KVR Audio

Gonga · Post by **Gonga** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:50 am

I generally agree with the sentiments expressed here regarding synth emulations of existing instruments. Lord knows there are gobs of guitar hero wannabe keyboard players who for some reason think the greatest thing in musical life is to sound EXACTLY like a guitar. Apparently it never ocurred to them that playing an actual guitar will always be better for this purpose...and so I have spent the past ten years or so explaining to people that a lead synth can do better than that...but that's for another day.

But I was thinking about Hans Zimmer's scores and considering the context wherein he might want to use Zebra for this...and it struck me...this is speculation but...

Let's say Hans has written and recorded a chamber orchestra and after mixing feels there are areas that require additional oomph or emphasis or texture or phatness or whathaveyou. If he were to reach for a sampler (and we heard him say he's grown weary of samplers or something to that effect), if he has a similar sound that he can tweak in real time, then he has an organic instrument that he - Hans the mediocre musician (his words) - can tweak to sound perhaps a bit more organic and expressive than a typical sample might. The end result may also very well work much better overall and even have a bit of "je ne sais quoi" that separates the Hanses from the [generic TV music composer of your choice]-ses.

Yet another example of the power of synthesis. It reminds me of the power of the PC. I hope neither ever die.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 2:17 am

Thing is, if Hans needed a violin sound that sounds exactly like a violin, he'd get Joshua Bell to play it.

There are a few sounds with violin-type arpeggii in the banks Howie did for him, and they're exactly like that on the soundtracks, enriched with Uhbik-A. They sound synthetic to me, but probably only because I know the source.

Whenever Hans uses a repetitive pattern for a minute or two I believe it's either sampled or synthesized or both. He doesn't like to bore the London Symphonic with trivial stuff.

And then there's the case when a recording just doesn't sit well with him. We got an emergency call recently where some tom just didn't cut through the way he wanted, and Howie did a great job. In the end however he got another player in and they simply rerecorded the toms in LA.

The other thing is the aforementioned bell in St. Peters that only sounds when the pope dies. One can't legally record it, so they rebuilt the sound from scratch after some noisy recordings, using two instances of Zebra. Did the trick very well in Angels & Demons (as do all the sinthesized monk choirs there, when they sing "We Are Evil", it's from Zebra)

Urs

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:06 am

Gonga wrote:I generally agree with the sentiments expressed here regarding synth emulations of existing instruments. Lord knows there are gobs of guitar hero wannabe keyboard players who for some reason think the greatest thing in musical life is to sound EXACTLY like a guitar. Apparently it never ocurred to them that playing an actual guitar will always be better for this purpose...and so I have spent the past ten years or so explaining to people that a lead synth can do better than that...but that's for another day.

Not sure what that's about, but I go in any direction I can with a synth, regardless of my sound biases, it's the road to diversity.
I've been playing guitar since I was a child Dan, my keyboard skills are very limited imo. I still like it, if a synth can do guitar sounds.
If a synth is a tree and it's sounds branches, I'm gonna try and make as many branches as possible, even with sounds from musical styles I don't listen too.
Dan, you have the Soliton set, so you can check this below.
An example would be the preset Blunt Object XY with the modwheel up.
It's the Nord Lead trance anthem sound heard in too many dance trance tunes.
Those are the exact tunes I avoid like the plague. Yet I did it, without letting my musical bias get in the way.
When a sound designer let's his/her musical/sound bias come into the sounds they do. They will eventually get dry on new directions to go, and people will notice a sameness in every set. Not a good thing imo.
There are so many reasons to say yes to any sound possible, than to say no.
Learning something new is one good reason, another is testing the synths abilities, and there are many more.
A good one though, is my guitar has no XY controls.

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:07 am

Urs wrote:One can't legally record it

If it makes a sound in "God's" world you f**king can. This is like people who think they own the photons that bounce off them. If a tree falls in the forest, it's public domain. If I take and publish a picture of you it's not your property. At this point, we are all photographed constantly by various security apparati.

