Orchestral Mockup Production - Free Course PDF

Orchestral Mockup Production

Free Course

By Marc Jovani

© Marc Jovani Cinematic Composing

All rights reserved. Unauthorized use is a violation of applicable copyright laws.

https://cinematiccomposing.com


Welcome

First, thanks for subscribing to this free course on Orchestral Mockup Production! I’m glad
to have you on board!

If you landed here you probably know me either from the Berklee online orchestration
classes, from another facetoface course, or maybe we met professionally somewhere. In
case you don’t know me, my name is Marc Jovani and I teach at Berklee online. I live in LA,
where I work as a film and video games composer. I'm excited to have you here and I am
looking forward to creating an online community with you while we explore orchestral
mockup production.

The email autoresponder series will send out 11 emails over the span of 6 weeks. They will
be relatively short, easily digestible emails that can be read in one sitting. The emails
introduce the basic concepts of synthestration (orchestration with orchestral samples and
synths), mixing, and mastering orchestral tracks.

The course structure consists of 5 lessons:

Lesson 1 Organization: Templates, Grouping, Buses
Lesson 2 Composing: Arranging, Inspiration, Balance, Panning.
Lesson 3 Mixing : EQ, Reverb, Compression.
Lesson 4 Mastering
Lesson 5 Conclusion

Please, understand that this is a free email autoresponder series and I will not be able to
answer your questions if you respond directly to these emails. However, I am looking
forward to having you in any of the courses that I teach at Berklee, where we have set up a
series of tools (1 hour weekly chat, forums, direct messages, etc) to enhance
communication.

Also, you can connect with me through my site www.marcjovani.com , Facebook , Twitter or
Soundcloud . I will be glad to answer any questions when you contact me directly..


Introduction

First of all, my approach when composing is to set up everything so I can be as efficient as
possible. I try to do things from a practical standpoint. That won’t usually mean working with
big templates or complex setups. I will talk further about templates in a minute. For now
let’s say that the more complex you go (with your system, composing workflow, etc.) the
more issues tend to appear.

The first two lessons are about organization (templates, grouping, buses) and arranging
(arranging, levels, panning). At some point you may think, “Ok, this is nice, but when do we
actually get to talk about composing, plugins, mixing and all that cool stuff?” I have known
many great composers and mixing engineers, and the one common factor that makes the
real difference is organization. It may seem a bit boring to discuss this at the beginning, but
it will save you a lot of time and effort down the road.

Everything that I teach here is based on what I have learned over the years, and I believe I
can honestly say that I have experience in this field. Most of the techniques and concepts
are generic and should work for everyone, but you will have to try them and see if they work
for you. You may have to adapt some techniques to make them better fit your projects and
your own style and workflow. So take these lessons as a starting point and build from here.
Use your ears to test what you learn in this manual. Do not take anything for granted
always experiment.

Without further ado, let's dive right into it. Check out your email inbox. In one hour since
you received this email, you will receive a new one. If you want to start right away, click
here.


Lesson 1 Organization: Templates

TEMPLATES

A template is an important tool that will help the composer keep things organized. There
are all sorts of templates. They range from small ones with a few tracks and buses, to
massive ones with hundreds or more than a thousand tracks. Several computers will
usually be required in order to run those bigger templates.

To give you an example of a fairly big template, this is John Powell’s Logic template.

Posted on John Powell’s Facebook page, in February 2016

I am not a fan of big templates, and I do not use more than one computer.

Don’t get me wrong, I did have a weakness for big templates and several computers, using
Visual Ensemble Pro (VEPro) and other techniques, and I used them for a while. In fact, the
video that opened my YouTube channel with more than 60k visits 7 years


ago was about presenting my template and explaining its creation. Some people would say
that I was the “SMPTV class computer geek of my year”. Thanks to that “geekness”, I
landed my first job as assistant to a composer in Pasadena.

My personal experience with templates is that, while they help by keeping some tools ready
for you to start composing, they may also negatively affect your creativity levels. Your
creativity may be constricted through working with the same tracks and the same
articulations, always organized in the same way. While a template constantly evolves, you
will have a large percentage of the same tools loaded all the time the same sounds, the
same plugins, the same reverbs. A standardized largetemplate setup may help to create
your signature sound, however, it can consequently lead to your work consistently sounding
the same , or at least quite similar That is my personal experience. It doesn’t mean that
you should feel the same.

At one point, when I was using a big template for composing, I stopped and thought for a
moment about those days when I knew nothing about templates, when I used to start a
new composition with an empty, blank project. I would load one VSL track with EXS24.
Remember those days? Two steps and one new instrument loaded. Yes, I know it has been
almost 10 years since then, and things have changed a lot. But is it for the better? In my
opinion, it depends on how you use the new tools we have available.

In a modern setup with VEPro you can load a new patch with three steps. However, that will
be possible only if the VEPro Server is running and loaded, all the VEPro instances in the
host computer are connected to those on the VEPro Server, and you have template
instances of VEPro with one Plugin Channel and at least 16 Bus Channels prerouted,
ready to load more patches. If you have to load one more instance of VEPro, it would be a
matter having saved an empty, prerouted one, so you can open it and you are ready to go.
You should also have a set of 16 midi and aux tracks in your sequencer to send the midi to
VEPro and receive the audio from VEPro.

