BBC SO Discover; really wet Brass?

mountainstorm

I've been playing around with Discover and whilst it's amazing; all the instruments sound great; I can't shake the feeling the Brass has way too much reverb built into the samples. To my ears it doesn't seem to sit well with the rest of the instruments - so in pieces I've tried using it, the strings sounds fabulous, then the trumpets kick in and whilst they sound good, they also sound like their playing in another room, down the corridor.

Is this a problem others have encountered or is it just me? To solve this do I need to buy Core?

Angus

Hi @mountainstorm

Thanks for the feedback. The brass in this library is slightly wetter than the Strings as the players are set further back in the space. That said, I've created a feedback ticket for our engineering team to look into this in the future.

All the best,

Angus

mountainstorm

If it helps to have an example I'm more than happy to throw a small Logic file on Dropbox for you.

Does Core let you choose drying Mic positions? or is it inherent aspect of the library/hall used?

Francisco

https://community.spitfireaudio.com/discussion/comment/708#Comment_708

No, only Pro let you choose mics. Core come with the Mic Mix1 wich has the same kind of sound of Discover.

Justin

I think it's a combination of the longer reverb from the placement of the brass on the stage as @Angus mentioned, along with Discover samples only having a single dynamic layer. Brass instruments sound a lot brighter when played loud. Because Discover is only using a single dynamic layer, you aren't getting that natural brightness at higher dynamics settings (the mod wheel is only adjusting the volume the samples are played at instead of cross-fading between samples recorded with the players at different dynamics).

The timbre isn't changing at higher volumes as in real life (or in Core and Pro, with 3 dynamic layers in their samples), so the brass does sound a bit 'dark' in Discover. Together with the longer reverb, this may be what @mountainstorm is hearing.

Angus

@Justin is absolutely correct here. As we are just using one dynamic layer, the Brass instruments at a loader volume will excite the space more. More reflections = more reverb.

No need for extra material @mountainstorm, I've just created a general ticket. They'll have a play-around with it, and determine whether there needs to be a change.

mountainstorm

I deliberately removed modulation & expression to try to figure out if it was something I was doing. It seems notably worse for high pitched notes. My piece hits a long C#5 and it sounds so reverberant compared to all the surrounding instruments.

If there are things I can try which you think mitigate it, let me know. Thanks

Angus

@mountainstorm there's not really anything you can do to mitigate the space of the samples, as this is all 'baked-in'. One way around this would be to use a gate plugin, though that would mean you have a much less realistic tone. As a said, I've mentioned it to the team, and created a ticket so this can be looked at in the future.

gregoryd

To answer the other question, the Core library has a reverb control which lets you keep the reverb to a minimum. It isn't "dry", but you do get decent control over the tail of the note.