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  4. Mixing Trumpets

  • Mixing Trumpets

    M
    M
    Hi,

    I've written a 50 second piece for a made up movie scenario for my portfolio. The essence of the piece is to build up tension and then hit a climax. The trumpets at the climax (only point where I use them) are ff and I am finding that the trumpets in VI SE sound very harsh and unrealistic . Does anyone have any tips that I can try to make them sound more real. I've been playing about with eq settings and can't find the right sound.

    I don't have a website yet but I have posted it on myspace.

    http://www.myspace.com/simonmross

    many thanks

    Simon
  • M
    M
    Nothing to do with EQ. It's articulation choice and using midi volume, velocity and modwheel judiciously. And the reverb is the biggest culprit. get altiverb or something halfway decent. and it isn't just the trumpets that sound unrealistic you need to work on the strings as well. - first get a good verb and see what you can do. $600 will be the best investment - if you want to make real sounding music with vsl.
  • M
    M
    Thanks magates, I will look into it. This one of the first pieces I've tried to convert into VSL so everything is a big learning curve for me. At the moment I can't afford altiverb so I will have to work around that one.

    I'm curious what was wrong with the strings? I've been playing around with crossfading samples trying to get a sharp attack blending into a sustained sound which I don't think I achieved very well. I think maybe I'll try running a sustained sample in parallel maybe that will help. Any suggestions especially technical will be very well received.

    many thanks
  • M
    M
    what verb are you using?
  • M
    M
    an external unit - eventide eclipse harmonizer. Besides money being an issue now I'm not sure if altiverb will run successfully on my PC which is a 2.8GHz P4, 3Gb RAM RME HDSP 9652 soundcard
  • M
    M
    okay well, i don't know a bit about that unit. sounds dry and you can hear every single flaw with it so close and clear. so if you are going to use that verb setting the mock up has to be flawless.

    it takes lots and lots of work to make a really good mock up. don't give up. there are endless topics all over the forum on tips and tricks. read up.
  • M
    M
    I must admit I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by it all. Production has never been my strong point and I'm purely self taught. More practice and and trying different methods are definitely in order. Thanks for the feedback it is very much appreciated.
  • J
    J
    Mischa,

    It's true trumpets aren't always easy to do with a sense of realism.

    Don't give up on them. It takes a while. There are a lot different articulations in the package you have. Try several different ones. Even ones that the names may sound counter-intuitive to the sound you're trying to get. It's the only way to learn what's in the package.

    Tip: when doing sections (musical lines with more than one trumpet playing different chord tones - or even more than one trumpet playing the same tone) use different articulations for the differing parts (1st trpt, 2nd trpt, etc.). That way it won't sound so organ-like with each trumpet having a slightly different tone and articulation. Even on a single-trumpet line you might want to change articulations on practically every note! Or at least rock back between two or three different articulations. You gotta play with it for a while to find what you're really hearing in your heart.

    Here's a solo trumpet:

    http://homepage.mac.com/jackweaver4/.Public/Sketches%20of%20Tucson1.mp3
  • M
    M
    thanks Jack that sounds awesome. I don't suppose you have this as a midi file so I can learn from what you did. It would be very interesting to see the amount of keywitches and how you use midi CC messages. I must admit I have only been using the VI SE standard matrices since they contain all my articulations, I only have 5 articulations for each type of trumpet. I don't know if this would be a limiting factor except to say a bad workman always blames his tools [:)].
  • J
    J
    I do have more articulations than just SE in that cue so the MIDI file without the proper way to play back the .fxp instrument files would be futile.

    However, my point was to show that with continual experimentation with a wide array of articulations and also to use the Performance properties of the VI playback software will yield huge benefits.

    You gotta really throw caution to the wind and try some new sounds. You have many of them in your present package. Try mixing the Piccolo Trumpet, C Trumpet and 3-Trumpet section sounds. Just because the manufacturer says they're different doesn't mean that they can't be mixed together to get the results you want - for example.

    Have fun playing.