If you have that setup automated (it is easy to automate) you can load one patch in three
steps. You would have to 1) get to the computer where you have got everything loaded.
You can either use screen sharing (remote control) which does not work 100%


of the times or use a dedicated monitor for each of your VEPro computers, which also
implies a dedicated mouse and keyboard. 2) Load the new patch in the already loaded
Plugin Channel. If most of the libraries that you use run in Kontakt, you can have it already
loaded in the Plugin Channel. 3) Route that new patch and set up the right midi and audio
channels.

So, with a proper set up, it should be simple to load new patches. But you have to make
sure that everything is prerouted in advance. Still, can you see how this is becoming more
complex? Even though templates are intended to simplify your workflow, they require more
thinking and more steps and actions to make sure they properly serve their purpose.

Therefore, while such setups can be created and their issues handled, in general, the
bigger the template is, the slower your system will get. I believe that the bigger and more
complex your system gets, the more chances there are for it to cause trouble, the more
chances for an old plugin to cause the session to crash, to slow down your system, and so
forth.

Generally, there are many advantages which come with ,using a template setup. First, with
a template you have a series of tracks loaded and you just sit down, put your hands on the
keyboard and start composing. Second, all those tracks, provided it is a well setup
template, will already be configured meaning they will have specific panning, an EQ
plugin loaded, a reverb applied or a send to a reverb bus already set, an output routed to a
specific bus, etc. That is very convenient and time saving.

While having a template usually is seen as a positively impacting your workflow (and many
composers use templates), it has some disadvantages as well. Firstly, they are big. It is
hard to manage a big template. You will need keyboard shortcuts to get to the track (or
group of tracks) that you want. Otherwise you will need to do a lot of scrolling. Also, a
session with a big template will take longer to save every time you press ctrl+s
because it has more settings than necessary to save (plugins settings, track
configurations), even if you haven’t written a note yet! Having a large template with all
patches loaded takes CPU processing, even if you are not playing anything back.



Another problem is that when you have samples loaded in another computer or computers,
when you open an old session say a track you composed 6 months ago you will have
to make sure that the samples you have loaded in the sample’s computers are the same as
the ones you had loaded 6 months ago. Of course, this could be solved by saving a version
of the loaded samples for every project or track you work on, or a similar approach, but
then you will find yourself doing a lot of loading for opening a big template, for a track that
just uses 20% of it…

In my opinion, I prefer loading just the specific tracks that I need for one specific project,
and no more. That means that instead of creating a 250track template that you will never
use at 100%, I will end up working with 250 tracks only because I needed to have them all
in the specific project I am working on. And those tracks will define the sound of that
project.
I prefer having just one computer for composing, and working with a modular template (I
will expand on that later). You may find that you need more than just an i76950X, with
128GB RAM, and 16TB SSD. But if you keep yourself organized and optimize your
resources, that type of build should be enough for 99% of your productions.

If you are one of those who are seduced by the idea of using big complex templates, I
recommend you watch some of Mike Patti’s live composition videos. They are very inspiring
and very helpful in understanding what a template can do for you.

Let’s put it this way. Templates are great if they take less than 30% of your computer power.
Do not build a 700track template if that leaves you with little or no space to load more stuff.



My take on templates

While I like templates and I understand their advantages, I go with a hybrid approach, using
a small 3050 track template and then loading groups of tracks as I need them, depending
on the musical style.

Sonar lets you save groups of tracks and calls this the Track Template feature. Then you
can load those tracks, and it will load the tracks that you had in the Folder Track Template
and the loaded patch or patches in each track. It will also preserve every track and patch
routing, as well as creating the buses each track was routed to, and the plugins inserted in
those. It will also load the plugins in every track and will keep their configuration. And that
happens in a few seconds. There is a 0.9 MB gif below showing the whole process (it
should load within a few seconds).


Lesson 1 Organization: Grouping & Buses

GROUPS

Composing, like any other labor, has to be both organized and efficient. There has to be
space for spontaneity and a bit of messiness, of course, but the more organized your
system is the more productive your time will be.

Grouping stuff will serve many purposes. There are many ways you can organize tracks
we will be discussing different approaches depending on our needs in a minute but right
away these are some of the benefits:

First, it will give you quick control over groups of instruments. You may want to solo all the
small percussion tracks to check on their width and L/R balance. Or you may need to
isolate the low short brass and low percussion. In a big project with lots of tracks it will take
some time to solo individual tracks. But if you set up some buses, or if you have some track
folders, it will be faster to just solo those buses or folders.

Another way of grouping is saving groups of tracks that you can load later, like saving
Kontakt instances, or using the “Load track template” feature in Sonar. Not only will you
save time loading tracks, but you can also save the tracks premixed and prerouted, so
when you load them it already sounds good, and you are not dealing with problems right
away.

