in the surround feel.
I'm focusing my power on the strings for now trying to get them as close as possible to the real thing using different layers and maybe some slight compression to bring the room/bow noise to add that human factor to it. Adding an extra room tone on the overall mix can also help sell the illusion of a recording session.
Another thing that disturbs me is the percussion section. Mostly, the Timpani and Bass Drum. Our samples sound dull, boomy and resonant. They failed to capture the Timpani "roar" attack/rolls or the Bass Drum "ohmph" attack that is felt more than heard. My Timpani is almost sound washed out everytime and fail to bring the level of epicness that I want from it. Even when EQing it to bring the desired frequency range that makes it good, you end up making it worse and possibly hurt your ear. Take these two examples that showcase the Timpani/Bass at their best!
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• Mulan
Some did advice me to play with the sample release of the Timpani. Please, feel free to share your own experiences with the world of reverb and acoustics as I've failed to find a good article that talks about the science behind the acoustics of how they're able to blend different orchestral instruments together. What is the key behind this that could completely change the way we listen to virtual instruments?
I've recently began my journey to discover how we can simulate the acoustics of a scoring studio. I've been working and experimenting endlessly on reverb for a very long time and I've been doing tutorials on it as well. It seems I may get happy at first with my sound, but then after I hear a live recording, I immediately hate my reverb!
In the world of live recording, there's this magnificent sound that results from blending different frequencies and timbres of different instruments together to create this coherent and all-in-one sound that I'm so desperately trying to make. No matter what room or mic setup you make for your orchestra, once they play together, you will love the outcome. Everything sounds balanced and homogeneous.
I could bring you a piece of only 3 sections playing (Say Violins, Violas and Flutes) and yet somehow it still sounds full and they belong to each other. I don't know how else can I describe this, but you get my point. I know there is mic bleed which results on the instruments on the left to play on the right as well which helps sell the "same room" principle, but when I remove them with just simple EQ, I can still feel they're together, so there's no loss in the surround feel.
I'm focusing my power on the strings for now trying to get them as close as possible to the real thing using different layers and maybe some slight compression to bring the room/bow noise to add that human factor to it. Adding an extra room tone on the overall mix can also help sell the illusion of a recording session.
Another thing that disturbs me is the percussion section. Mostly, the Timpani and Bass Drum. Our samples sound dull, boomy and resonant. They failed to capture the Timpani "roar" attack/rolls or the Bass Drum "ohmph" attack that is felt more than heard. My Timpani is almost sound washed out everytime and fail to bring the level of epicness that I want from it. Even when EQing it to bring the desired frequency range that makes it good, you end up making it worse and possibly hurt your ear. Take these two examples that showcase the Timpani/Bass at their best!
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• Mulan
Some did advice me to play with the sample release of the Timpani. Please, feel free to share your own experiences with the world of reverb and acoustics as I've failed to find a good article that talks about the science behind the acoustics of how they're able to blend different orchestral instruments together. What is the key behind this that could completely change the way we listen to virtual instruments?
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