25-04-2012, 10:01 AM
You can find the multitrack files for this project in the 'Mixing Secrets' Free Multitrack Download Library.
Here's some more project info you might find useful:
If you have any other general questions about this multitrack, just reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.
Before posting a mix, please read The Three Commandments!
Please post your mix as a new thread, rather than as a reply to this sticky.
Please post your mix as a new thread, rather than as a reply to this sticky.
Here's some more project info you might find useful:
- About The Raw Multitracks: This is a sample-based orchestral simulation of the type routinely created by many media composers. As such, many of the tracks already include room ambience, as many of the sample libraries used in this context include it as standard, either recorded into the samples or as a built-in effects module within a host virtual instrument. The tracks (all of which are stereo) are as follows:
- Percussion (12 tracks): bass drum; snare drum; tubular bells; separate timpani hits and rolls; mixed cymbals; mixed triangle and marktree; harp; piano; glockenspiel; xylophone; and a final taiko-style percussion hit.
- Strings (7 tracks): bass legato; mixed cello and bass spiccato; mixed cello legato and trills; separate viola legato, staccato, and trills; violin staccato. (Hah! Who's laughing at the viola jokes now, eh?
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- Brass (8 tracks): separate high and low mixed-ensemble staccato; an ensemble swell; separate tracks of tuba, trombones, horns (x2), and trumpets.
- Woodwind (8 tracks): separate mixed-ensemble run and staccato tracks; contrabassoon; bassoon; clarinet; mixed oboe trills and legato; mixed flute trills and legato; piccolo trills.
- Percussion (12 tracks): bass drum; snare drum; tubular bells; separate timpani hits and rolls; mixed cymbals; mixed triangle and marktree; harp; piano; glockenspiel; xylophone; and a final taiko-style percussion hit.
- Challenges You're Likely To Face:
- There are a lot of tracks to marshal here, and balancing them is a critical task because most listeners have a fairly well-developed idea of how the whole ensemble should sound -- if not from the concert hall, then from a hundred Hollywood blockbusters.
- The piano track appears to have been recorded from a different source than most of the other tracks, and sounds pretty dry (and a bit artificial) as a result. Blending that in convincingly will probably take some extra effort.
- Trying to make a collection of sampled instruments sound at all like a living, breathing group of musicians is always something of an uphill struggle, even when the samples used are as good as these.
- There are a lot of tracks to marshal here, and balancing them is a critical task because most listeners have a fairly well-developed idea of how the whole ensemble should sound -- if not from the concert hall, then from a hundred Hollywood blockbusters.
- Some Mixing Tips: Although I've not mixed this particular track myself, here are some suggestions that come to mind:
- Don't be afraid to get busy with editing and/or detailed automation if you think it'll help improve the musicality of the original programmed parts.
- Remember that this kind of ensemble should have a fairly natural balance by default, so be sure to ask yourself a few searching questions before reaching for heavy-handed channel processing.
- I worked on a sample-based orchestral composition for Sound On Sound's March 2012 Mix Rescue column. Although Jeffrey Hayat's multitrack is much more accomplished than that one was in most respects, you may still find some useful tips in that article, as well as some relevant demonstrations amongst its associated audio examples.
- Don't be afraid to get busy with editing and/or detailed automation if you think it'll help improve the musicality of the original programmed parts.
If you have any other general questions about this multitrack, just reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.