Finally, working with groups may help you when you are exporting stems.

Ok, so how do we use those groups?

KONTAKT INSTANCES

I like saving Kontakt instances. It is important to save the work you have done, so you can
reuse part of what you have built for future projects. If I composed a cue and I spent some
time setting up some African percussion instruments, I will make sure to save it afterwards
as an organized Kontakt instance. I will do the same for tuned percussion or for short/long
fixed decay instruments.


The idea is to have as many Kontakt instances saved as possible so when you later need
to load a group of instruments, you have a palette of instances that you can use. For
example, let’s say you need some wood tuned percussion. You’d load this instance:

It is a set of 16 instruments. You may not use all of them, but you’d have them available
quickly and easily. This frees you to concentrate on composing, not on technical,
computerrelated aspects of your project..

Remember that it usually doesn’t matter these days if you are loading more than you need.
In most cases you won’t run out of RAM before your CPU is maxed out.


You can organize instruments by range, by envelope (plucked, sustained), by style (low
epic percussion, barbaric drums), by orchestral family, by projects (you are writing a sequel
and need to create the same sonic landscape), by tone color, etc. It is up to you, but have
as many saved instances as you can. And make sure to save new instances every time
you finish a project. Name them in a way that makes sense to you, so you can easily find
them later.

BUSES

I like using buses, and I route all my tracks to specific buses. I have a basic set of 16
buses. This basic set is useful for three reasons. First, it allows me to listen to specific
sections (high short strings, synths, etc). Second, it gives me control over those specific
sections. If I need more low brass in a specific part of the cue, I will automate that bus. That
is more efficient than doing so in each low brass instrument track, and it ensures that I am
keeping the balance intact for that section. Third, and most important, it allows me to export
stems quickly.

Most sequencers will allow you to export the buses when you bounce your mix



I will usually have these sixteen buses:
Strings Short High
Strings Short Low
Strings Long High
Strings Long Low
Brass Short
Brass Long
WW Short
WW Long
Synths 1
Synths 2
Piano
Aux
Perc High
Perc Mid
Perc Low
Others

Why do I choose to have those specific buses?

Mixing, for many composers, is a separate step than composing. I like to keep the mixing
separate from composing. You can do a bit of mixing while you are composing, but at some
point you will need to separate the processes to gain some clarity. I mix in a separate
project, so at some point I will need to export my tracks and import them into a
new blank audio project. When I do so, I will rarely export every individual track. Instead,



I will group the tracks into stems and then export a reduced number of stems, which can
range from a few of them to as many as 3040.

When exporting stems, I like separating high and low, short and long, and instrument
families.

You can have as many buses as you want, and the number of buses may change from
project to project. Make sure you are organizing them in a way that makes sense to you so
you will have flexibility when mixing.

The final reason for organization of buses is that it will help you switch from composing to
mixing and ensure a smooth transition from one to the other.

STEMS

I use stems, not individual tracks, for mixing. A stem is a group of tracks that are bounced
together into one audio output file.

The buses you set up earlier will facilitate creating stems afterwards. In Sonar, when you
select File/Export/Audio, just select Buses as the source and separate stereo or 5.1 audio
files of the buses you created will be made.

Another way to export stems is to select (or solo) the tracks that you want for every stem.
This method takes a bit longer, and you may miss exporting some tracks. I recommend
using a spreadsheet to make sure you export everything. You don’t want to open the new
mixing project and find out that you forgot one track.



Here is an example of a notsobig cue with 38 tracks and 18 stems.

Again, decide which and how many stems you want to export. Make sure there are not so
many that the mixing process will be complex, or so few that you will not have enough
flexibility.


Lesson 2 Composing

ARRANGING

The arrangement plays a major role in defining how good your mockup will sound. More
importantly, it is vital to get the arrangement right because you won’t be able to fix any
arranging mistakes later on in the mixing or mastering.

A common mistake is to add too many tracks to make your music sound bigger, more
complex, or louder. But the truth is that you will start losing clarity the more tracks you add.
Remember, every note must have a purpose .

Something that I recommend is asking yourself if the instrument in that passage is serving
any specific purpose? If it is not, delete it. That will save you a lot of problems.

You may blend cellos and basses playing in octaves with bassoons and contrabassoons,
because the double reeds will add extra definition and character to that melodic line.
However, you may decide not to have a tuba there. Or you may actually use basses, tuba
and cimbasso for playing some low staccatos, but decide to keep the bassoons out. The
cimbasso provides the aggressive and brassy sound, the bass adds some extra low end,
and the tuba blends the two of them together. But the bassoon may mellow the sound,
which you don’t want.

Therefore, it is vital that you decide the purpose for arranging a passage a certain way.

Next, think about timbre . We will think about frequencies when we are mixing, but during
the composing step, when you are arranging, think in terms of timbre.

