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  • Should I use Altiverb 5 "Stage Positions" or reg

    I am VERY new to mixing and mastering and making all of that sound good and everything. My question is about panning. I have Altiverb 5 and they claim that with their "Stage Positions" feature (where you move the little speaker around) that that is all the panning you will have to do. I have seen the example online of Maarten Spruijt's peace panned only using Altiverb, with an instance without rendering the "tail" for every instrument.

    In my orchestral template, I have about 23 instruments, including solo instruments each on their own channel. It wouldn't be possible for me to run 23 Altiverbs to pan each instrument. Currently I have all 23 instruments bussed to 5 group channels, one for each section of the orchestra: Woodwinds, brass, violin, viola_cello_dbass, and percussion. I have an instance of Altiverb without the Tail on each of these channels, and I can run all 5, plus a master Altiverb WITH Tail without breaking the CPU bank.

    Currently I am panning each instrument in its own channel with Waves S1 Imager, and also using the Altiverb instance on each instrument group, panning the little Speaker to the general area where the instruments would sit.

    My question is, am I doing anything wierd to my stereo image that I don't know about. Is it better to pan using only 5 Altiverb instances (I feel like that is not enough to have much panning control) or should I leave that alone and use only the Waves S1, or should I continue to do what I'm doing, mixing both?

    My main goal is simply to get a good sounding mix. I'm not necessarily trying to emulate a recording of a Concert Hall Orchestra, as I'm mixing music Score for television. I know that mixing is as creative as any other aspect of music production, but I also know there are such things as good mixes and bad mixes. I would just like some pointers to get me closer to a "good mix".

    Also, is it a stupid idea to place a Waves S1 imager on my master bus, to widen the stereo image at the very end of the pipe. I sort of favor the sound of a wider image, but is this a bad idea or is this gonna mess me up somewhere down the line, especially if I'm mixing for TV?

    Thanks a bunch.

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    last edited

    @bowserlm said:

    I am VERY new to mixing and mastering and making all of that sound good and everything. My question is about panning. I have Altiverb 5 and they claim that with their "Stage Positions" feature (where you move the little speaker around) that that is all the panning you will have to do. I have seen the example online of Maarten Spruijt's peace panned only using Altiverb, with an instance without rendering the "tail" for every instrument...
    Thanks a bunch.

    Hi bowserlm
    As you can imagine you are not the first with this question(s). There are lots of ways to solve this matter. So take my answer as "one way". I can offer you a tutorial which introduce in the theme.

    Planning a Stage Layout
    http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/tipspcmusic/vslacoustics/index.php#53248296f901da501
    ... and the next steps.

    To make it short:
    My first step is always to have an idea where the instruments should be placed on my virtual stage. Then I create 1 - 4 depths with (currently) Altiverb. Then shift the speakers to that point you like to have the instrument group. Use the different 7m-, 10m-, 16m- impulses as well. So the first depth could be for the soloists, a second one for the strings and perhaps a third one for the winds and the brass instruments. It is a good idea to offer one Altiverb instance for one soloist. Then you are able to create a very defined position for this "important" instrument.
    It also could make sense to mix all instruments in a group which will belong to the same depth later on.
    Left and right I normally select with the panning effect which you can find in every audio track of the mixer (host program). But there are more important things like "monoize" instruments, frequency cutting and so on.

    Please have a look to this link too.
    http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/tipspcmusic/howtousevslaudio/index.php

    I wish you success
    Beat Kaufmann

    - Tips & Tricks while using Samples of VSL.. see at: https://www.beat-kaufmann.com/vitutorials/ - Tutorial "Mixing an Orchestra": https://www.beat-kaufmann.com/mixing-an-orchestra/
  • I do my Altiverbs a little differently, usually using Maarten's Orchestral presets built into the Presets menu, but with different halls. I use 1 mic position (for example, the 12m setting for Sydney Opera House) and then position the instruments around the stage as they would appear, but they're all relative to that one mic position.

    Kerry