I was sort of thinking more of VSTs, mixer plug-ins like EQs, Reverbs, Compressors, tape saturation, and other stuff like panning, etc. Obviously a lot of those are going to be non-Steinberg products which is why I wasn’t sure if the mods would want it taking up space on the forum.
Ok, then I understand. Well, obviously, this will depend on the music aesthetics you’re trying to mock up. For instance, for a big orchestral work, I use another reverb plugin, LX480, which fits better the way I want the reverb to sound on such music. No clutter, transparency, and above all, space, rather than sound. The same goes with the compressor inserted on the master fader. I will look for a transparent setting, that only avoids the clipping. So tape saturation is absolutely not in my plans in such music — and is probably avoided when recording it. But on many other music kinds, I would certainly use other tools. As I said, this is all about aesthetics, and mixing or mastering are real jobs, that you can learn (I admit it has been part of my studies), and it is certainly not a field you can master with recipes.
Thanks, that is exactly the type of suggestion I was looking for! I’ve been struggling with finding ways to coax life out of VST instruments for mockups so that’s the sort of thing I’ve been looking to investigate.
What else would threads about audio rendering discuss, if not ‘how did I do it’, and ‘how can I make it better’?
Here’s my first attempt at Mercury with GPO. It’s a bit more ‘in yer face’ than ptram’s version. I tried various things to match it but just ending up swamping it with echo.
I’m not sure how to do the violin harmonics (or even if GPO can), and the balance between the instruments is a bit wrong. But this is essentially an un-adulterated score, with all the work done in Expression Maps.
(In fact, most of the work was fixing the score, which I downloaded from MuseScore, as the notation had been ‘altered for playback’, e.g. accents, shortened notes, wrong dynamics, etc. And wrong notes.)
One other point: I really think HSO is ‘NVG’, as my father would have said. (Not very good.) Are the Sibelius bundled sounds half-decent?
The Sibelius sounds I did not deem worth the extravagant 40Gb (if I remember correctly) hard drive space it demanded. I was in two minds about Halion and might yet delete it, but it’s perhaps worth it for compatibility as many use it. Actually Garritan, to my mind, is better than either of those and I think you’ve done a commendable job with Mercury (better than I thought was possible 
), even if it can’t compare with VSL.
I’m pretty sure my Garritan version couldn’t do harmonics and it’s not something I’d really expect from such a product.
I updated it again. I got a chance to fix some mistakes, and work a bit more on the dynamics. This is a piece that goes from tiny, cristalline ‘pings’, to the most massive burst of sound. Not easy to keep it under control.
I probably found a little bug: when stopping playback, the Output channel meter in the mixer stops showing any signal. I have a few effects in its inserts (all working fine, even if I can’t see the result).
Paolo
Actually, I’ve found that there is an instrument for Violin harmonics in GPO!
So I grabbed a couple of the VSL SYNCHRON-ized bundles while they were on sale over the weekend. Being able to play around with them before buying, and the fact that they come with Dorico Expression Maps (found here) sold me. I fully acknowledge this is nowhere near the quality of a mockup that ptram posted, but I’m pretty impressed at how this sounds with virtually no effort. I just grabbed an XML of Mercury off the MuseScore site, but the import screwed up when the 6/8 + 2/4 sections started, so I just cut it off there. This is the stock VSL expression map, to which I added a reverb (UAD Capitol Chambers), and got basic levels in the Dorico Mixer. No further editing at all, not more than 5 minutes spent on audio after importing. All dynamics are as written in the score, so of course there would need to be some further edits if I was going to do anything with this. Celeste ppp melody in m38-43 is virtually inaudible for example, so things like that obviously would need to be adjusted. Still, I’m pretty amazed how this sounds “out of the box” with basically no editing at all. All panning was done with the stock VSL expression map, so obviously could be improved as well.
Hi,
I’ve revised this mockup, and replaced the VSL VI sounds with Synchron sounds (where available). In the meantime, I’ve cleaned up my expression maps, and learnt a few things about Dorico.
Paolo
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