I have read in so many forums, “you should not put this and that instrument together
because they conflict in frequencies”. This is a common mistake. While that statement may
be partially true for other styles of music, in orchestral music we have an inheritance. There
are some common blends of instruments that create specific sounds. We have to use them
if we want to create a certain sound (muted trumpet with oboe, soft tremolo timpani with low
strings, high woodwinds and strings in octaves, etc.).


In the past, composers, musicians and conductors did not have EQs, reverb, or other digital
effects, so they used what they had for creating new textures or enhancing sounds. The
instruments evolved in a certain way, as did the orchestras, so they could serve a better
musical and sonic purpose.

There is no such thing as, “you should not put this and that instrument together because
they conflict in frequencies”. In orchestral music we do not talk about frequencies as much
as timbre.

Remember that you should have a clear idea for every passage. Decide what is most
important and what will play a supporting role. Define the purpose of everything you add.
Think about timbre when adding or layering instruments. Delete everything that does not
serve a purpose.


Lesson 2 Composing

INSPIRATION & MOMENTUM

If you are working on a professional level, you should be able to compose quickly, not
because your hours will be worth more money, but because efficiency enhances creativity.
Furthermore, when you are composing, you should be able to keep up those levels of
creativity or momentum.

Over the years I have developed a way of looking at music that allows me to start
composing fast and keeps the momentum going. When I explained the process to my
Berklee students, I had to systematize it, so now I describe the process as a system.

I will not elaborate on it too much here, since this is more of a producing/mixing manual, but
I thought it would be worth mentioning. No matter how good are you at mixing, if you are
not able to come up with some good ideas to start composing, or if you end up with a
mediocre arrangement, you will not be able to fix that during the mixing process. Still, I
understand that composing is a very subjective process and composers have many
different workflows or systems.

The 5 Elements System
Any musical passage can have up to five elements. These are not layers. They are more
like musical components. They can either be combined or not. The five elements are:

Direction: anything that creates a tendency. Something that leads from point A to point B (a
melody, a harmonic progression that creates more tension as it progresses, increasing
orchestration density or thickness, etc). This element makes the listener feel the music is
progressing from one point to another.

Movement: anything that creates flow or action (any type of rhythmic pattern, ostinato,
harmonic pattern that repeats, call and response between instruments or families, etc). This
element creates motion.


Lesson 2 Composing

Background (Glue): anything that sits behind in the mix. It will usually be something that is
not obvious, but it is there, and you can tell when it is missing. This element fills in the gaps
and helps join the different musical ideas together.

Enhancer: anything that intensifies or augments, that adds more to one musical idea, helps
connect sections, or adds sparkle and “ear candy” (textural flourishes like runs, scales, and
trills, woodwinds fluttering around behind a soaring melody, cymbal or timpani roll swells,
etc).

Bass: anything that adds an extra low end. The contemporary modern orchestral sound
requires an extra layer of a solid, compact and controlled low end. It is important that you
are able to create it. We have many resources available like low synths, electric basses,
subboom percussion hits, and wellrecorded or sampled double basses.

Combining these five elements in some way, no matter the musical style, will create a full
musical entity. That does not mean that you must always combine all of them. You can go
with just one, or you can combine several, and this can vary as the composition
progresses. Sometimes one musical idea can be used as two elements at the same time.

In the live online chats with students, I will usually compose some examples with them to
illustrate these points. But since I can’t be there with you (and it makes no sense to define
musical examples with words), I will trust you to experiment with the five elements..

This is just how I look at music. Obviously, I think about many other specific components
like harmony, balance, and specifics on orchestration. But although this open, broad
fiveelement system frees my mind and creativity without pressure, I am not trying to force it
on anyone else. There are many other ways you can organize music. This is just one
system that takes the hassle out of thinking about musical terms.


Lesson 2 Composing

Trained composers will usually find themselves debating about their music not being good
enough, complex enough, or interesting enough. This system helps evaluate whether the
music is effective enough. Furthermore, it can be applied to any genre or media.

It is also a good system if you are a film composer, because it allows you to communicate
with directors using nonmusical terms, and it allows you to approach scenes in a very
logical way.


Lesson 2 Composing

BALANCE

Balance determines whether your orchestral mockup sounds realistic or not. No matter how
skilled you are at mixing and mastering, or how great your instrument or reverb plugins
are, your musical ideas will not sound real if the balance is wrong.

A basic example of incorrect balance is having a flute play louder than a trombone. Another
common mistake is to have the woodwinds a bit too hot when producing an orchestral track
with samples, when in live context they naturally sound lower in the mix.

I sometimes hear examples of brass instruments playing forte, but sounding softer than
they should. In reality, when a brass instrument plays forte, it is loud. If it sounds too loud,
perhaps your arrangement needs more elements to help compensate for the weight of the
loud brass. Maybe some low percussion will add some support. Or maybe adding some
bassoons will very subtly soften the tone color of that brass chord.

Balancing nonorchestral percussion or synth percussion beds with the orchestra is another
area of difficulty. You have to find the right balance so that the percussion sounds loud
enough to bring that punch, but not too much that it overpowers the orchestra.

Balance is a very subtle matter, but it can make a big difference. If you want your tracks to
sound balanced you will have to learn from others. Listen and compare with other tracks
and you will get better over time.

