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Mixing Tips? (Feature Score)

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks & Talk' started by George Streicher, Feb 11, 2019.

  1. #1 George Streicher, Feb 11, 2019
    Hey all!

    I'm currently wrapping up a score and there's no room in the budget for a mixer.

    So I thought I'd reach out to you guys, since you've all been incredibly helpful in the past.

    Here's two cues from the score. I've done my best to mix them (EQ, reverb, etc) and I'd love to get your thoughts on how to improve the sound and get maximum clarity possible.

    I'm using all CineSamples instruments and QL Spaces for reverb. My DAW is Cubase 9.5.

    Cues:
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ahnbhy2micnb76/AABVD-iMxVpwX_pA1MHl9buqa?dl=0

    Thank you!
     
  2. #2 Alexander Schiborr, Feb 12, 2019
    Nice. A few pointers:
    Z-Depth is imo not quite right. Woodwinds sounding like too close in comparison to the rest. Also pay attention to match Z - Depth with Strings, the longs articulations are closer than the pizzi so they sound like not coming from the same distance. Thats with most libraries that they cant manage to get z depth right with longs vs. shorts. You have to make your custom micing settings for each articulation in order to smoothen that out. Don´t rely on their default settings because it is very often just not right so go by your ear and not whats in the console display. Also your centered midrange is a bit missing, everything sounds very stereo spreaded. Also your bass frequencies at 75 Hertz are sometimes building a bit up..which is minor in that specific cue imo but when you have a different cue where it gets louder and more dense it could make a problem with the overall balance.
     
    George Streicher likes this.
  3. #3 Martin Hoffmann, Feb 12, 2019
    How/why does that happen? I would have assumed as long as you don't mix different libraries, you're at least consistent withing one instrument section because they don't move them around between recording different articulations. I might just lack the experience to hear the subtle issues, but to give a concrete example, do you think in the Ark 1 high strings "tree mic" any articulations sound farther away than others?

    I'm in the process of building yet another template and I did notice a clear instance where e.g. timpani (NI SS Percussion) sounded much too close on the "mid" mic, compared to the Ark 1 tree mic for brass and strings, and I switched the timpani to the "far" mic to solve that. But I didn't notice any z-depth inconsistencies between articulations of Ark 1 instruments (could very well be there, but I didn't notice). I'm trying to build a template that kinda sounds like recorded with just tree mics, as an experiment.
     
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  4. #4 Alexander Schiborr, Feb 12, 2019
    No, the assumptions is wrong. The sample libraries are even not balanced even if you use libraries from one developer. Why that is..has to do with technical things like release tail cut of and scripting the legato..if you want to know more you have to ask some developers, but its all over the place with that inconsistencies.

    High strings MA1? I didn´t checked them out. But load in different articulations and test that out.
     
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  5. #5 Rohann van Rensburg, Feb 12, 2019
    Ah, that would make our lives so much easier. EastWest's reverb tails are all over the place with i.e. HWS, at least in legato patches. The actual dynamics aren't even balanced between articulations. This is true with Spitfire's SCS as well.
     
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  6. #6 George Streicher, Feb 12, 2019
    Thanks for the notes! I've taken another stab at the mix on 5m24a, since it's the more active one.

    Here's what I did:

    -Changed all mic positions to either "Room" or "Ambient" instead of their default settings
    -Shaved off some of the low ends on some of the Strings (Violins mostly) and Brass to put them further into the room.
    -Some simple master bus EQ cuts to tame some of the low and high mid frequencies

    I've included a Dry and Wet version; basically one with added reverb and one without.

    Mix v2:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/0t5gbqh8074it0r/5m24a_v2_Full_Wet.wav?dl=0

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/jecwv4aq8ywmiik/5m24a_v2_Full_Dry.wav?dl=0


    Thanks for your help so far!
     
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  7. #7 Alexander Schiborr, Feb 13, 2019
    Can you please upload the revised 1m1? So I can compare that track? That would be great, thanks.
     
    George Streicher likes this.
  8. #8 George Streicher, Feb 13, 2019
  9. #9 Alexander Schiborr, Feb 13, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2019
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  10. #10 George Streicher, Feb 13, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
    Thanks so much for that walk through! I've taken both cues, 1m1 and 5m24a, and done several outputs:

    1) Clean - has absolutely nothing done to it. It's the samples, as they are, out of the box.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/eh2i6wtk1aubfxy/04_1m1_Clean.aif?dl=0
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ont6gnmxf8ch0t7/01_5m24a_v3_Clean.aif?dl=0


    2) EQ, Pan & Verb - I did some corrective EQ on all the instruments to help them sit together a little cleaner. I did some slight panning, mostly narrowing the stereo field of the Percussion (Timp, Bass Drum) and the entire Woodwinds section. I trimmed low frequencies on some strings and brass to throw them a little further in the room. I also added a little digital plate reverb, about 3.1 seconds worth.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/802y6hzzlw5955l/05_1m1_EQ-Verb-Pan.aif?dl=0
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/sucb7pudwt255ri/02_5m24a_EQ-Pan-Verb.aif?dl=0


    3) EQ, Pan, Verb + ROOM - on this one, I added the "Stereo Room 2016" plugin on each section group. I think this may have really helped put them into the room and feel more unified and narrowed the image a bit.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/udrtstig7wdbo1h/06_1m1_EQ-Verb-Pan-Room.aif?dl=0
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/q18sjf3yh20omtn/03_5m24a_EQ-Pan-Verb-Room.aif?dl=0


    Any thoughts?
     
  11. #11 Martin Hoffmann, Feb 13, 2019
    Thanks a lot for the example! The mp3 is mono but the difference is big enough that it's still noticable. I try to do the matching in a similar way, set up a loop of a short melody on two alternating patches and tweak the settings till I don't know how to get it closer anymore. Good idea EQing individual articulations too, I didn't think of that yet! Interestingly even the capsule manual recommends adding another master reverb to blend different libraries together:

     
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