EQ & Pan

[Bruce]

As great as the VSL sounds I think it still needs good EQ. The Violins sound a little harsh in the higher registers and there is too much bottom end on the Flute Bassoon etc. Also one may want to apply a Custom Filter to the Strings for a Sordino Sound. Many instruments are too wide in the stereo field to sit in an Orchestra and sound totally natural. I am using the Waves Stereo Imager for this but it still affects the sound adversely.

Any recommendations here? I am thinking of getting the TC Powercore and adding on to it the Sony Oxford EQ Plug In. Also there are the Waves Linear EQ which eats up CPU's for lunch. In the meantime I am using Motu MAS paramatric eq. until I find something more musical.

[Iwan Roth]

Bruce,

Concerning the wide stereo: I did notice this with practically all sample libraries using stereo samples. But I do not have VSL yet. What I do is: I do not pan on the MIDI level; that means recording all MIDI in Logic at 64= centred. Only when I mix the audio tracks, I do apply the panorama settings. In order to do this you have of course to record practically each MIDI track to a separate audio track- ends sometime up with a lot of audio tracks…., no mix down at this level. For me it gives a cleaner more defined and more controllable stereo image. I also sometime use the Wave stereo imager [[;)]]

Igor

[Iwan Roth]

I did read once in this forum somebody – I do think it was a moderator – writing that single instruments have to be recorded stereo because we do have two ears. IMHO: This is wrong because when listening to an instrument you listen (with two ears [[;)]] ) to a mono source and when listening to a sample you are listening to the mono instrument with your ears and not to a stereo microphone. But I also hear stereo samples sound better than mono……Also, in my experience, mono samples, as for wind and percussion e.g. Siedlascek, are easier to control than stereo.

Igor

[KingIdiot]

Check out Waves S1 stereo imager. It works perfect with VSL because everything is pretty center and "even". you'allowed to shape the stereo position of sections.

Also Cakewalks sound stage can really help, its a great way to "position" with some depth as well, and work around resonating artifacts.

Mono would be terrible for ensembles [:)]

[Dietz]

Official statement: We record in stereo because it's easy to get mono-sounds from these recordings, while it would be impossible to go the other direction (mono -> stereo). Pretty much a no-brainer, isn't it ...? ;-]

***

Re: EQ - I said it before and I think I will say it 'till the end of my days: production-wise, the Vienna Symphonic Library has to be treated like any well recorded multi-track recording. Forget about the idea that you sit in front of a mixing-console, set all 48 or 64 faders to unity and have a perfect mix. The more tracks are involved, the more it's necessary to tune single signals (... believe me, I do mixing and music production for a living, and it didn't happen to me _once_ during almost two decades now ----- no matter what other manufacturers of orchestral samples want to make you believe ;-] ... but I digress).

So - in a nutshell: yes, I think it's obvious that you will use the tools of a mixing engineer to some extent (like EQ, dynamics, reverbs, delay etc.), simply because the sound that perfectly fulfilled your needs in _one_ context won't match exactly the _next_ time.

HTH,

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

[Iwan Roth]

Dietz,

I am not sure if your post is a reaction to my comments about stereo, but just in order to make things clear: I think its fine that you record in stereo; I would not buy the library otherwise! I just wanted to describe the advantages and disadvantages for the user to work with either one, mono ore stereo.

Your reasoning is, of course, absolutely correct, but the one with the two ears was not!
[[;)]]

Thanks
Igor

[Dietz]

@IGOR said:

Dietz,

I am not sure if your post is a reaction to my comments about stereo, [...]
Igor

Hi Igor - no, the "Official Statement" was mainly meant as a sacarstic, tongue-in-cheek sidenote. Sorry if I offended you.

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library