Remember that balance and arrangement are closely intertwined. You will need to set the
right levels for your arrangement to sound good, but at other times you may need to review
your arrangement for possible changes before making any changes in levels.


Lesson 2 Composing

PANNING

There are two rules when panning. The first one is that at the end the mix should sound
compensated. In other words, we do not want more weight to the left. We want both sides
to be balanced. The second rule is that any low instrument that serves as the foundation of
your track should stay in the middle. However, in orchestral music you should always follow
the original position of each instrument. You can find many charts online. Here is one from
the Cakewalk forum. Use it as starting point and tweak it as needed.


Lesson 2 Composing

A common mistake is leaving everything panned center because some libraries come with
prepanned instruments. While this is a good starting point, it is important to accentuate it a
bit more. Never go to extremes, unless you are trying to create a very specific effect. The
idea is to enhance the width; moving things a bit more to the left and to the right. I pan in
Kontakt, so the panning settings are saved the next time I load it.


Lesson 2 Composing

EQ

The goal here is to gain clarity. The foundation of this is done with your choices during the
arranging process (please read above if you skipped it). Adding EQ will help to take this
one step further. When adding tracks, you inadvertently can create muddiness and cause
certain frequencies to build. We will cut those in order to deal with lowmids and a
muddysounding mix.

However, do not apply drastic EQ to orchestral instruments, as they will start losing their
characteristic sound qualities.

EQ is a very broad subject. I will describe the techniques I use most, and also the ones that
have the biggest impact. But do not take these numbers and ranges for granted. Use your
ear to decide what works for your specific project.

In general, you can cut around 200350 Hz from most of your instruments (but use your ear
to check for the truly muddy frequencies). Do not make a wide cut (high Q) or you will be
cutting part of the low end as well.

Lesson 2 Composing

You can cut a little bit around 3000 Hz, which is an area where frequencies tend to build up
too much. You can go wider with the range of frequencies being cut around this area, but
do not cut too much, as you may lose some of the definition and harshness.

The above suggestions need to be subtle cuts. For example, I usually use 3dB as a limit,
but sometimes cut a little more. Generally speaking, you are much better off trying to get a
good balance with levels before making drastic EQ changes.

You can cut a LOT of low frequencies from your nonbass instruments. Use a frequency
analyzer, which is built in to most EQs (I use Fabfilter) to see how much you can cut. You
will be surprised. Sometimes my High Pass Filter on violins goes right up to 400600Hz.
Still, use your ear. Don’t just trust visuals.


Lesson 2 Composing

In general, I cut everything below 20 Hz for most low instruments, leaving only a small
number of instruments without high pass filtering. These are certain sub booms or those
instruments that provide the lowest frequencies for the mix. You can boost your bass
instruments a bit around 4080 Hz.

Think of EQ as a way of adjusting levels, but in a more subtle way, affecting just one range
of the instrument frequency spectrum.

In general, you will get better results by CUTTING EQ more and GAINING EQ less. The
most experienced engineers will tell you that cutting is better than gaining, as it allows you
to truly shape the sound.

If you want one instrument to stand out, find the most characteristic area of that instrument
and then cut some dBs of that area for everyone else. Do not cut too much though, or you
will start to lose the character that defines the sound color of those instruments. You can
boost the instrument that has to stand out a little bit, but with care, because you might end
up changing the unique personality of that sound.

Lesson 2 Composing

REVERB

This is also a very broad subject, but if you understand the following rules you will have the
answer to many problems:

High pitched instruments Can tolerate lots of reverb
Low pitched instruments Can tolerate little or no reverb
Long Sounding Notes Can tolerate more and longer reverb
Short Sounding Notes Can tolerate less and shorter reverb

High instruments, playing long notes, legato or slow melodies, will tolerate more reverb.
However, if they are playing a fast ostinato, they may tolerate a bit of reverb, but it has to
be very short.

A reverb with a tail of 2 or more seconds is considered a long reverb. A short reverb has a
tail that is shorter than 1 second.

Make sure there is no reverb on your bass instruments (or at most a VERY small amount).

Unless you are going for the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ sound, make sure there is only a very
small reverb on your boomy percussion instruments.

Cut the low end of your reverbs, especially for those you apply to high pitched instruments.
Usually you will be able to do that within the same reverb plugin.


Lesson 2 Composing

Understand the difference between convolution reverbs (simulating actual physical spaces
using impulse responses) and regular digital reverbs. There is a great old article in ‘Sound
on Sound’ entitled “Choosing The Right Reverb” that provides a good overview of the
different types of reverb. It is a bit dated, but the concepts still apply and it is very well
explained. I use EW Spaces for convolution reverb and B2 from 2CAudio for regular digital
reverbs.

Some composers will set several buses and aux tracks with different reverbs for various
purposes and then set up a send on those tracks that need each type of reverb. At the very
least go with a short, mid and long reverb. Below are other examples I use with this
method. I don't always use all of them, but I make sure they are available.


