i have a question,
assuming that we have a simple soundfont, a choir aaaahhh maybe. What effects would you add to it? Reverb, Delay, Echo, Compressor or anything else?
My aim is to get this as sounding as brilliant as i can get it. But whatever i add it still sounds “easy” and simple - you know what i mean?
Maybe you have some nices ideas for me…
best regards and thanks guys
Not quite sure what you’re aiming for here, but generally speaking, it’s difficult to “phatten up” a basic sound without it sounding synthetic… And I suppose you’d want a choir to sound big and organic?
In this case, if you want to make it sound like a bigger choir, you’re not going to get great results from any normal chorus effects, as they tend to basically just be modulated delay lines, always giving some amount of that characteristic flanger/phaser quality side effect.
Might want to layer multiple instances of the sound, so you can process them individually. You can edit the SoundFonts and/or or offset and automate the tracks to get the instances “out of phase,” so it’s not literally a few instances of the exact same sample playing synchronously, as that would produce the same result as a basic chorus effect.
Basically, the closer you get to just throwing the samples in a synth/sampler and editing away, the greater the possibilities of creating a much bigger and/or totally different result. The really interesting stuff going on in synths and samplers is usually much more involved than just applying effects to a steady audio stream.
To be honest I wouldn’t do much.
These are probably the only steps I’d take… which generally speaking are mostly to do with getting it to sit well within the mix, rather than trying to make the sound it’s best version of itself. Two very different things in my opinion.
So here are my mixing tips I guess:
Use a graphic EQ to pinpoint the problem frequencies on the master mix and then rectify them on the appropriate track (assuming this is the track we are wanting to sit well) using either analog gear or a better analog emulation plugin (if I’m using plugins I often use a few and just reduce the frequency a bit over the chosen plugins as this gives more of a console feel to the track helping it sit well).
I make sure my dynamics expression and modulation parameters are set where I want them to be… then if it’s overly dynamic at the top expression I’ll put a compressor on the track with a slow attack and fast release at 2:1 just to touch those loud bits slightly… this is generally a very subtle compression and I don’t want it to colour the sound so I’ll use a. Opto style compressor.
I’d think if the timbre I’d the sound and how much I want it to poke out… in this case an aaah choir generally doesn’t poke out so might have a tendency to get lost I. The mix so I’d carve it a subtle space in the frequency range around 3k… I may even add another EQ with a Slight high shelf. another part of this step might be that the sound doesn’t have much attack so if I wanted to accent the beat that the note change is on I’d add a subtle transient shaper if required.
An that’s about it… the transient shaper is basically the only thing I’d say I would use in this scenario with most decent sounds.
Though ultimately it really does just come down. To having good sounds at the source. If you have that then all these steps are either void or drastically reduced.
Thanks a lot Geoffry and David.
Im trying it out. I don’t have much experience in effects and mixing yet, so any help is very useful for me.
Thanks again and happy composing.