Valentine's Day

[snoozefestaudio]

50F and overcast on this Valentine's Day, going down to 30 tonight.

All the snow and ice have melted, and while it's not spring yet... it feels like winter is over.

I shook that cold over the past week, feeling 95% normal on Monday, 96% Tuesday, 97% Wednesday, etc. So I *could've* worked on EQing orchestral instruments after work, but I didn't. Just kinda took it easy.

I did re-review the newly EQed rock trio mixes (from Sunday) last night, in headphones and again, the guitar is the only wild card, from song to song... with it sounding best in the later songs... better overall sound, and better volume in the mix.

I tried to give the work shoes a chance... the composite toe shoes bought through work where they paid half... and it was a non-starter. The pair I bought were supposed to be "wide" but they were smashing my toes together so badly that they were making me feet fall asleep! So they were wasted money.

I ordered a new pair of Sketchers online, which arrived on Wednesday, and they are perfect! Felt like a dream, right out of the box. Now all I have to do is return the previous pair of Sketchers, which I'll do on Monday, to get my money back for those.

--<>--

Okay so it's Valentine's Day, and the challenge is to nail down the PQ2 settings for all the orchestral instruments, over the next three days, and get them gain balanced into the mixes!

I think it's doable. And then, back on the horse next week, I'll deal with the guitar issue, after work each night.

I did take notes last Sunday, on the guitars, and the problem songs are; Closer To You, Clue Phone, and Other Friends...

1. ARCHEOLOGY: pretty good guitar sound. crunchy. realistic. good room sound.
   
   
2. REAVIS: good room sound. nice EQ. realistic.
   
   
3. NEVER RAINS: not as good as previous two but holds up well. great distortion though!
   
   
4. MAGIC MONDAY: perfect for the song.
   
   
5. TUESDAY SIREN: Good! No complaints.
   
   
6. OUR COLD FEET: Good! no complaints! Nice distortion!
   
   
7. CLOSER TO YOU: not the best! also lacks delay. chorus guitar better than verse.
   
   
8. SUBURBS: Pretty great! Use this for other friends!
   
   
9. CLUE PHONE: terrible! maybe too much delay?.. or too long delay? maybe longer SUSTAIN?
   
   
10. OTHER FRIENDS: not the best! Burbs guitar would be better? distortion is great though.
    
    
11. SPELL: Excellent! Use for Clue Phone?
    
    
12. MISS FORTUNE: Classic! a bit loud. possible for Clue Phone?
    
    
    Maybe as I go from song to song this weekend, adjusting and saving PQ2 presets for the orchestrals, I'll also save the guitar settings; Sakura, PQ2, Fast Dist, Convolver, to a new folder... with screen shots of the Sakura UI, so I can see which knobs are tweaked differently.
    
    That'll help me next week, to sort out what's working and not working, with guitars, to get them all to the same standard.
    
    Okay, time to hit it!
    
    Talk to you later.
    
    ------------{=0=}------------
    
    8:15PM
    
    Okay, so I've been through; Reavis, Rains, Monday, and Tuesday.
    
    And now I've worked out PQ2 for; Cello LO, Cello HI (violin), Flute HI, Flute LO, Trumpet, Horn, Clarinet, Xylophonhe, Vibrophone, Celesta, and Bells!
    
    Reavis had the Cellos, and Xylo... which propagated to Rains, when I opened that file, which had Flutes, and Celesta.... wich propagated to Monday when I opened that file, which had Bells... and it all propagated to Tuesday, which had Vibrophone.
    
    So there's only a few orchestral instruments left; bassoon, marimba?.. I don't even know what else.
    
    There is, however piano in a few songs, but I'm holding off on Piano until *after* guitars are worked out.
    
    And then, speaking of Guitar, as I've been going, I've been saving the presets for Sakura, PQ2, Fast Dist, and Convolver... as well as screen-shotting the Sakura UI for each one (several songs have two guitars).
    
    I should be able to flip through the PNGs of those screenshots to see which knobs get tweaked the most... like a slide show, watching which ones move where.
    
    The screen-shotting is necessary because of the way the guitar signal chain works in these productions.
    
    ------------{=0=}------------
    
    GUITAR SIGNAL CHAIN: ARCHEOLOGY
    
    Sakura algorithmically generates two string sounds, one that's more of a pluck, and another that's more of a sustain. And it's a blend of the two which makes the final string sound.
    
    But then there are all kinds of other knobs having to do with... HI CUT cutoff, resonance, overdrive, attack decay, and sustain... LO CUT cutoff & resonance... ENVELOPE attack, decay, sustain, and resonance... and others i've never dared to touch, like the EXCITER & RESONATOR banks.
    
    So that's where the instrument and it's main sound originate.
    
    But then Sakura also has an in-built amp simulator for Delay, Chorus, and Reverb, which works better than trying to use outboard FL plugins... to simulate the amp.
    
    After that, the signal goes to Parametric EQ2, for some shaping of the overall frequency profile, and then it goes to Fruity Fast Dist, for the distortion.
    
    The quality of the distortion depends a lot on the signal coming into Fast Dist from Sakura and it's strength. The chorus settings especially, and the HI CUT sustain really effect the distortion.
    
    Finally, it goes to Convolver for the cabinet simulation, with the cabinet's impulse.
    
    --<>--
    
    Of course, great pains have been taken in the piano-roll with velocities, and to strum the strings (moving notes off grid to simulate up and down strokes), simulate finger muting (notes stop short, or are allowed to ring out long), slide into and out of different chord strikes, and even the simulation of muted back strokes between chord strikes, in a few songs.
    
    All of that helps humanize the performance, but then we have our signal chain to get the guitar itself to sound like a real one.
    
    In the songs where I've gotten that right, it's very convincing.
    
    But that's a very narrow tightrope! If the settings are even a little off... the illusion is broken and the guitar sounds like a synthesized toy!
    
    Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk!
    
    --<>--
    
    Okay, so as 9PM, and the late night session draws near...
    
    I'll say, I'm not worrying too much about gain balancing right now, because I'm listening at odd volumes with the white noise of a space heater, so i'm just dialing these orchestrals into the ball park.
    
    There will be a second pass at gain balancing after the guitars and pianos are worked out, EQ-wise.
    
    But for tonight, it's about finishing the last orchestral PQ2s, propagating them through to the end, and completing that database of guitar sounds, from my 12 guitar experiments.
    
    But I actually think I can knock that all out before bed!
    
    If so, the next two days will be about guitar and piano!
    
    Wish me luck!.. Happy Valentine!.. and I'll talk to you tomorrow!
    
    °¦}
    
    
    
    
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