Lesson 2 Composing

● One for 'panoramic' reverb (long sustained strings, sustained brass, choir tracks
that need wide / wet sound)
● One for 'impact' reverb (spiccato, brass stabs, woodwind etc.). This reverb is
shorter than the 'panoramic' reverb, simulating a big room, but with quicker decay.
● One reverb for bass instruments. I almost never use this.
● One reverb for low percussion.
● One reverb for other percussion.
● One reverb for synth.
● One reverb for special FX.

This way you can use the right reverb for each purpose, which prevents the sound from
becoming too boomy.

I also keep a bus with a very short and fast delay (one repetition) with slightly different
delay times for left and right, that also hits a very short reverb. I sometimes use this for
creating extra impact with high pitched and short sounding percussive elements.

Do you apply reverb during the composing process or while mixing?

The thing about reverb is that it takes up a lot of CPU processing, which can create
problems.

Reverb is a very important element for orchestral music, and I do not want to be restricted
in its use. I apply reverb during the mixing process. There are several reasons for that, but
the most important one is that when mixing, your CPU is not as stressed, allowing for more
headroom for plugins that are high in CPU usage.

Sometimes someone else will mix for you, or you will mix in a different studio, where other
or better reverbs are available. It then makes no sense to add reverb during the composing
process since you are using them only for reference.


Lesson 2 Composing

Generally speaking, you will not be able to insert reverb plugins on each separate
instrument track because you will not have enough processing power. Loading different
buses with different reverbs and then setting up a send for every track that needs reverb is
also not an option because that makes the process of exporting stems a mess.

If you are taking this same approach, make sure you decide when to export stems, in order
to apply different reverbs as needed (refer to the Buses part of this manual).


Lesson 3 Mixing

As discussed earlier for the mixing process, let’s open a new project. I’ll load all the audio
stems that I exported before, and I’ll do the mix in this project, with all the additional EQ,
compression, reverb, and automation. Doing this will help me separate the composing and
arranging process from the sound mixing process.

CONSOLE SATURATION

Run every track through a console emulator to add a bit of analog saturation. In the past I
used Sonnox Inflator in some channels along with Crane Song Phoenix. Now, I use the
builtin console emulator from Sonar.


Lesson 3 Mixing

Set the Trim and Drive to around “four”, which is a fairly conservative setting. The effect is
cumulative over multiple channels, so you will hear the difference. It is important to
start the mix while the console emulators are already in place and do the mix with all of
them enabled.

These types of consoleemulator plugins generate harmonic overtones through distortion.
However, it will have some impact on the dynamics, and when pushed too hard, it would
begin to limit, which might affect the sound in a negative way.

The first thing that you need to understand about console emulators (or any other kind of
plugin) is that you have to allow for headroom in every channel. Any plugin that you add
will boost some frequencies. Because you have this frequency boost, if you run your sliders
up to 0dB you are already smashing and overloading the input side of any plugin, and
some compression will happen within the plugin, even if you do not want it. So keep a little
less signal level going in and everything will be a bit happier.

When you go about it the right way, you can make your project sound a bit brighter, a bit
thicker, and get this this nice euphoric warm midrange that happens naturally with tape. In
short, you could get a sound that you would never have gotten with only EQ or other
processes.

REVERB

I usually insert different reverbs for different stems, often using Spaces and B2 for my
orchestral instruments. By using different reverbs or different reverb settings, you create
separation in your mix and gain clarity. You do not want to use the same reverb for all
instruments. Although reverb is a very important component of an orchestral track, you
should avoid reverb build up by not overusing it.

Also, as said before, cut the low frequencies on your reverb plugins. All the good reverb
plugins will come with some sort of EQ built in. Make sure to cut the low frequencies to the
reverb on all the stems.


Lesson 3 Mixing

When mixing orchestral music, you want to use convolution reverb first (to put the
instruments in a “room”) and then add a highquality algorithmic reverb (if necessary).
However, there are some orchestral instrument libraries that have been recorded in very
good rooms, so adding convolution reverb to some of these may be unnecessary.

Now is when everything starts making sense: you separated the instruments, exported
stems, and now you are applying different reverbs to different groups of instruments. That
way, you are ensuring separation and gaining clarity.

Remember these rules: more reverb for long notes and less for shorts. I recommend
around 2.6 secondlong reverbs for longnote orchestral stems, and a bit longer if they are
really long, Don’t be too liberal though, or the sound will become too muddled. For short
notes, 1.5s should be the max in order to keep the sound clear and crisp. I may even go
with even shorter reverbs. Percussion would follow the same rule: keep it dry by applying
very little reverb, and keep it to 1s or less.

I do not own hardware reverb units, and I don’t see them as being necessary. They can
make a small difference, but good reverb plugins can get your sound to be outstanding.

In case you have a chance to use one of those hardware reverb units, the Lexicon 960 (or
the PCM96) works great for orchestra. I use the “Huge Hall + Stage” patch with 2.1s for
shorts and 3.5s for longs. The System 6000 works great with synths and choir as well.

