Overluden In P

[Tim Smith]

Here is something I made last night. If you're anything like me the next morning is a real eye opener listening to a mix.

A few things I know about so far-

The violin vst is the Joshua Bell and I hate to say I can't seem to get it to sound like a real violin. In places the velocity is all over the place. This was not the fault of my pressure on the keys. It seems to be the way this instrument is set up to respond to anything. It has a wild arc from nothing to everything suddenly.

Though I have the Tina Quo cello I thought I would give the Blankus Pocket cello a try. It seems to be presenting some nasty bottom end noises and thumps.

I mixed in headphones so I would not annoy those sleeping. I forgot to use headphone correction. My headphones have a bump in the mid lows. This morning I listened to the mix on the way to work and it sounded very bad. Later it seemed to sound better on my low cost ear buds at work. I'm pretty sure I'll need to work on the overall mix.

Suggestions welcome. -Tim

 

 

[antler]

Hi Tim. I like this - the piece has a very nice overall flow and direction.

The dynamics in some of the instruments surprised me on a few occasions. You mentioned that the instruments (or at least violin) have an unpredictable velocity arc - is there some other way of controlling it (e.g. legato time, or a midi cc)? Alternatively, it might be an idea to either use a volume envelope or gentle compression (not too much for this type of music) to help smooth it out.

I saw your comment in your other post about wanting a more through-composed piece. It's certainly true that there's a lot more repetition in film music, as the score writers would want to give each visual theme and musical theme, and repeat/build on it. However, I might suggest that you don't worry too much about repeating a theme once or twice in your future pieces; something like an ABA style probably wouldn't feel too out of place.

If you don't mind me asking, what orchestra did you use? It sounds good.

Edited December 14, 2021 by antler

[jack c.]

nice job.jack c.

[Tim Smith]

1 hour ago, antler said:

Hi Tim. I like this - the piece has a very nice overall flow and direction.

The dynamics in some of the instruments surprised me on a few occasions. You mentioned that the instruments (or at least violin) have an unpredictable velocity arc - is there some other way of controlling it (e.g. legato time, or a midi cc)? Alternatively, it might be an idea to either use a volume envelope or gentle compression (not too much for this type of music) to help smooth it out.

I saw your comment in your other post about wanting a more through-composed piece. It's certainly true that there's a lot more repetition in film music, as the score writers would want to give each visual theme and musical theme, and repeat/build on it. However, I might suggest that you don't worry too much about repeating a theme once or twice in your future pieces; something like an ABA style probably wouldn't feel too out of place.

If you don't mind me asking, what orchestra did you use? It sounds good.

Thanks antler for the suggestions. I will dig in on this one tonight again. This time using  monitors and correction. I think I hear you saying that you noticed several velocity surprises. I will see about knocking those peaks down some. I plan to change the violin and cello to something else in my tool kit. Thanks for the other suggestions as well. 

I used Amadeus Symphony Orchestra here. On my last tune posted here I used VSL Big Bang Orchestra. The free one. After going through various libraries I would say VSL is the way to go. I will probably be upgrading to their basic orchestra. I am not into mainly producing high energy action film music so Eastwest Hollywood orchestra really doesn't appeal to me as much . Maybe that direction would work for you depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Although you can make any orchestra sound epic with a few tweaks . VSL can  deliver in that arena.

I made this one using mostly SONOVOX orchestra. It can be had for not much $$ and sound plenty epic.