Need Mixing Help

[RebekahAnnCurtis]

Pretty much straightforward mixing help needed. Aiming for it to sound awesome. Especially in the drums.

https://soundcloud.com/rebekahanncurtis ... tread-vs-2

[andygabrys]

depends what you are really trying to hear it as.

Is it a chamber ensemble?

Is it a full orchestra?

right now the strings feel really bright, dry and close. And using small sections - maybe even some solo strings there. Also sounds like they are all played in the upper region of the dynamics for each section.

The cello / contrabass sustain note in the BG sounds like a much bigger section and it sounds much farther away.

If it were me, I would look at doing the following:

figuring out how to manipulate the CC programming for your strings.

On well programmed VI's there are:

1) CC1 or CC2 for bow pressure (i.e. how hard and intensely the note is produced on the strings, or how much air is being moved through a brass instrument. In both cases High values of CC1 or CC2 should produce a loud, bright, intense sound that doesn't blend well
2) CC11 for expression (volume really but not bow pressure)
3) CC7 which is actually the same as moving your fader up and down (leave this alone on the actual midi programming and do fader automation as the last step in your mix).

usually the easiest thing to do is to manipulate CC 1/ 2 first.
The make some moves on CC11 if you can't get enough contrast / dynamics.

In pop / rock music, dynamic change is often accomplished by addition or subtraction of instruments. That is often because all the instruments are compressed and eq'd to have little dynamic change.

In orchestral music, its still normal even in virtual orchestras to go a lot lighter on compression. Eq is usually used in a subtractive fashion to get rid of "build-up" and un-natural sounding samples. Reverb is often added for size and sustain and to get a sense of "front and back" on the sound stage - especially playing with the pre-delay on the reverbs (analogous to how long it takes the sound to "slap" off the back wall of the hall - percussion is close so you use short pre-delay. Strings are closest to the audience and farthest from the back wall so you use longer pre-delay times).

So you retain much more sweetness and a huge dynamic range.

so it might be a paradigm shift to think of orchestration and arranging in this way - you can add subtract sections and instruments, but each instrument also has a huge playable dynamic and timbral range.

Make use of that by figuring out how to program your samples, and it will make your stuff sound much more lifelike and interesting. Contrast is everything. There is no loud and impressive without some soft and tender.....someplace.

[RebekahAnnCurtis]

Ok, I applied some of the tips you listed.

Hah, makes so much more sense than just layering samples on top of samples.

So...

https://soundcloud.com/rebekahanncurtis ... -4/s-McPuE

Would like to hear your input

[andygabrys]

still not hearing it the way I think it could go.

what are you using for samples? for the strings and the brass?

[RebekahAnnCurtis]

I'm using a mix of Logic's strings, NI's VSL strings and session strings pro from NI

and the horns are from NI

[PaulBergren]

Great info Andy. Thanks.

[Joseph]

Try this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ThBkusTiMUM

I know it's not the same samples but the skills are transferable. It helped me tremendously.

-Joseph

[RebekahAnnCurtis]

Sweet!

Now I have new questions:

What exactly is "CC"

AND

How do I manipulate them?

[RebekahAnnCurtis]

Let's also assume that I know absolutely nothing, I relate well to specific details.

[Len911]

https://youtu.be/4bk315sFOeE

This may help it's a Logic tutorial.

Midi continuous controllers

Just one example: Let's say you draw in midi notes in your sequencer's editor. Default velocity is usually 64. That means all samples will be 64 velocity. Virtual instruments have "velocity layers" and a different sample depending on the velocity setting 0-127, and how many layers they have. 128 samples would be the max, one at every increment. Let's say that there are only two sample layers. One sample is a softly played sample, the other is a sample played hard, you might map the soft sample at 0-63, and the hard (high velocity) sample 64-127. Because your velocity is fixed at 64, only the hard sample will be played, you can adjust the volume, so you could effectively play the hard sample softly, but it doesn't have the same realism, instruments sound differently when played soft than loud. Now imagine you have four velocity layers, or 10 or 15 ... Of course you could set the velocity value of each note separately, drawing in controller values is a time saving measure, a form of automation, drawing a smooth curve until you get the desired outcome. Obviously, if there are only two layers, it's silly to painstakeingly draw in values as you only have two choices, in the above mapping example, you could use any velocity 0-63 for soft and 64-127 for hard sample. So you might go through and put a 2 for soft and 70 for hard as an example.

Always read the owner's manual of the specific vi, because many use specific controllers for certain things, and tips to help you get the most out of your instrument.