Classical Orchestral Sound: Panning, EQ, and Convolution Filters

Question

Hi,
I'm now studying the sections of the rather large, but quite informative
book, The Guide to MIDI Orchestration, 3rd Edition, by Paul Gilreath
to obtain details about how to use my non-ambient, dry samples of
the orchestra to create a true, classical orchestra sound (not a
hollywood sound), though my music is not 19th-century classical.
I'm also studying the Apple Logic Pro plug-in book concerning the
convolution filter, Space Designer.
Being a beginner, my learning curve is rather slow. But, I am feeling
more and more confident. And, this confidence is boosted by the
fact that I have a 3.0 gHz Mac Pro that can handle, most likely,
the processing required.
I post this thread to see if there are others who might have similar
goals and might have hints or ideas on this topic.
For instance, does anyone out there go through the details of
panning to place the instruments of the orchestra in their
correct locations?
Does anyone lower the EQ of the percussion section because they
are placed further back in the orchestra?
Does anyone deal with the details of singling out a particular section
of the orchestra and consider "delaying" the sound, such as the
percussion section, or perhaps the French Horns? If so, how do you
achieve this? Do you use a plug-in for each section, or single out
some sections for a plug-in, and plug every other section into another
plug-in?
So, if you all have any experience in these matters, or some "best settings"
for some of these panning, EQ, and convolution filters (or even simple
reverb plug-ins), I'd love to read about your experiences while I
continue to study my books.
Thanks,
Sys6
P.S.
My orchestra is almost all non-ambient samples. Garritan Orchestral
Strings. Westgate Studios Advanced Woodwind Collection. And,
a new dry, brass collection which has not yet been delivered. My
percussion is Apple Garage Band percussion (which I'm assuming is
relatively dry).

Answer 1

Hi,
Here are some details of my set-up. I continued to read the MIDI
Orchestration book, and the Logic Pro manuals where applicable.
I set everything up, and then I visited the above links to read them
in more detail, to see how they solved the problem. First, I don't pretend
to have "solved the problem", but this is my first start.
Following the MIDI orchestration book, I discovered that my Garritan
Orchestral Strings were in Stereo, so I used them in stereo, specifically
using the insert, Direction Mixer.
Violins I and II, Violas, have a Direction Mixer spread of 1.3. Following
the book, the Celli and Bassi were given a Direction Mixer spread that
was wider, and I chose 1.5.
I made all the brass monophonic, and used the pan pot on the bus.
My Westgate Studios Advanced Woodwind Collection is mono, so
again I used the pan pot on the bus.
The percussion samples (piano, harp, timpani, and everyone else)
are stereo, so I used dirmix also.
For the most part, each section of the orchestra, such as either
Violins I or oboes (and English Horn), each feed into their own
bus. So, every section can be panned using the pan pod if
they are mono, or using dirmix otherwise.
Every section of the strings feeds into another bus dedicated to strings.
Every brass section feeds into a similar bus dedicated to brass.
The same for woodwinds, but there are two buses: one for the
front woodwinds (flute family and oboe family) and one for the
woodwinds sitting behind them (clarinet family and bassoon family).
For some of the percussion: timpani and other miscellaneous
percussion, for now, these go to their own bus. Also, piano
and harp go to a pianoAndHarp bus. Tubular Bells,
Marimba, and Xylophone share a bus. All these sub buses use
dirmix for stereophonic spread and panning, all all these sub buses
feed into a master percussion bus.
Everyone audio instrument has its individual volume level set to
-15 db. I may go over every instrument again and make it even
lower, such as -20 db.
There are six master buses (nearly at the top of the food chain):
1. String Bus.
2. Woodwind Bus Front
3. Woodwind Bus Back
4. Piano Harp Bus
5. Brass Bus
6. Percussion Bus
Each of these higher-level buses received one insert: Space Designer
(a convolution reverb unit).
And, for each, Space Designer (at least at this time), is practically
identical: that is, I chose
33 Misc. Reverbs > Misc. Reverbs - Short Dark > 1.5s_Dark & Small
which I like (for now, for chords anyway; later I may need a smaller
room for music with notes moving at a faster clip and for music
that is more chromatic).
There is one parameter that differs for each of these six Space
Designer inserts:
1. String Bus: Pre-Delay 0 ms
2. Woodwind Bus Front: Pre-Delay 1 ms
3. Woodwind Bus Back: Pre-Delay 2 ms
4. Piano Harp Bus: Pre-Delay 3 ms
5. Brass Bus: Pre-Delay 4 ms
6. Percussion Bus: Pre-Delay 5 ms
Other parameters may differ over time. For instance, space designer
seems pretty clever, it can add a pre-delay, it looks like it can
act as a low pass filter, and so forth. So, maybe, over time, I might
use it as a low pass filter for the percussion section, not sure yet
(hard to tell, since my percussion section is not very good, it is
Apple Jam Pack Orchestra).
All these six busses feed into a final bus, which at this time
does nothing, but pass everything on to Output 1-2.
I focused my musical chords to be very soft or very loud in
the score editor.
That is, the goal is not to have the final mix exceed 0 db.
Unfortunately, I failed in this regard, for in a rather loud
section (at the end of the above sound file), the chimes played
loudly brought me over the 0 db level. So, for now, I turned
down the bus that these chimes feed into. There are other
more advanced solutions, but for now, I am focusing on
simple solutions (though I am always happy to hear about
advanced solutions which I may implement at a later date).
Over time, of course, I may adjust pannings, stereo pan width,
and the like. But, being a beginning "sound recording engineer,"
I am impressed with the results! Wow!
As an aside, each of my 3.0 gHz processors is being used;
two are used for effects processing (such as for the 6 Space
Designer plug-ins), and two are being used for audio processing.
No disk activity occurs (I use the latest Lacie external drive, the
biggest I could find, and perhaps it is buffering enough files
so that the drives are never accessed?).
Thanks again, if there are other details I have left out, I'll
update.
Sys6