How to Simulate Full Band Sound?

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Cawproductions

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« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2019, 09:23:01 PM »
Guys,
If you have the bucks, Superior drummer 3 is amazing, so much control, grooves....but comes at a price.
We use it on everything.

Cheers
Andy

pompeyjazz

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The S

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« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2019, 07:35:01 PM »
is that the EZ drummer upgrade as that is pretty damn good

Nope, EZ is one thing. Superior another. Same company though. /Peter =)

cowparsleyman

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« Reply #18 on: March 21, 2019, 12:51:12 PM »
@jacksimmons  - Tricky one this as your 2 genres are quite different, 70's disco/funk is usually live with a smattering of synth, and '80's synth pop rock is more synth and midi.

If someone gave me this project and said I'd have to deliver it without real instruments and it would need to sound Live then I'd put more work in the planning stage.

First ensure the structure of the song is finalised, this will help with placement of drum fills, and BVox.

Plonk Markers at the important points along the timeline V1, CH1 Mid8 etc.

Have a couple guide Vocal tracks that won't be heard on the final mix, one to help the Vocalist(s) to remember the melody and starting notes for HVox and one for solos (count in when a solo will start) I generally say things like "Synth Solo on Track 3 coming in 1,2,3,4 etc) more like a TV director.

The above will ensure everything is happening to a plan rather than by chance.

If you have a template project with tacks already named, input/outputs routing, plugins etc already setup then using this might speed things up, especially if you have a multi channel MIDI drum VST, (I used BFD3 - after a recommendation on this forum) (and a few others, you know me I like to danger it up) or a raft of multi timbral synths.

To get a live sound, it can be done quite successfully even with MIDI instruments, first make em sound real, if each instrument doesn't sound real then you've got no chance, use your ears and be honest with yourself...is that really Nile Rogers standing in front of you?

The trickiest bit is making the real sounding instruments sound like their playing live, and this is really the nub of your question Jack, and there are a few approaches one can take in achieving this.

Make the most convincing thing stand out, probably the drums and synths, hide a lot with vocals, they're real....so what's left, maybe guitar, funky guitar might be harder (hence your request for an urgent Disco guitarist elsewhere on this forum), bass a tad easier to blag, hence the reason for the earlier posts from Skub and Pompeyjazz.

Production wise one can make it sound Live in 2 ways, Live as in a sounding like it's recorded in 1 take in the Studio just add verb (Room) on the mix buss, but not too much, try and capture string noise on the bass Gtr, breaths on the vocals, all the things that you's notice at a live studio recording, as opposed to a live gig recording where they'd be audience noise, amps humming, artists checking tuning, the ubiquitous 1-2-3-4 from the drummer, snare bleed from the bass Gtr, extended finishes and solos etc. but you'd have a lot of work capturing those nuances.

Anyway Hope this helps Jack

Rich









As to the Live sounding band...










Cawproductions

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« Reply #19 on: May 01, 2019, 04:55:16 PM »
@pompeyjazz
Hi pomps, Superior drummer is a seperate program but by Toontrack,

Really good.