EQ

We have done most of the EQing during the composing process. There is not much more
that we need to deal with here if we have done a good job before. Sometimes though, you
may want to slightly EQ some stems.


Lesson 3 Mixing

For example, I like to boost the strings a little bit around 3500Hz to give them some air. Air
is a common term for high frequency.


Lesson 3 Mixing

This is another EQ for low strings, boosting a little bit with 125Hz and 1330Hz:


Lesson 3 Mixing

COMPRESSION

I never compress orchestral instruments. If I am mixing an orchestral track, I compress only
percussion. For percussion, I like having three separate stems (high, mid, low) and
applying different reverbs to them. If I just have one stem, I run it through a multiband
compression. I find the Waves C6 to work well with percussion. Usually, I set a ratio of 2.8:1
and make sure not to cut more than 3dB. I then give it a 2dB gain.

If I have nonorchestral percussion, I separate the subbass drums (boomers...etc).
Compressing these a little more can gain clarity out of them.

I would also compress synths (especially the percussive ones) but avoid compressing
synth pads.

OTHER PLUGINS

In short: widen the strings, which will help the whole mix to sound wider and will create
some space for other instruments to sit in the mix. I use S1 Imager.

I use McDSP Analogue Emulator (a tape emulator plugin) on strings and brass. These are
the settings I use for strings.

Waves NLS helps brass, especially horns, to sit well in the mix.


Lesson 3 Mixing

AUTOMATION

Music is movement. You need to create movement in your mix, especially when you are
using samples.

There are different types of volume automation that you can apply to your mix, with every
one of them serving a different purpose. The first type of volume automation will make your
stems breathe and give them vitality.
I recommend having a control surface for this one. I use the Mackie Control Universal Pro,
but it takes too much space on my desk, and I am moving toward the Presonus Fader Port,
which only has one fader and is smaller. One fader is all you need, actually.

For all longnote stems:
1) Activate the “Write” mode
2) Hit “Play”
3) Grab the fader and move it up and down slightly but quickly (as quick as you can,
several times a second). A good rule of thumb is to add 1dB up and down with quick
movements to give it a vibrato type of feel. Remember, it is something subtle, but will add
some movement, life and activity to your stems. I do this just for long notes type of stems.

As a result, you enhance that stem and give it some extra movement and realism.

There is another type of automation where you can use the mouse to draw the volume
automation curves directly in your sequencer. This one readjusts the mix and levels as the
music progresses and ensures that every element stands out when it needs to be heard.
Even though you have balanced every instrument during the composing process, you could
enhance balance by raising the volume a little bit for those moments when an element
needs to stand out. It is even more effective to subtly lower the volume of other elements
that you don’t want standing out as much, allowing you to create space for the more
dominant elements that you want to cut through. It is the same cutting concept that we
apply for eq, but with volume.


Lesson 3 Mixing

Finally, you can also automate the panning. The idea here is to not have tracks moving left
to right as an effect (those types of effect should have been created during the composing
step). Rather, slightly reposition the stems or instruments for better spacing.

Remember that not only can you automate the overall pan, but also the volume of left and
right of a stereo track (for example, lowering the left channel volume of a wide shaker when
the high strings staccato motive needs to stand out)

Automation should not finish here, though. You can automate everything in a DAW. You can
automate reverbs, DQ, and any type of plugin. A very effective automation with reverb is
automating a very long reverb at the end of a climactic trailer track. You could automate it
so that the reverb fades in at the very last bit of the piece to create a nice, long, dense
reverb tail. Such a reverb would have killed the track if applied without automation, but it
works very effectively when it’s applied just at the end.

Be creative with automation. Use your ears and adjust the mix as the track progresses.
Create a moving mix and make your music interesting!


Lesson 4 Mastering

MASTERING

I export one track at the end of the mixing process and then import it into a new project for
mastering.

Mastering, for me, means preparing the track for whatever purpose it is intended. This
means the track will go through different processing steps depending on whether it is
intended for cinema, video games, TV movie, trailer, or library music.

Generally, trailer and library music will require your track not to have a big dynamic range.
That doesn’t mean it has to sound loud all the time. But make sure that there is not such a
dynamic range that you have turn up the volume in order to hear the softer parts. Have you
ever experienced listening to classical music in your car and having to turn up the volume
to hear those pianissimo parts? You want to avoid this for trailer and library music tracks.

But remember, mastering is about doing subtle things. D
o not apply a lot of compression or
you will lose dynamics and will create distortion.

If the track is intended for TV movies, theater or video game cinematics, then you need to
keep the larger dynamic range. You can compress the louder parts some, but if you
designed the track so it was soft for dialogue moments, and then louder for a chase scene,
it makes no sense to level volumes up and then find that the music is now too loud for the
dialogue. If the music is too loud in any one place, the producers will turn down the whole
track to make sure the music does not conflict with the dialogue.


Lesson 4 Mastering

General ideas

Mastering will not fix any mixing or composing problems. If you did a good job mixing, then
mastering your track will be easier.

