Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
Forum Statistics

182,020 users have contributed to 42,199 threads and 254,649 posts.

In the past 24 hours, we have 3 new thread(s), 10 new post(s) and 54 new user(s).

  1. Home
  2. Orchestration & Composition
  3. Your Music
  4. My First VSL Piece

  • My First VSL Piece

    B
    B
    last edited
    last edited
    I just figured out how to use VSL through Logic like 3 hours ago, and this is my very first piece. It's really short, but I'm really excited so whatever.

    Orchestral Thingy

    Comments appreciated, especially on how to mix so it ends up sounding like an ensemble instead of a bunch of different instruments recorded in separate rooms.

    ~B
  • H
    H
    Your link doesn't work.
  • B
    B
    Fixed...thanks for the heads up!
  • B
    B
    Very well done Burgundia! Especially for your first go - it can take some people a very long time to become familiar with VSl. For further advice:" i'd say put some more reverb on the trumpets so that they're behind the melody and not up in the listener's face. It's a lovely little thing you've done. Robert.
  • H
    H
    Good effort for your first go. Mix is perhaps the hardest thing of all to get absolutely right .. all I can say on that is keep going, it takes all of us a while to get the exact sound we want. It's not really easy to give you advice since your just starting out, but I would say just listen to recordings of orchestra .. perhaps similar to what you're doing and try to repeat the same kind of depth .. reverb .. and panning positions that you hear. And in so doing you'll probably pick up valuable points on where your instruments should go. . You took a bold step getting into VSL, and it can do wonderful things for you, not only in giving your music a great sound .. but also in teaching you things about orchestral music. So just keep writing, keep posting, and keep listening. There are some ready made templates for mix available from the VSL tutorial pages .. along with videos which are very useful for beginners .. also on my own site I have templates for Logic .. although some of them are more for advanced users .. but that's not a pre-requiste :D Good work .. look forward to hearing more.
  • B
    B
    last edited
    last edited

    @Robert Munnelly said:

    Very well done Burgundia! Especially for your first go - it can take some people a very long time to become familiar with VSl. For further advice:" i'd say put some more reverb on the trumpets so that they're behind the melody and not up in the listener's face. It's a lovely little thing you've done. Robert.

    Thank you very much!  I will try what you suggested on the trumpets, but sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the reverb settings in Logic.  I am using GoldVerb right now because I like the sound and it doesn't have as many knobs as PlatinumVerb.  I've only been playing with the wet mix, room dimension and reverb duration so far, maybe I just need to explore some of the other parameters.

    I also am wondering how to make the trombones more robust?  If you have any suggestions that would be great.  Thanks again!  [:D]

    ~B

  • S
    S
    Try using some instances of Space Designer instead - imo the Gold and Platinum reverbs in Logic sound terrible - much too artificial and metallic. Put some Eq with gain added in the lower areas on your trombones making them more "robust" as you say.
  • B
    B
    last edited
    last edited

     

    @hetoreyn said:

    Good effort for your first go. Mix is perhaps the hardest thing of all to get absolutely right .. all I can say on that is keep going, it takes all of us a while to get the exact sound we want. It's not really easy to give you advice since your just starting out, but I would say just listen to recordings of orchestra .. perhaps similar to what you're doing and try to repeat the same kind of depth .. reverb .. and panning positions that you hear. And in so doing you'll probably pick up valuable points on where your instruments should go.

    .

    You took a bold step getting into VSL, and it can do wonderful things for you, not only in giving your music a great sound .. but also in teaching you things about orchestral music. So just keep writing, keep posting, and keep listening. There are some ready made templates for mix available from the VSL tutorial pages .. along with videos which are very useful for beginners .. also on my own site I have templates for Logic .. although some of them are more for advanced users .. but that's not a pre-requiste 😄 Good work .. look forward to hearing more.

    I'm not sure what you mean by VSL templates?  I only have Special Edition Standard, and all I see under the tutorial section are the files for SE Demo #1.  I will be checking out your templates, though, thanks!

    Also, is it better to start out critically examining orchestration in traditional classical pieces or soundtracks?  Do you suggest picking up a few scores and trying to recreate them in Logic & VSL?  

  • B
    B
    last edited
    last edited

    @Sampleconstruct said:

    Try using some instances of Space Designer instead - imo the Gold and Platinum reverbs in Logic sound terrible - much too artificial and metallic. Put some Eq with gain added in the lower areas on your trombones making them more "robust" as you say.
     

    Alas I only have Logic Express, not Pro, so nix on the Space Designer.  But I'll keep that in mind for when I upgrade, which will definitely be happening in the future.

    The gain + eq thing worked, though, thanks!

  • B
    B

    Hi Burgundia,

    I saw your post and thought I'd comment because I started out with VSL a lot like you, in that I began with VSL SE Standard, I use a Macbook Pro and Logic Express.  I remember when I first discovered VSL and was perusing the website listening to the demos.  Most were really impressive, but one named stuck out with me many times over.  That name was Jay Bacal, and I knew then that if I bought VSL SE I was going to need the same software he used with his samples to work with mine if I was going to have any hope of getting that kind of sound out of them. 

    Through this forum I discoverd he used Altiverb, Waves S1 Stereo Imager, and Cubase.  Since I was on a Mac I went with Logic Express instead of Cubase, bought Altiverb and tried to make it work with track panning (but that didn't really "pan out" [:P]), and eventually purchased the Waves S1 Imager.  These three pieces of software are the heart of how I get the sound out of VSL that really makes me happy, though I use them far differently now than when I first started.

    I know it's tough to come up with so much extra money over and above the cost of VSL SE Standard, but I firmly believe that getting the right auxiliary software really makes the difference with VSL. I am not at all advocating that you purchase exactly what I use, but I would definitely put in some serious time researching your future purchases before upgrading anything.  You've done a great job with what you currently have....I don't think I could have gotten as good a sound out of those generic reverbs as you did!  Keep going!

    Brian [:)]

  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on