New Template Test

[Michael Willis]

I'm updating my orchestra template to use a new SFZ sampler plugin called sfizz, and now each midi track has an adjustable send to one of the reverb busses. I previously had everything routing only through the reverb busses, with the reverb plugins set to something like 90% dry, 10% wet, but I'm finding that I like using sends way better because I can customize how much reverb I get per instrument.

I wrote up a quick demo as an audition of sorts, it showcases almost all of the orchestra in under 30 seconds:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvi971tqv5a2df...-01-11.mp3

How well does this sound like it fits together? What can I improve?

[Mattias Westlund]

Hard to give any detailed feedback on such a short snippet, but I think the strings are too far back. It sounds like they're even behind the percussion. I would suggest moving them forward (less reverb, longer predelay, more early reflections) and pushing the brass back a bit. Other than that, I'm not sure what improvements to suggest. I would need to hear a longer composition with more sustained  notes and unison playing [edit: by unison I mean sections playing together in a big way, not unison as in everything playing the same notes]. Is this VPO?

[Michael Willis]

Thanks Mattias. Yes, this is entirely VPO. I think I'm getting better than some of my previous attempts. '19 was a crazy year for my family, so I didn't end up doing much virtual orchestration, but I want to put more time into it this year, even if it's just 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there.

As we've discussed in other threads, part of the challenge of using VPO is inherent in the fact that the samples come from such disparate sources, and there is only so much pre-processing that Paul could do to them. I actually tried to set up the strings in the front in terms of ERs, predelay, and how much late reverb there is, but I probably need to adjust those settings even further because some of the strings samples have quite a bit of reverb to begin with. Some of the strings are rather dry, like the pizz basses, so I'll have to treat them differently.

One of my friends said that the brass part is "too bright", so I did an experiment to EQ the high frequencies a bit after my first draft (the one that I posted here). After some more adjustments, I'll try a long composition and share it here.