If you don't like that, don't leave the house.

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:12 am

AdmiralQuality wrote:
Urs wrote:One can't legally record it
If it makes a sound in "God's" world you f**king can. This is like people who think they own the photons that bounce off them. If a tree falls in the forest, it's public domain. If I take and publish a picture of you it's not your property. At this point, we are all photographed constantly by various security apparati.
If you don't like that, don't leave the house.

Do you live in the Vatican?
They make their own laws there. However screwy they are.
Eh...you didn't think of that did ya?

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:19 am

mcnoone wrote:
AdmiralQuality wrote:
Urs wrote:One can't legally record it
If it makes a sound in "God's" world you f**king can. This is like people who think they own the photons that bounce off them. If a tree falls in the forest, it's public domain. If I take and publish a picture of you it's not your property. At this point, we are all photographed constantly by various security apparati.
If you don't like that, don't leave the house.
Do you live in the Vatican?
They make their own laws there. However screwy they are.
Eh...you didn't think of that did ya?

If I lived in The Vatican, I doubt I'd put quotes around the word "God".

There is no "God" people. Grow up and start being responsible for yourselves!

"War is over, if you want it." -- John and Yoko

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:32 am

Well, whether you can or cannot record that bell is beyond the question already, as it's only used once a pope dies - so you'd have at least to wait until that day.

- Sascha

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:42 am

What are the currently accepted free sampling rules? A few seconds? Certainly enough to capture a magic bell.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:50 am

AdmiralQuality wrote:What are the currently accepted free sampling rules? A few seconds? Certainly enough to capture a magic bell.

Then you would have the Illuminati after your ass...

Buka · Post by **Buka** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:17 am

So? i like ppg 3.v

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:50 am

Buka wrote:So? i like ppg 3.v

Only like huh?

Aroused by JarJar · Post by **Aroused by JarJar** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:49 pm

AdmiralQuality wrote:
Urs wrote:One can't legally record it
If it makes a sound in "God's" world you f**king can. This is like people who think they own the photons that bounce off them. If a tree falls in the forest, it's public domain. If I take and publish a picture of you it's not your property. At this point, we are all photographed constantly by various security apparati.

If you don't like that, don't leave the house.

I don't think that you interpreted that correctly. For example, I cannot "legally record" the fire alarm in a public building, but I could of course legally record it if there were a fire or a fire drill and the thing was ringing. You can't get permission to ring the Pope's bell (hehe) and record the sound, but if you happen to have a recorder running near the Vatican when they ring the bell at the Pope's death, of course you can record it. The film deathknoll was modelled on such a recording, via some documentary footage I imagine.

trimph1 · Post by **trimph1** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:54 pm

How did God get into this?

Evan · Post by **Evan** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:29 pm

Urs wrote: Did the trick very well in Angels & Demons (as do all the sinthesized monk choirs there, when they sing "We Are Evil", it's from Zebra)

Urs

All the choirs from that soundtrack are synthesized? Or were you referring to a specific track/part?

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:00 pm

Aroused by JarJar wrote:
AdmiralQuality wrote:
Urs wrote:One can't legally record it
If it makes a sound in "God's" world you f**king can. This is like people who think they own the photons that bounce off them. If a tree falls in the forest, it's public domain. If I take and publish a picture of you it's not your property. At this point, we are all photographed constantly by various security apparati.

If you don't like that, don't leave the house.
I don't think that you interpreted that correctly. For example, I cannot "legally record" the fire alarm in a public building, but I could of course legally record it if there were a fire or a fire drill and the thing was ringing. You can't get permission to ring the Pope's bell (hehe) and record the sound, but if you happen to have a recorder running near the Vatican when they ring the bell at the Pope's death, of course you can record it. The film deathknoll was modelled on such a recording, via some documentary footage I imagine.

Oh, they only ring it when a Pope dies? Ding Dong the Witch is Dead kinda deal?

Yes, I meant record it when it happens. Didn't realize you'd have to wait indefinitely.

Hans Zimmer Loves Zebra