Working with digital sounds in music projects...

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hellobox
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:19 pm

Working with digital sounds in music projects...

Post by hellobox »

I use digital sounds (such as sound samples/fonts/files) in my music projects, such as piano, bass, sitar, etc. I use goldwave to add some effects like reverb, etc. But still, I feel the final results are not like the "real" studio-recorded sounds.

So, I am wondering if I can play the sounds in a speaker, record with a condenser and use the recorded audio file. Would this be more "realistic"?

I presume many may have tried this, so any inputs will be helpful and appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
DougDbug
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Post by DougDbug »

So, I am wondering if I can play the sounds in a speaker, record with a condenser and use the recorded audio file. Would this be more "realistic"?
AFAIK, the only time the "pros" use a technique like that is when they are trying to capture the sound of a particular guitar amplifier. But, if you have a "good sounding" room, there is no harm in experimenting.

You might need a different (better) reverb or you might need some different instrument samples. (But, I suspect the instrument samples are supposed to be "dry".)

I agree that GoldWave's reverb isn't very natural-sounding. I've used a different audio editor (no longer available) that had a better one. Other than that, I don't have much personal experience with different reverbs.

I have seen lots of reverb plug-ins for sale. There seems to be big-business in simulating known concert halls, and in simulating well-regarded hardware-reverbs. (The plug-ins usually cost more than GoldWave.)

You might try Audacity (FREE!!!), and I suspect higher-end programs like Audition or Sound Forge come with reasonably good reverbs.
DewDude420
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Post by DewDude420 »

The real magic is in convolution.

Convolution uses "impulse response" files to create a "modeled" reverb...there's probably a technical term..but i can't think of it. I can explain it in a somewhat easy to understand term.

Most reverb simply takes the wav and then "reverbs" it, not very creative, rather simple..sometimes you find something that has a variable decay amount..which lets you tell it after how long you want the reverb to end..but, as it's been said, most reverb has the whole canyon echo effect and not that realistic room effect. The process works like this.

Some engineers (ideally) take a bunch of recording equipment into a room, set up all thier mics and such and start recording..then they stand in a location and create a loud popping sound...that's all, just one pop/click sound..what happens is this single instaneous sound reverbs through the room/building where the mics record every bit of echo..then they mix this into an IR file which, sounds like a slightly distorted click..but through the magic of software processing, software can take this and create a more realistic echo. It's an interesting way of processing and goldwave doesn't have this feature built in..I've never gotten the one in Audition to work either, however, there is a VST plugin called SIR (Super Impulse Response) that you can get to work with some VST to DX wrapper (or, in the case i did it, VST plugin in Winamp VST wrapper in Goldwave Winamp DSP wrapper). Soundfonts by thier very nature are dry "dead" sounding recordings...and they're supposed to be. You can find all kinds of impulse files online..including some that were made on various tube amps and tape machines to simulate those sounds (they never work well)...but, if you play around you find you can sometimes have that do other processing besides just a reverb (one time i had an IR file filtered to 4khz...and i got a 4khz filter on the output)..but, you can find IR's of actual concert halls and i've got a bunch made from expensive well-regarded hardware-reverbs...almost kind of like hardware-piracy :)

The other thing you might try is messing around with the dynamics of the insturment, I find that dynamically compressing stuff gives you that slightly more "professional" sound.

As far as playing the sounds through youre speakers and into a condenser..i'd only do that if you have a good set of monitors and not just any ol' speakers..and in a rather quiet room (you don't want all extra ambient noise)...but be warned..sometimes you'll get a hallow echoy sound that just..well..sounds like it was recorded on a cheap tape player in a room. When pros record guitar amps, they turn the amps up but have the gain on the mics virturally nil and the mic right up to the amp. You could try it, your results will vary....

but i would try going with the impulse response method first, that should give your soundfonts the feeling they were recorded in a large room.
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