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  • My first VSL composition

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    Hello everybody,

    I would like to share my first approach composing and orchestrating with VLS.

    I started using virtual instruments and a daw earlier this year, so I'm not that experienced with virtual orchestration. This pice of music is my first attempt arranging and composing for a full size film music orchestra. So this particular cue is the main theme of a wild west themed soundtrack, so I was trying to get this huge film music sound out of it. 90% of the instruments are VSL Special Edition samples.

    I'm pretty happy with the theme and the orchestration the way it is, but I also tried to do the mixing and mastering all by myself. So I used the MIRx reverb with natural volume and the humanize function of VI Pro to get a natural orchestra sound for writing the music. Since I don't know much about mixing and mastering, I used a lot of the factory presets for EQ, compressor & limiter to fatten up the sound and balance it. At the end I added reverb again on the complete master output, to get this huge and distant film music sound. I guess that was a little bit too much, because the single instruments merge with others. But I actually do like how the brass/woodwind sections as a whole play now against each other. So what do you think about this wild west theme?

    v.1 (very long recording hall, long reverb):

    Dropbox - Wild West Landsides v.1

    v.2 (smaller recording stage, less reflection):

    Dropbox - Wild West Landsides v.2

    v.3 (close recording, small reverb tails):

    Dropbox - Wild West Landsides v.3

    I'm happy about every kind of comments, help & criticism, so feel free to let me know!

    Andrew


  • Very good for a VSL novice ;-)

    I prefer the second version, to me it sounds the least "flat" spatially (it has, among other advantages, a larger percieved distance of the brass from woods & strings). In general, the spatial setup would greatly benefit from optimized dry-to-wet stereo width relations and (here comes the usual suspect ;-) "stretching out" the Z-axis (more pronounced distance relations between different orchestra sections).


  • Thank you for you kind words and the suggestions! :) I'm not really sure though where to start to do so... Do you mean like adding more dry/wet ratio to the brass and less to the strings for example? Sorry - completly new to this mixing or mastering thing :)


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    @lyncisAt said:

    Thank you for you kind words and the suggestions! 😊 I'm not really sure though where to start to do so... Do you mean like adding more dry/wet ratio to the brass and less to the strings for example? Sorry - completly new to this mixing or mastering thing 😊

    No problem ;- )

    I was referring to the stereo width relations between the dry and the wet componenets of the signal, not the dry/wet ratios in themselves (changing these can be helpful in achieving a less "flat" and more "3D" impression of the acoustic space though, but it usually won't solve everything).


  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on