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As I just watched "Alien Covenant" this week, and noticed music from the original Alien interpolated into the soundtrack, I thought I'd have a go at re-recording a cue from Jerry Goldsmith's incredible score to "Alien". This has been created with virtual instruments.

Sounds used:
Strings: Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings & Albion
Brass: Cinesamples Cinebrass Core and Cinebrass PRO
Woodwinds: Spitfire Audio Symphonic Woodwinds & Orchestral Tools Symphonic Sphere
Percussion: Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion
Harps: Orchestral Tools Symphonic Sphere

FX: Mixed in using Waves Abbey Road Vinyl and Studio Classics, U-he Satin and T-Racks.

Composition © Jerry Goldsmith
Recording © Alex Ball

alexballmusic.com

A complete remake of "Busybody" by Billy Mayerl using entirely virtual instruments.

Sounds used:
Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings
LA Scoring Strings
Cinebrass Core & Pro
Spitfire Audio Albion Brass Mid
Spitfire Audio Symphonic Woodwinds
Abbey Road Vintage Drummer
Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion
Orchestral Tools Symphonic Sphere Harp

Processing:
Creating a vintage sounding orchestra has been a work in progress for me for a 18 months or so. I think I'm getting a little better with each attempt, but will keep on trying to get closer and closer to the sound.

To my ears (and I could be wrong), the period recordings often have a narrow stereo field or are made of mono sections that are panned around a stereo mix (rather than a stereo recording of each section).

They also have a closer sound on certain sections, rather than ambient.

Therefore, I used a mix of close and tree mics and tweaked the settings within the patches to narrow the stereo image. I processed each section with a little saturation, wow and flutter and EQ from various plugins so that I was slowly building up the "old" sound, rather than smashing the whole mix into a "vintage" emulator.

I also setup a convolution reverb using the impulse from a vintage plate and then processed the reverb channel with saturation, wow and flutter, stereo narrowing and EQ too.

This seems to create a better effect overall, although I'm still experimenting with it.

Plugins used:
Waves Vinyl and EQs
Goodhertz Vulf Compressor
Izotope Vinyl
U-he Satin
Past to future reverb impulses ( https://gumroad.com/pasttofuturesamples#)
T-racks EQ and compression on the master

Thanks for watching.

Was going to call this "10 Synths, 4 Drum Machines, 1 Cup" but thought better of it.

Anyway, an experiment I've been meaning to do for months that I'm pleased to say works! Hopefully it gives some hints and tips to you guys when it comes to hooking up your gear and recording with it.

Download the raw and mixed audio from the demo:
http://bit.ly/MultiTrackAudio

Hardware used in the video:
Arturia BeatStep Pro
Korg SQ-1
Motu Midi Express 128
Soundcraft MTK 22 (which also goes into a Big Knob Studio that I didn't mention)

Synths & Drum machines:
ARP Avatar (1977)
Sequential Pro~One (1981)
Korg MS-20 (1978)
Roland SH-101 (1982)
Roland TB-303 (1981)
Roland TR-606 (1981)
Roland TR-707 (1985)
Oberheim DX (1982)
Sequential Drumtraks (1984)
Roland JX-3P (1983)
Roland Juno-6 (1982)
DSi Prophet REV2 (2017)
Yamaha DX7 (1983)

Sequencer:
Steinberg Cubase 9.5

Social:
https://www.instagram.com/alexballmusic/
https://www.facebook.com/AlexBallMusic/