When you apply the mastering plugins, make sure the track has at least 5dB of headroom
to avoid unwanted compression. Plugins will work a lot better if they have a few dBs of
headroom.

Do not apply the plugins in the same audio track where your audio file is loaded. Instead,
load them in the master track or in an auxiliary bus track between the audio track and
master.

Volume automation

Depending on the purpose of your track, you may need to reduce the dynamic range a bit,
making softer parts sound louder. You can easily accomplish this by writing some volume
automation in your track, as shown in the picture below.


Lesson 4 Mastering

Do not make big volume changes. You want to avoid those changes being noticeable. The
image above is zoomed in, but the actual volume variation is no more than 35dB.

It is important that your plugins are loaded in a track “after” the track that loads your audio
file to be mastered, so these volume changes affect the input of your plugins. If they are
inserted in the same track, then volume changes will not make any difference in their input.

This step alone can make a big difference. There are subtle techniques that will, for
example, help enhance the entrance of a new section, or soften the impact of the loud
moments in the limiter threshold, etc. In the Berklee Online chats we usually see them live,
as we master different musical styles. We won’t see those here, for the sake of making this
manual readable.

EQ

You don’t want to make big changes here. You can cut a little bit around 300Hz and 3000Hz
(mood and irritation). You can also boost a little around the highest and the lowest
frequencies.

Also, I recommend finding a professionalsounding track that is similar in style to your track.
Load this track alongside your track and try to make yours sound similar to the professional
track. Do A/B listening. Use your ears and try to match the sound with EQ.

Console Emulation and Saturation

I use Waves NLS and Vintage Warmer.


Lesson 4 Mastering

Reverb

If it is an orchestral track, I will add a reverb plugin. Make sure you use a good reverb, or it
won’t help. I use B2. If it is a hybrid track, I will separate the more percussive electronic
sounds.

Multiband stereo imager

The idea is to get a wide open mid to high end, while keeping the low end narrowed and
focused.


Lesson 4 Mastering

Multiband compressor

Most of the time I don’t use this for an orchestral track. I will use a multiband compressor if
I am mastering a hybrid track. I will narrow the lower bands, so I have more control on the
low and mood area, which is where most of the problems happen in orchestral music.

Set the compressor in every band so it just kicks in. You don’t want to be aggressive here
or you can kill your track. I set a loop of the loudest part of the track and then make subtle
adjustments as it plays..

Loudness Maximizer

It’s the same concept here as with the compressor. Set a loop with the loudest part and
adjust the threshold so the limiter just kicks in. Do not overcompress it.


Lesson 4 Mastering


Lesson 5 Conclusions

KEY ELEMENTS FOR PRODUCING ORCHESTRAL MOCKUPS

Of all these techniques, the most important ones are described in the first pages of this
manual. Most importantly, if you make any mistakes during the composing process, you will
not be able to fix them during the mixing or mastering process. In other words, arranging
mistakes will not be fixed with good mixing.

The idea is that every step compounds the process and it is important to do each step
correctly. In addition, you have to be aware of which process adds more to the project than
others.

Composing and arranging is the most important step. This includes setting good levels,
distributing musical ideas, panning, and so forth. In addition, it is equally important to cut
the low end (noise) and a little bit of ‘mood’ (around 300Hz) and ‘irritation’ (around 3.000Hz)
in almost every track.

In order for you to be thinking in composition terms (and not fixing technical issues), it is
important for you to keep your system organized: groups, buses, Kontakt instances,
template tracks, etc.

Do not use the same reverb for every track. Use different reverbs for different groups of
instruments. That will help create separation and gain clarity. Cut the low end of most of
your reverbs. Decide if you will be applying reverbs during the composing or during the
mixing process.

Take a rest between the composing and mixing step. This will help rest and reset your ears.

Think about mixing as a way of enhancing your music by creating more space and slightly
readjusting levels. If you are adding reverb during this step, choose what reverb amount
and length works best for each group of instruments. Have them separated in high and low
as well as long and short.


Lesson 5 Conclusions

Use automation to add some life and movement to your tracks. Also, think of other ideas
you can automate other than the volume, such as reverb times and amounts, left and right
volumes, eq, etc

Be careful with mastering. It is a step that can help a little but it can also destroy your track.
Always make subtle adjustments. Define the purpose of your track and master accordingly.
Do not overcompress.

And while learning your craft, always compare. Use a reference track specifically during the
mixing and mastering process.

FInally, consider using someone to do the mixing for you. There are individuals who are
specialists in mixing and will do a better job than you. Team up with them. Great ideas can
be achieved when you collaborate.

You may also try mixing projects for other musicians, as you may have a different
perception than when you are mixing your own music.

I want to learn more, what can I do?

If you are interested in learning more, come meet me at the Symphonic Virtual
Orchestration course that I teach at C
inematic Composing . This course will teach you
everything you need to know to produce professional sounding orchestral mockups. But the
coolest part comes during the live chats where we can interact, see each other, see my
sequencer and listen to my audio. If you are interested, come join me and the fantastic
Cinematic Composing team and let’s write some great music!


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