Need a little help with this piece

[rocnathan]

Hi guys,

I did this

http://www.bogside.at/2008-11-30-09.mp3

and initially I was quite happy with the strings, but then I made the "mistake" of listening to Anakin's Theme. Can anyone help me with suggestions how to get more life into them? I'm especially bothered by the transition between samples - the appassionata strings just don't flow as well as the orchestral strings in my opinion, but, alas, I'm stuck with them. I've edited the volume curve millimeter by millimeter, and some of the sudden jumps you get when it switches to a different velocity layer are real bastards. I've also (very carefully) tweaked attack/release, but I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it's just bad orchestration or a dull mix; either way, I'd greatly appreciate some tips/comments.

Cheers

roc

[ct1961]

Hi Roc.

I was looking forward to receiving my Appassionatas tomorrow, but now you've got me wondering whether I should have gone with the Orchestral Strings! Not from your piece I should add, just from your comments. I shall find out soon enough.

Your tune sounds nice enough to me. Maybe a little more reverb might give the mix a lift, but don't take my word for it as I am no expert on the desk.

I think it might also benefit from a little bit more volume at the bass end at times.

Orchestration-wise, personally, I would give the Violins at least the first 5 notes of the melody, same octave as the flute, when it reappears.

Anyway, as I said, sounds nice to me and I'm no expert so no criticism here. All the best.

Colin

[rocnathan]

 Thanks for the feedback - you're probably right about doubling the theme with strings; I somehow never considered this. Is there a word for "betriebsblind" in English? :-) 

 I'm not sure what the general opinion is around here regarding the appassionata's usability, but when I bought them I was fascinated by the thick sound, of course. But now that I've been using them for a while, I found that, firstly (like I said), they are extremely hard to control dynamically, because there will always be some little artificialism sticking out during attack/release. Mind, I'm talking about legato here, the other articulations are fine, even if for some reason staccato is about 5 dB louder than anything else. And secondly, to phrase it in the words of my best friend, without radical EQing, the sound like "a bad analog synth" :-) I wouldn't have put it that harshly, but they do need quite a bit of top end and clever EQ to bring out the bowing without sounding scratchy and brittle. So now I'm thinking whether I wouldn't have fared better with the orchestral strings.

Course, 12 celli sound a whole friggin' lot cooler than just puny little 8 celli, so there you go :-) But maybe someone with experience would like to share his wisdom concerning the daily use of the appassionatas. :-)

[ct1961]

Checked my translator for "betriebsblind" and it came up with "operation-blindly".  Can't think at the moment of the best word in English to use instead but I understand your meaning.

As for the difference in dB, have you tried the Edit Cell window to even things out? 

Hopefully an experienced user will give you some input. Cheers..

Colin

[rocnathan]

 Oh, I edited the cell, all right. I just wondered why the difference in volume in the first place. Or, if you reason (correctly) that a staccato note would be louder, why not the staccato repetitions or spiccato. Ain't a biggy, though.

[ct1961]

Well,  I've just given the Appassionatas a test drive and am glad to say I'm not disappointed.

The main reason I went for them over Orchestral Strings was the price to get the full set. I can hear what you mean with some of the patches needing a bit of EQ but, overall, am well impressed. Mind you, have still to mix them with other instruments, so we'll see.

One set of patches I doubt I'll ever find any use for are the Sus_Tunes. I find it hard to believe that any pro orchestra string players would take that long to find the right tuning, or be that far out in the first place. Maybe DG could give us some input on that?  Sounds like my old school orchestra, who were banned from performing in public so as not to bring the school into disrepute!

Hopefully the good folks at VSL will swap them for something else???  Epic Horns?

No?

OK then.

Once again, it's a nice tune. Good luck.

Colin