Revisiting PIRATE WATERS - New Mockup

As some of you know, I recently did something that I didn't think I would ever do - I bought a library by VSL and I actually liked it. With their release of Synchron Brass, I found that this was a library that was filling a gaping hole in my template: A detailed brass library with different single instruments, a consistent set of articulations and a wide dynamic range in the upper dynamics, recorded in a room with some volume. 

This was something that I was missing a lot from my current go to brass libraries. Berlin Brass lacks a high dynamic layer and Cinematic Studio Brass just kills the small room it has been recorded in with high dynamics.

While at first, I was just noodling around with it and trying to get rid of the typical VSL "lets put as many mics as possible as close as possible to the instrument and make it sound as if we shoved them into the bell" sound by almost completely eliminating the close mics from the mix and relying heavily on the room mics (even going as far as using the surround signals as main signal), I started to really like the sound that I could get out of it.

But of course, I needed to test them out in a proper context to also get a feeling for their sound.

So I decided to revisit a piece that I wrote and mocked up about a year ago, which I also posted here. Some of the veteran patrons might remember it.

Since I did that mockup a lot of things have changed in my template. I exchanged almost all main libraries and changed a lot of the effects paths and treatment so I thought it might be a good idea to go back to this piece and see what I can get out of it with the current state of my template.

The old mockup and Score Sheet are attached at the bottom of the post. It's worth doing a bit of AB-comparison for a while.

Personally for me, the biggest change is the depth and spaciousness of the new mockup. In the old mockup, all the instruments are acoustically sitting right on your nose and overall the sound is relatively small.

The old mockup was produced with a template based mainly on OT's Berlin series. While these samples sound great on their own, they come with a very expansive room ambience on the "not close" microphones. If you play slow lines, that sounds great but if you trigger notes quickly and have that in several instruments at the same time, these release tails start to accumulate and begin to create so much mud that it is almost impossible to hear details anymore which was the reason why I used more close mics in the old mockup which comes for the price of sacrificing size and spaciousness. Additionally, it is very tricky to EQ out that mud again, even with a dynamic EQ as it keeps changing frequencies depending on what range you play.

However, since I did that mockup, I put a few fx plugins into my template that help alot with these. Most importantly I would mention Gullfoss and soothe2 here which are both "intelligent" EQ's that adjust several times a second to specifically target resonances and unpleasant frequency buildups, so with the new mockup, I was able to use more of the room mics without drowning in mud. I also figured out that in most cases the AB mics in the Berlin Series provide a nicer sound than the regular Tree so I balanced these mic signals differently.

I also have been working on a "general" FX chain for quite some time now that adds more silk and air at the high frequency range which brings out more details in the sounds.

In general the new mockup is a bit more dynamic than the old (and consequentially feels a bit softer) but I decided to leave in the dynamic peaks for more impact. All in all I feel that the old mockup sounds considerably flatter than the new one.

Another big change is that in fact, I changed my main libraries. In the old mockup, as mentioned above, the main libraries were the Berlin Series with a bit of help from Cinematic Studio Brass (Solo Horn, 1st Trumpet) so what you're hearing is mainly Berlin Woodwinds Revive, Berlin Brass, Berlin Percussion and Berlin Strings. 

More recently, I have "demoted" all these libraries to secondary choices. 

So here is a complete list of what libraries I used for the new Mockup:

• Woodwinds: Cinematic Studio Woodwinds (first chairs) supported by Berlin Woodwinds (second chairs)
• Horns: Synchron Brass (1st and 3rd chair), supported by JXL Brass (Horn Ensemble and 2nd Solo Horn), Cinematic Studio Brass (5th solo Horn) and Berlin Brass (4th and 6th Horn)
• Trumpets: Synchron Brass (1st and 2nd), Berlin Brass (3rd and 4th)
• Trombones: Synchron Brass (1st), JXL Solo Tbn (2nd), Berlin Brass (3rd), Synchron (Bass Trombone)
• Tuba: JXL
• Timp: Berlin Perc
• Percussion: Mainly Spitfire Percussion, supported by Berlin Percussion (Gran Cassa, Triangle) and Cineperc (Anvil)
• Harp: Berlin Harps
• Piano: Cinematic Studio Piano, Celesta: Spitfire
• Choir: Metropolis Ark 1
• Strings: Vlns, Vlas: Mainly Cinematic Studio Strings, layered with Cinematic Studio Solo Strings, PS Con Moto and Vista (legato lines), Nashville Scoring Strings (definition on spiccatos), Berlin Symphonic Strings (Celli and Basses for substance and size), Spitfire Chamber Strings and Hollywood Strings for Runs, Berlin Strings (small details)

So the exposed instruments are different than in the old mockup. I feel that particularly the expressiveness in the Strings has improved alot over Berlin Strings which sound very narrow and sterile in the old mockup.

One thing that I also changed is the reverb chain. In the old mockup I was using quite long reverbs in the new one there is a staggering of several reverbs. The close mics with long reverbs of the old mockup really didn't help to place these instruments anywhere in the room but simply added a tail. Of course it also helped alot that I could rely more on further away mics on the new mockup.

Most of the reverbs on the new mockup are from Spaces 2 with a bit of Seventh Heaven. I used a lot of a relatively short "stage" impulse to glue the orchestra together in a space and added longer digital reverbs for the sparkle and size on top which in my opinion really helps to tie these all together in one space. I feel that this one sounds way more homogenous and like an ensemble compared to the old mockup where in comparison it feels way more as if everybody is playing on their own and it's all a very weird spacial impression. It actually does feel like the orchestra is sitting at the right distances around the listener in the new mockup which I see as a huge improvement.

Overall, I'm really pleased about how this new mockup turned out. I'm very close to my personal ideal overall orchestral sound and feel like my sample arsenal is now at a level that I'm happy with. There are still a few things that I think could be improved, for instance do I still feel that it is incredibly tricky to get high soaring violins to sound convincing with samples and I'm not 100% happy with what I got here but it's as close as I could get. Another issue are trumpets. While I like the sound of the VSL ones and what I got here, in reality they would fill more acoustic space (not necessarily be louder but just "take up more room") which I tried to get closer to with some Mid/Side processing but I think there might be still some room for improvement on that matter.