Making a room blurrier

[PaoloT]

Hi,

I know that usually one finds the opposite – making the sound clearer and more detailed – but there are situations where a blurrier, less definite sound may be preferable for and aesthetic decision.

Take for example the Synchron roompack. It's fabulously clear and detailed, so much that one can feel shy to show too much to the listeners! And while it is great to have so much detail and precision in each instrument's position, it would also be great to blur the image a bit if needed. A bit like a photo in the fog, or the background of a clean and detailed portrait.

How would you do? Is there a way to make this room a bit more awash/foggy? Maybe, increasing the wetness of each individual instrument/section at the MIR icon? Or just moving the instruments away from the main mics, more deeply into the room?

Paolo

[Dietz]

I would start with different angles between the virtual mic-capsules, and/or with different pick-up patterns for them. Using a Secondary Mic from a more distant position with the capsules pointing away from the source is another tried-and-tested method for more "enveloping".

Apart from that, a bit of modulating algorithmic reverb enhancement from MIRacle or a comparable engine is always worth trying.

BTW - you know this little collection of hints and suggestions in MIR Pro's Manual ...?

-> https://www.vsl.info/en/manuals/mir-pro/hints#getting-that-sound

HTH,

[PaoloT]

Thank you for the hints, Dietz. And that's right: returning to the hints in the manual is a good thing!

Paolo

[civilization 3]

You might want to see what the Omni type mic does for you there. Also look at the hotspots. I like to point some things to hot spots off-axis, like have a group of similar, ie. a small group individually aiming to one same hotspot.

[PaoloT]

Great suggestion, thank you Civilization!

Paolo

[Dietz]

Just keep in mind that pushing capsules of the Main Mic towards an "Omni" pickup pattern will make the stereo imaging disappear. 

[PaoloT]

Dietz, thank you for this additional hint (or warning…)!

Paolo

[civilization 3]

I was more suggesting some things in the room with the Omni, I wouldn't use it for either main mic because I generally want enveloping as much as possible. But recently I had an old problem with a mix which needed less distinction and put the thing, a cymbals stereo bus in there and went with one Omni capsule and a very wide image. Not really the spirit of MIR but it helped the overall effect (where taming them with EQ wasn't desirable). I generally don't put kit drums in the room with the rest, they have the sound of their own room and the blend (or the image) hasn't been good.

[Dietz]

@civilization 3 said:

went with one Omni capsule and a very wide image

Are you sure that we're really talking about the virtual microphone and not the sound emanations patterns we assign to individual sources (a.k.a. Instrument Profile)? One omni capsule in MIR would give you a "very wide image" in pristine mono. 😊

[civilization 3]

I'm not talking about the characteristics of the virtual mic, certainly.  Here is the goniometer on the bus itself 

[civilization 3]

It's a bus, fed from several stereo channels [as well as the non-treated initial channel: BFD3] so the MIR Pro is not 'the' image but a copy with a different characteristic. So one supposes that is the character profile, yes.

[civilization 3]

Here's the master bus, a mono-looking 'blur': It does give me the sound I want but the assigned width is irrelevant and a nonsense in itself. So yeah, it must be the 'emanations'. 

[Dietz]

@civilization 3 said:

Here's the master bus, a mono-looking 'blur': It does give me the sound I want but the assigned width is irrelevant and a nonsense in itself. So yeah, it must be the 'emanations'. 

I have to admit that I can't really follow ... what's "nonsense in itself"? ... 8-/