Ambiente spatializing plugin by Audiomodeling

[RobS]

not much talking about this plugin, as far as I know... I think that for chamber music it's really good. Instruments can be loaded as mono or stereo (specifying the stereo width), assigned a name and a color. There are several rooms or halls which as far as I can tell is the same model but with different sizes and reflectivity of the walls, I may be wrong though.
anyway, here are a couple of examples, the beginning of Stravinsky's Octet for woodwinds and an improvisation for vibraphone and piano, both in the "concert hall " preset. Vibes and piano very close, woods more back

Octet-VSL-studio-woods.mp3

(3.82 MiB) Downloaded 16 times

Improvvisazioni per vibrafono e piano.mp3

(3.51 MiB) Downloaded 17 times

[Piet De Ridder]

Aaah, the Octuor! One of my Desert Island pieces. If you’d like to hear a really great version — my favourite among all the ones available on YouTube —, have a listen to Les Musiciens de l'Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France (video below). Breathtakingly brilliant from the first second to the last, I find.

Ambiente — you’re right, this plugin hasn’t received much attention; I watched a few videos when it was first released but then never returned to it — indeed seems to work quite well for chamber-type spatialization, although I don’t really hear it doing something so unique or exceptional that I want to have it. (And, off-topic, I also don’t find the VSL woodwinds a suitable collection of sampled instruments for this music. The video below answers why.)
That vibraphone is nicely spatialized though. At least, very much in a way I like: close-up yet convincingly enveloped by a space.

After a long and increasingly depressing struggle trying to integrate SPAT Revolution in my set-up, in a way that's both effective and reliable, I’ve turned to Apulsoft’s apVerb for 80% of the spatializing duties, and I’m pretty happy with the results. What I’m using now most of the time is, after first inserting Goodhertz PanPot, a combination of apVerb and Seventh Heaven (an edit of one of its chamber presets), the first one for the early cluster of reflections and the second (usually very subtly) for some more spacious bloom. I’ll try and post an example.



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[RobS]

hehe I should have said that, since I had the VSL woods open, I swapped the trumpet and trombones with english horn and bass clarinets... a very different kind of sound. Add to that the fact I simply loaded a midifile found on the web... The point for me was testing the plugin. I played the Octet when I was in conservatory, as a flutist, splendid composition.
Very good performance by the musicians of Radio France, probably a better recording technically than the one I had and used to listen to in my youth (but still love)

[RobS]

off to check Apulsoft verb

[Piet De Ridder]

I already figured that, using only woodwind libraries, you had to replace the brass with some ww or other. That substitution, bold as it is, has got nothing to do with why I find the VSL woodwinds less suited for this music though. To my ears, they simply lack the required definition, crispness of articulation, clear outline of timbre and lightness of tone for these Octuor parts. They also blend — but in their defense: all woodwind libraries do — into a kind of smeary, sticky, diffused and to my ears rather unattractive sound which, while bearable in some music I suppose, is completely alien to what Stravinsky wrote down for this piece.

My all-time favourite Octuor remains the one conducted by its composer (Columbia Records). People keep insisting that Stravinsky is a terrible conductor, and I keep disagreeing in the strongest possible way. I also happen to really like the recorded sound the Columbia engineers managed to capture during these historic early-and-mid-60’s sessions. It’s not hi-fi, but it’s gorgeous. In fact, the album “Stravinsky conducts Music for Chamber and Jazz Ensembles” sits, unthreatened, in my top 3 of most important records of my life. Can’t function without it.
Another version I’ve always liked — a Dutch one and a rrrrrrrreally good one (though also fairly old) — is Edo De Waart conducting the Netherlands Wind Ensemble (Philips Records).



But back to reverbs (or spatializing). If you’re going to watch apVerb videos — there aren’t that many — please don’t get alarmed by the tendency in some of these videos to highlight the special fx powers of apVerb. Yes, that’s something that apVerb can do too, and do very well, but I assume that’s not what you’re looking for. So, take it from me, apVerb is first and foremost an outstanding and incredibly powerful algorithmic reverb. Not the easiest one to master, I immediately agree (the first step is to get your head around its somewhat unusual interface and the many hidden or below-the-surface possibilities), but once you do: immensely satisfying tool.

Another thing I want to mention again on the subject of techniques to spatialize instruments in smaller spaces (particularly rooms), is the use of delay. Not reverb, but delay. Often, a well-set delay — something very short (maybe start around 90-100ms, not too much feedback, and darkened to taste — is in fact all you need, I often find. Or 98% delay and just a pinch of reverb. The Goodhertz DC19 has a great starter preset that has these settings (or something thereabouts anyway) and whenever I need to place something in a room, that’s often the only plugin I use. Seriously. That said, and before my posts in this thread begin to sound like a Goodhertz commercial: any decent delay should be able to give you what it takes.

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[RobS]

Thank you Piet, I appreciate your comments (though I don’t agree with you on the VSL woodwinds) and I am with you about S. as a conductor, always liked his dry, essential and awkward way of conducting. Apollon Musagete another composition of his that I have under his conducting that I really enjoy

[mr anxiety]

Piet, Would love to hear your apVerb / GoodHertz spatiality setup. I to have had to leave my SPAT behind.

Stravinsky is the Man!

[Piet De Ridder]

I'll prepare something. Should be ready this weekend.

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[Lawrence]

off to check Apulsoft verb

What happened to the development of Room 360, I wonder? It seemed promising.

[RobS]

off to check Apulsoft verb

What happened to the development of Room 360, I wonder? It seemed promising.

I wonder myself, it was promising... I seem to remember it was the work of a single person. Maybe too big for him. He was constantly pushing deadlines and then nothing