Fake orchestra

[bozmillar]

oh, and the next section of the song I'm working on will have sustained strings, so I'll have a whole new set of issues. As you said the string sections are a bit fake sounding, so that will probably be a bigger fake giveaway than this first section.

 

[DavidK]

DavidK, I will have to ponder your symphony vs film score comment. While you are absolutely right that I'm going for a film score sound on this song, I guess I never really thought that there was a difference, other than style.

For a soundtrack:
Panning is wider
Reverb is MUCH different
Sound is compressed/eq'ed/altered.
Instrumention is usually a hybrid of real people and synths.
There are overdubs.

Symphony recordings tend to be au Naturale, as much as possible. The concert hall is what you are hearing, it acts as it's own musical instrument. In a symphony, panning is not as defined and its more of a "core" sound one hears. For a soundtrack, the orchestra is recorded in a typical studio and heavily processed.

It's hard to describe the role of the concert hall, it's amazing. Not only does a great hall sound much better, but players actually play differently. Since the players can hear each other better, they play more like one unit than individuals. No matter how good the convolution reverbs are, they just dont sound like a real hall yet.

 

[bozmillar]

ok then, you are exactly right. I'm going for a film score sound. Actually, what I'm really trying to to is get the techniques down so I can back up some metal songs with an orchestra. And for that, I would be going for the film score sound.

 

[joeym]

This sounds really well-made.
A bit short though....just when I was expecting it to really climax, it stopped.
Great stuff though, I'd really like to hear the backing on a metal track.

Joe

 

[bozmillar]

ok, sorry to bug everybody with more updates to the song. I'm just trying to figure out this whole GPO thing, and fresh ears are really helpful in getting it to sound right. So I made the following changes:

1) De-un-quantized the strings a little, especially the violins. I think it sounds a bit tighter now, but comments appreciated.

2) Changed the solo strings to solo KS so I could get better attack out of them when layering. I also did some mod wheeling on to to try to naturalate them a little more.

3) Started the next section. Far from finished, I was just trying to get an idea of where the song should go. The strings on this part are far from natural, so you don't need to tell me yet that they don't sound right.

4) Brought the horns up quite a bit and added more brass. I need opinions on how these sound. I always have a hard time with brass, so if anything sounds off or unnatural, let me know.

There are a few things that I need to do that I haven't yet:

1) The bass drums seems to disappear and sound unnatural at times. I still have to look into that.

2) I guess I dragged the bass drum loop out for a long time, because the last couple minutes is just bass drum over and over again. Don't expect the song to pick up, because it doesn't yet.

Any comments/suggestions are very appreciated.

Update: Actually, the cello section on the second part is done. The violas on top of the cellos are not, but if anything sounds unnatural about the cellos, please let me know and I'll mess with them more.

 

[bozmillar]

If i didn't know it was sampled, I don't think there are enough clues to point to the fact that they are. I didn't see a problem with the sound. Would you tell me what sampler you used? It almost sounded like some scoring from "The Dark Knight".

So I finally listened to the dark knight soundtrack, and I see what you're saying. I will try not to listen to it anymore so that I don't accidentally rip it off, but it does make for good reference material on the sound I'm going for here.