(These Tutorials will undergo a big update soon)
TODD-AO Room Template for Logic 8,
Altiverb 6 & VSL VI Special Edition.
- Published by Hetoreyn, 2008
Click to Download:
Hetoreyns TODD-AO (Altiverb) Template.zip
Now then, I'd best explain a little about this. Hopefully all the presets for the EQ, and Dir-Mix plugs will work fine for you as they should be contained within the template. Please feel free to e-mail me if they don't. However I believe they will be fine. If you do not have Logic 8 but wish to try these settings in Altiverb then here are the Altiverb Presets for Audio Units.
Click to Download:
TODD-AO Altiverb Presets
Now before you go off and try
this you may wanna stick around and read about the setup
which is fairly complicated, but easy enough once you're
aware of how it works. So basically this uses the idea of
reverb on bus send and returns. So there are 4 instances of
Altiverb, each with it's own depth preset and in some cases
a different IR (Impulse response) within the TODD AO set.
And there is another instance which is used as a kind of
overhead "Room Sound" reverb. You need to use them all to
really get the proper simulation. Those of you with a Mac
Pro will probably be okay but I'm sorry to say that others
with lesser machines (Like myself :P) may struggle. However
.. bouncing offline of songs works fine. For those who
don't have 8 Core power, or Altiverb you can of course try
my other template which is a little less power hungry. (See
Topic 2 & 3).
So next I wish to give you some pictorial evidence of how
this all should look so lets see the Logic setup first.
Here is the Mixer console .. or part of it, so you can see
the routing of the busses and panning. (The Dir-Mix plug is
also being used to pan the signals too .. you should be
able to see those settings if you open the Template ..
there are too many to go into here.)
Fig 1. (The Mixer in Logic)
Please click on the pic to see it larger:
So, you can see here
the end portion of the mixer which shows you some of
the routing. As you see all the channels send there
signal to Bus 25 which is the "Overhead" instance, and
also send the signal to one of the 4 depth instances
too. There maybe a way to do this without having to
use 5 instances, but I have tried for a while now and
still this has the best sound out of all my tests. If
you wish to have less room sound .. and thus less
reverb it is best to take down the "Overhead" fader as
this reduces overall reverb. Also you will note a
bypassed 'AVerb' on the Master Output channel. this is
intended as a place holder for an artificial reverb if
you want to add more. the reason being that sound
stages also add reverb to their recordings since they
have a fairly dry sound. Although this template has
plenty of room sound you may sometimes want to add
more. So that's why that is there.
So .. lets see the Altiverb’s and what they look like
Fig 2. (Reverbs)
Click to see it larger:
Strings &
Woods
Brass & Misc
Overhead
Okay so you've taken a look at the Altiverb
pics and you're probably wondering why there's no direct
signal. Well in this case it's off 'cos we're using it as
send / return .. so no direct signal, and no need to worry
about IR colour. You'll also note that I've made use of the
dampening settings, it's taken me a long time to get this
hall sound balanced, and removing the mudd at the low end
is really crucial or you just end up with a super boomy
sound.
I've also used some bass roll off on the Altiverb EQ. Heres
a pic.
Fig 3. (Altiverb EQ - As used in each instance)
So how does depth work?
Well in this case the bus sends .. on the instruments
tracks .. are set to pre-fade .. which means that the fader
for each instrument is now acting as a depth control
instead of volume. so you can set your instruments back or
forwards. And assign them to different Altiverb depths if
need be. Now the bigger question you're asking yourself is
"How do I control the volume then?". Well in this case I
tend to use a mixture of velocity crossfade and expression
control. The expression control on the VI (Vienna
Instruments) player allows you auto-mateable control over
the volume and velocity which is easily edited from the
Breath or Expression controller panel on the piano
roll.
In this case the bass end has been taken down
by -6dB. You can change this .. or anything if you like ..
but I find it helps to again take out the 'boom' in this IR
set.
I hope it works for you. I have made a piece using this
template, although I admit it got annoying having so many
audio drop outs near to the end when the piece got pretty
full up, but I managed and the bouncing offline worked
fine. It maybe a power hog, this template, but it has a
very realistic sound quality to it, and I think it's so far
one of my favourite templates. It may even work best as a
Multitrack audio template but I'll leave it to you to make
that template.
Here's a demo piece using this template:
Sneaky Attack.m4a (TODD AO)
Hetoreyn’s Logic 8 Template (Starship Farragut)
This is the Template the I used to make the soundtrack to Starship Farragut. The basic setup is fairly simple. All linear routing until we get to the reverb busses. The Aux's are being used to send / return the signals to the reverb depths. If you wish to increase or lower the ambient reverb then use the Space Designer / Altiverb Reverb fader. You can choose between Space Designer or Altiverb depending on what you wish to use. Again being a Logic 8 template all the presets and files should be contained within the file.
Click to download:
Hetoreyns Template v4.zip
Here is a demo piece using the TODD-AOVersion of this template:
Sneaky Attack.mp3 (v4 AV)
And now a version using the Space Designer:
Sneaky Attack.mp3 (v4 SD)
Hetoreyn’s Logic Pro 7 Template (Older Version)
This Logic Template contains the presets and Logic file necessary to use my Space Designer Reverb settings. (Most of these settings were used to create my Elven Moods II album and my Pro Demo). All you need is to Download this zipped file:
Hetoreyn-Logic-TemplateV2
(44KB)
You need to put the "Direction Mixer" and
"Space Designer" Folders .. or the contents of them into
your:
user\library\application support\logic\plug-in
settings\
You may already have a Space Designer and Dir
Mix folder so you'll have to put the contents of these
downloaded folders into your existing folders. And then
when you load up Logic they should be ready to go. I have
turned off all the EXS instances though I have kept the
tracks there so it's very easy to follow the routing if you
wish to use the instrument template as well. The routing is
very simple and rather linear. Good Luck.
John Frizzell’s VI Logic Template
Here is a Logic Environment template that Hollywood composer John Frizzell has graciously donated to the VSL Podcast. This was made by John and his assistant Frederik Wiedmann and is designed for use with the Vienna Instruments (VI) Strings I and II, (Full editions). The file is a zip and also contains a read-me file which will give some help on what the environment does. This all ties in to what was talked about on show 38. Also there is an Interview with John Frizzell on show 38, (also available from the Interview Download Archive).
Click to download:
Frizzell VI Logic
Environment.zip
John
Frizzell in his Studio
*Thanks to John
and Frederik for allowing me to host this file on this
site.