Recording - June 2013 - 36

instruments do that most of the time), the notes in the phrase flow
into each other, and there isn’t a fresh attack for each of the notes
in the phrase. If it is a woodwind instrument, the air flow will be
continuous while the valves will cause the transition between notes.
With a string instrument, it would be the left-hand fingers that will
transition between notes without the bow changing directions, etc.
Web Example 1 on the Recording website compares a short
phrase played with legato samples vs. one without.
This content-heavy, time consuming and somewhat expensive (for the developer) sampling technique also helps capture the musician’s attitude, style and expression—all contribute to the realism. Whenever possible, you should choose
virtual instruments that offer real legato samples. This really
does make a major difference.
If you’re combining virtual instruments that offer true legato samples with other VIs that do not offer them, try to hide the non-legato instruments behind the legato instruments so they will “ride” on
the true-legato instruments’ improved realism and musicality. In such
a mixed section, make sure that the dominant voice will be played
by your most convincing true-legato instrument, while the inner voices can be played by the less convincing instruments. Make sure
they don’t stick out too much in balancing between the voices—
editing velocity values after the fact can help you there.
Recognize strengths and weaknesses
Recognize strengths and weaknesses of the instruments that
you are using. Interestingly, this is an excellent advice even
when working with real-life instrument players, but it becomes
absolutely crucial when using virtual instruments.
Just as live players have individual strengths and weaknesses,
virtual instruments do too. By recognizing the strengths and limitations of a live player, you can avoid exposing their weaknesses and make your music sound better and the performance
more solid. By recognizing the strengths, limitations and weaknesses of a virtual instrument, you can not only do the same, but
also make the mock-up far more expressive and realistic.
Once you’ve recognized the weaknesses and limitations,
you must do everything in your power to avoid those and try
not to expose them. Once you’ve recognized a virtual instrument’s strengths, identify those which are appropriate to the
music you are working on, and try to make use of them.
Use what’s there!
Virtual instruments are instruments. Each virtual instrument
you choose to use is different from the other. You must learn
how to use each of them, read the user manuals, play around
and practice. Listen to recordings of the real instruments you
are trying to simulate, and try to replicate what you hear.
High-end virtual instruments may offer a wealth of playing techniques and music articulations. Not all of them may be appropriate for each track, but always try and find opportunities to
make use of what’s there. If a virtual instrument you are using
offers a lot, and you are not making use of it, you are not using
it properly, and will not maximize the quality of your results.
There is an exception to this rule: Don’t misuse FX articulations. Using cool-sounding FX articulations when they are not
musically called for can be distracting and just as destructive
to your mock-up’s realism. Another way of misusing samples
is too much repetition.
36

RECORDING June 2013

Minimize repetition
You’re probably familiar with the concept of alternate samples,
or what is sometimes called “round robin” – a technique developed to avoid “The Machinegun Effect” – the unnatural sound of a
single sample played repeatedly, over and over again. The reason
is that real-life instrument players do not repeat their performance
of a note in a perfectly identical manner. Each repeated note
sounds a little bit different from the other. By cycling between several alternate samples instead of repeating a single sample, virtual instruments and sample libraries simulate that slight variation
real-life instrumentalists produce in repetition. Web Example 2 on
the Recording website demonstrates the difference between a
round-robin sample selection and the Machinegun Effect.
That same concept applies to you in your choice of articulations.
On one hand, it’s a good idea to use multiple different articulations
in even a single phrase, and on the other hand, it is very important
to avoid overusing highly recognizable FX articulations, as those
might stick out like blinking signs screaming “This is not real! This is
just a MIDI mock-up!”. Be careful with those.
A good example of articulations you need to avoid overusing by
repeating too frequently would be highly recognizable guitar slides
and effects (realistically no guitar player would repeat those in the
exact same way in the same song). Using such an effect once in a
song adds a lot of life and realism, but repeating it would achieve
the exact opposite result. Another good example would be strings
portamento and glissando. Many recent orchestral mock-ups I’ve
heard are guilty of overusing those, possibly as a result of those articulations becoming so readily available in most of the mainstream
strings libraries and virtual instruments. The two main problems with
those are that, firstly, real-life string players don’t play those articulations very often, and secondly, the way these articulations were sampled was too technically oriented, and does not emulate a real string
section playing a glissando or portamento in a real musical context.
In a sense they have been performed too perfectly in the recordings
of those sample libraries, to be very convincing, especially if used
too frequently.
Timing, pre-attack and quantization
Quantizing can be one of the worst things you can do to your
mock-up. Other than often killing your natural groove in favor of a
mechanically accurate, yet grooveless performance, one of the hidden problems with quantizing, and/or using step-sequencers and
arpeggiators, has to do with inconsistent pre-attack in the samples.
Pre-attack is what’s included in the very beginning of the sample,
before the recorded note is fully realized. Certain instruments and
note ranges take longer for a note to be heard at full volume than
others; the ear perceives the “start” of the note as being later than
the moment the waveform actually begins. When playing a note on
a tuba or a flute, it takes much longer for the air blown into the
instrument to develop a stable waveform that produces a fully-developed note than on, say, a piano or a xylophone, which produce
sound almost instantly. Live players, being familiar with the time it
takes for the note they are playing to be fully realized, simply begin
playing it a bit early, so that by the time it is fully realized and clearly audible, it would be exactly on time. When using virtual instruments, we must do the same, but the rules are a bit less predictable.
Different developers have different preferences when it comes to
their editing styles, particularly the attack and pre-attack. Some developers prioritize fast response for keyboardists playing live, and cut
most of the pre-attack content out, so that the played note would be
fast to respond to the MIDI keyboard. Other developers prioritize realism, maintaining and including more of the pre-attack content in the
sample. When that pre-attack time is consistent throughout an instrument, you can quantize safely, and then just shift the entire part slightly backwards, so that the pre-attack is played before the actual notes,
and the actual notes are realized right on time and not a little too late.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult for the developers to keep the preattack timing consistent throughout an entire instrument. When the preattack timing is not fully consistent (that’s the case with most virtual



