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The Official Mock-up/Production/Engineering Tips Thread


Dixon Hill

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My intention with this thread is that anyone who has any degree of know-how on the subject, as well as the related subjects of actual acoustic production/engineering, can share what they know with me and each other, and that using this shared knowledge/tips/tricks/etc., we can all benefit.

I'll start with a more specific question. My plan is to pick one recording of a real, live orchestra, and make that the "standard" that I hold my own mock-ups to, as close as possible anyway. I have a few candidates in mind, but I'm curious to hear: what is your favorite orchestral recording, film score or otherwise, purely from the standpoint of sound quality/recording technique?

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Great idea TGP! Especially for guys like me, who aren't as familiar with creating perfect mockups with very technical sequencers and all that.

Can't name one off the top of my head, but I love a rich, wet sound to a recording. Something that gives the impression that it was recorded in a big concert hall.

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I definitely lean more towards the sound of scores than concert music recordings, even studio ones, in almost every case I can think of. I usually oscillate between FOTR or the SW prequels when thinking of what the "ideal" sound is for me.

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My ideal sound would be something like what Bruce Botnick did for ST:TMP, OMEN 3 and E.T, with a touch of the crunchy brass from John Barry's 60s Bond recordings (although over all, I think DAF is his best sounding Bond score).

Although I appreciate them, the prequel and LOTR recordings are little too wet and concert hall-y for my tastes. I like a dry sound, but with a warm low end. Not tinny, just focused.

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There's an amazing deep end to the synths.

That's nothing compared to this analogue synth in OUTLAND.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c05C4XG945I#t=2m2s

Sharky, you haven't had the chance to mess about with DAWs and whatnot, right?

I used Logic back in my school days, but otherwise no. All of my knowledge there is gleaned from watching Youtube tutorials like a nerd. Synth/production porn if you will.

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That's nothing compared to this analogue synth in OUTLAND.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c05C4XG945I#t=2m2s

Outland is fun, but what I admire about the Trek V mix is how clean and transparent it is. There are some extra deep bass effects that are don't bleed into the higher frequencies at all. In a typical Murphy Williams recording, the same effect would probably overload the bass speakers (ala the double basses in Seven Years in Tibet).

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There's an amazing deep end to the synths.

That's nothing compared to this analogue synth in OUTLAND.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c05C4XG945I#t=2m2s

Sharky, you haven't had the chance to mess about with DAWs and whatnot, right?

I used Logic back in my school days, but otherwise no. All of my knowledge there is gleaned from watching Youtube tutorials like a nerd. Synth/production porn if you will.

Damn, I need to pick someone's brain about this!

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I like the idea of emulating the sound of a specific recording - I kinda tried to do that with E.T. a few years back. It's definitely one of my favorite recordings in terms of performance, room sound, mixing, mastering, etc. I would also cite TPM, TMP, and perhaps the first two Potter scores as some of my other favorites. Come to think of it, I also quite like the sound of BTTF on the Intrada release. And the first two Indy scores each have an awesome sound, although they are quite different from each other.

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It seems logical to me. I may go as far as to actually analyze the selected recording with an EQ or the Sonic Visualizer program and try to fine tune my own parameters as close as I can to what I find.

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Don't get too strung up on seatings. Remember one of our mutual favourite conductors-- Leopold Stokowski-- did much to pioneer radical seating arrangements (along with the use of reflectors), because he realised that although our orchestral instruments have changed much in 300 years, our seating plan has pretty much remained the same.

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It goes a long way to making it all sound more convincing, those subtle psychoacoustic things. And that's not at all hard to do. You can ballpark the pans and it'll sound right. I draw up a seating diagram and figure out exact angles and distances from the virtual mics.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm hoping to have some decent mockups of a few of my own pieces finished to post in the relatively near future. In the meantime, any other compositionally minded members feel like sharing anything? Don't be bashful.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 6 months later...

Choir, who knows.

 

Garritan's organ library is superb actually.  I bet it'll do everything you need and more.   I'll give you some tips for it if you get it.  If you want to spend a lot more money but get something absurdly powerful, look into Hauptwerk.

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I think I can work with the Garritan samples actually. The latter is out of my budget anyway ;) Would love some tips as usual, if you have any.

 

For choir, just need something subtle, nothing in-your-face.

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  • 1 year later...

Hello. I was recently asked to compose the score for a role-playing game, which is something I very much look forward to, but I have a few problems that I could use some help to solve.

We decided that the game should have an orchestral score, but since I can’t afford an orchestra I’m going to have to learn how to work with a DAW and samples/virtual instruments.

There seems to be an incredible range of different samples and virtual instruments, but I can only afford to spend up to 1500 euro.

I would be grateful if anyone could recommend some good orchestral sample libraries or virtual instruments for less than 1500 euro.

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11 hours ago, Isak Reisberg said:

Hello. I was recently asked to compose the score for a role-playing game, which is something I very much look forward to, but I have a few problems that I could use some help to solve.

We decided that the game should have an orchestral score, but since I can’t afford an orchestra I’m going to have to learn how to work with a DAW and samples/virtual instruments.

There seems to be an incredible range of different samples and virtual instruments, but I can only afford to spend up to 1500 euro.

I would be grateful if anyone could recommend some good orchestral sample libraries or virtual instruments for less than 1500 euro.

 

You are looking for a full orchestra virtual instrument right?  First of all, do you have the horse power you need?  Basically a state of the art computer with 64 gigs of RAM and an SSD drive would be nice.  If so, I LOVE Berlin instruments but they are quite pricey. 

 

It would pretty much cost you $1,500 for brass, strings, and winds but requires a very high end system.

 

Also East West has their Hollywood orchestra which you can subscribe to and is probably more cost effective (I forget the fee but it is very modest) and unsubscribe when you are done with your project.  You get access to all their libraries.  The downside is they require the unpopular proprietary Play interface to use it. 

 

One word of advice, if this is your first big gig, sink your own money to get the tools you need.  Your goal at this stage is not to make money but to make the best  possible product to get hired again either by this company or someone else.

 

Since you are new to DAW/VI, maybe reach out to some people here to see if they can help you build a team and hit a home run.  @Jilal and @Loert what are your thoughts on sample libraries and DAW since you make very good demos/mockups?

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