[Sam Seagate]

I'm not sure how to write this, but a friend of mine is up against a
wall. He is trying to recreate a variation of a popular song, but not
in the studio but on a keyboard. The keyboard offers just about every
instrument available, in wave and other formats, so all he has to do is
assign them to certain keys, record, and go.... in theory anyway. What
he's running into is the fact that an all keyboard rendered song sounds
a lot different than the same song recorded live in the studio. The
keyboard song ends up flat, and the instruments don't mix like they
would in a live setting. Since he doesn't have a studio and
instrumentation available, he asked me to ask the group if there's any
kind of a plug in that can emulate the type of sound he'd get in a real
studio? He uses a Magix based DAW.

Thanks,
Sam

[John Williamson]

On 03/05/2016 14:47, Sam Seagate wrote:
I'm not sure how to write this, but a friend of mine is up against a
wall. He is trying to recreate a variation of a popular song, but not
in the studio but on a keyboard. The keyboard offers just about every
instrument available, in wave and other formats, so all he has to do is
assign them to certain keys, record, and go.... in theory anyway. What
he's running into is the fact that an all keyboard rendered song sounds
a lot different than the same song recorded live in the studio. The
keyboard song ends up flat, and the instruments don't mix like they
would in a live setting. Since he doesn't have a studio and
instrumentation available, he asked me to ask the group if there's any
kind of a plug in that can emulate the type of sound he'd get in a real
studio? He uses a Magix based DAW.

There is no magic plug in to do what he wants, unfortunately. One
problem is that emulating a brass or string instrument needs a very
specific playing style on the keyboard, and even then, it's not very
convincing. Another problem is that the tonal and harmonic balance of
the same note on a real instrument varies according to how it's played.

If they don't use live musicians, for an initial draft version, some
people use sample libraries, some of which are very good, but take many
gigabytes of disc space (Try over 10 gigabytes just for the percussion)
and cost a fortune to buy and licence for use in your own work. Then,
for the final production once the budget has been approved, especially
on film work, they hire musicians and a room for the final version.

What type is the keyboard? There may be other sample sets available for
it in the correct format which may sound better, as many portable
keyboards are supplied with a limited set of samples called the General
MIDI set, which specifies one note sample per instrument which is played
back when a key is pressed using different sample rates to get different
notes, and many of the general MIDI sound sets are actually synthesised
from a waveform and envelope information.

Another possibility is to use the keyboard as a MIDI controller in the
DAW, and then use different virtual instruments within the DAW, all
controlled by the MIDI file and with the dynamics and such edited by the
DAW automation.




--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Scott Dorsey]

Sam Seagate wrote:
I'm not sure how to write this, but a friend of mine is up against a
wall. He is trying to recreate a variation of a popular song, but not
in the studio but on a keyboard. The keyboard offers just about every
instrument available, in wave and other formats, so all he has to do is
assign them to certain keys, record, and go.... in theory anyway. What
he's running into is the fact that an all keyboard rendered song sounds
a lot different than the same song recorded live in the studio. The
keyboard song ends up flat, and the instruments don't mix like they
would in a live setting. Since he doesn't have a studio and
instrumentation available, he asked me to ask the group if there's any
kind of a plug in that can emulate the type of sound he'd get in a real
studio? He uses a Magix based DAW.

Yes, that's how it goes. Sorry about that.
You can individually add a little reverb to each part and try to give them an
individual sense of space, but it won't ever sound like the real thing.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Les Cargill[_4_]]

Sam Seagate wrote:
I'm not sure how to write this, but a friend of mine is up against a
wall. He is trying to recreate a variation of a popular song, but not
in the studio but on a keyboard. The keyboard offers just about every
instrument available, in wave and other formats, so all he has to do is
assign them to certain keys, record, and go.... in theory anyway. What
he's running into is the fact that an all keyboard rendered song sounds
a lot different than the same song recorded live in the studio. The
keyboard song ends up flat, and the instruments don't mix like they
would in a live setting.

Yep.

Since he doesn't have a studio and
instrumentation available, he asked me to ask the group if there's any
kind of a plug in that can emulate the type of sound he'd get in a real
studio?

Unlikely.

He uses a Magix based DAW.


There's so much stuff out there I'd be lying if I said I
had a clue. I'd try to find where TV soundtrack people hang out
( not that they don't here - again, ignorance prevails ).

What sort of instruments? If there's a music college close by, he
might be able to get students to play parts for a double
sawbuck for an hour.

Thanks,
Sam

--
Les Cargill

[Nate Najar]

Tell him to visit the v.i. Control web forum and start reading up on how to make mock ups sounds more real. There are guys who can do a very convincing job, but there is no plugin that will do it, it's all in technique.

[Gary Eickmeier]

Depending on what he is starting with and what equipment he has, I am
thinking there may be some way to just play the tracks on loudspeakers
arranged however you would want the instruments placed, then record that in
a good acoustic space. Maybe the rest of the group can tell you whether you
can output individual tracks to separate speakers.

Gary Eickmeier

[PStamler]

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 11:18:35 PM UTC-5, Gary Eickmeier wrote:
Depending on what he is starting with and what equipment he has, I am
thinking there may be some way to just play the tracks on loudspeakers
arranged however you would want the instruments placed, then record that in
a good acoustic space. Maybe the rest of the group can tell you whether you
can output individual tracks to separate speakers.

You can if your audio interface has enough outputs.

The first question I have is this: is he playing the keyboard himself, or triggering it from a MIDI sequencer?

Second: how much time is he willing to spend learning about different reverbs, delay, and the like? I was able to make a sequenced recording sound spacially believable by monkeying with the delays and the reverb algorithm...once. But the instruments still sounded synthesized, and the rhythm was stiff as a board (it was done on a sequences).

With the right choice of sound libraries, and Gary's idea of piping each to a speaker in a good room, the poster may be able to achieve something reasonable, but it'd be way, way easier to hire some music students to do it instead. And, if necessary, book time in a studio.

To the original poster: what, exactly, are you trying to do, and how do you plan to use the result? And, while we're at it, what sort of keyboard are you using?

Peace,
Paul