Recording - June 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2013

Recording - June 2013
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
SXSW 2013—From Guerilla To Gorilla
Finding Fault
Reviewed & Revisited: Ableton Live 9 and Push
Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection for UAD-2
Apogee Quartet
Reviewed & Revisited: Steinberg Cubase 7
Mock-Up Magic
Reviewed & Revisited: MOTU Digital Performer 8
Ingram Engineering MPA685
Reviewed & Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.5
Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X2
Readers’ Tapes
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 18: Headphones—Part 1
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
For Your Bookshelf
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - June 2013 - Intro
Recording - June 2013 - Recording - June 2013
Recording - June 2013 - Cover2
Recording - June 2013 - 1
Recording - June 2013 - 2
Recording - June 2013 - 3
Recording - June 2013 - Fade In
Recording - June 2013 - 5
Recording - June 2013 - Contents
Recording - June 2013 - 7
Recording - June 2013 - Talkback
Recording - June 2013 - 9
Recording - June 2013 - Fast Forward
Recording - June 2013 - 11
Recording - June 2013 - 12
Recording - June 2013 - 13
Recording - June 2013 - SXSW 2013—From Guerilla To Gorilla
Recording - June 2013 - 15
Recording - June 2013 - Finding Fault
Recording - June 2013 - 17
Recording - June 2013 - 18
Recording - June 2013 - 19
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Ableton Live 9 and Push
Recording - June 2013 - 21
Recording - June 2013 - 22
Recording - June 2013 - 23
Recording - June 2013 - Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection for UAD-2
Recording - June 2013 - 25
Recording - June 2013 - 26
Recording - June 2013 - 27
Recording - June 2013 - Apogee Quartet
Recording - June 2013 - 29
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Steinberg Cubase 7
Recording - June 2013 - 31
Recording - June 2013 - 32
Recording - June 2013 - 33
Recording - June 2013 - Mock-Up Magic
Recording - June 2013 - 35
Recording - June 2013 - 36
Recording - June 2013 - 37
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: MOTU Digital Performer 8
Recording - June 2013 - 39
Recording - June 2013 - 40
Recording - June 2013 - 41
Recording - June 2013 - Ingram Engineering MPA685
Recording - June 2013 - 43
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.5
Recording - June 2013 - 45
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X2
Recording - June 2013 - 47
Recording - June 2013 - 48
Recording - June 2013 - 49
Recording - June 2013 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - June 2013 - 51
Recording - June 2013 - 52
Recording - June 2013 - 53
Recording - June 2013 - 54
Recording - June 2013 - 55
Recording - June 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 18: Headphones—Part 1
Recording - June 2013 - 57
Recording - June 2013 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - June 2013 - 59
Recording - June 2013 - 60
Recording - June 2013 - 61
Recording - June 2013 - 62
Recording - June 2013 - 63
Recording - June 2013 - For Your Bookshelf
Recording - June 2013 - Advertiser Index
Recording - June 2013 - 66
Recording - June 2013 - 67
Recording - June 2013 - 68
Recording - June 2013 - 69
Recording - June 2013 - 70
Recording - June 2013 - 71
Recording - June 2013 - Fade Out
Recording - June 2013 - Cover3
Recording - June 2013 - Cover4
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