Thin Sound Live

When I play the Jump Sound out of my nord stage 3 it sounds rich and fat with deep bass -
when I use the OBX from Aturia out of my MacBook pro into a radial usb box - it is sounds much thinner and no richness - in fact all of the sounds do - what am I doing wrong?

here is the spec for the USB Box:

Have you used that radial box before? Have you compared with headphones? Have you used the plugin before with other output devices?

You will need to determine if the issue is coming from the plugin itself or is something to do with the audio interface and monitoring.

great Idea - Ill dial in the headphones and check back

I think that I solved it - I used the headphones to compare to the mixer and turned up the gain - it’s much better

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Just another thought - the levels are better but the nord seems to have dual wav synths that make the sound richer. - can I duplicate the plug in or add another as a synth layer over the OBX

There are some doubler plugins out there and sometimes a bit of chorus does the trick.

Personally, I’ve also found the Arturia sounds to be somehow lacking, but that’s a generalization. They probably have a mix of excellent plugins and some so-so ones.

My first approach would be to put Liquid Sonics’ Tai Chi on the output. (Unfortunately, you just missed their holiday sale, but the lite version isn’t terribly expensive.) It’s primarily a reverb, but it includes chorus and non-linear effects that can be used creatively to add richness. Unlike their other products, which tend towards pretty, realistic results, Tai Chi can be pushed to deliver bold effects.

So, why a reverb and not just echo, modulation, doubling, or chorus? A touch of verb can take a thin, digital sound and make it more organic and smooth. Keep the tails short and you won’t hear it as reverb, It will just sound fuller. Couple this with modulation, and you should be able to find what you’re looking for.

I believe that they have a trial period, so you can test it before opening the wallet.

I have some of their other products. I got Tai Chi specifically for synth sounds.

In general do not listen to the sound alone.
It must fit in the context of other instruments and sometimes a sound alone sounds terrible but super in the complete context.
And what is very important when playing live:
Sometimes the keys must not have panned left and right but more to mono because the audience located on the left could not hear what comes out from the right.
So check mono compatibility.

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Great tips.

For the Jump sound, it’s very much in the forefront, alternating in time with the vocals. You’ve got the pulsing bass and drums to share spectrum with, but nothing in the mid and high ranges to compete with, except for the snare.

I’d EQ it with a fairly aggressive low cut to make room for the pulse and bass drum, but I’d let the high end sparkle. If the plugin sound is already EQ’d like this, it could certainly sound thin, having little bass content. Listening with the other instruments will fill that in.

But from the original post, it seems that it needs more modulation and possibly reverb to make it thicker.

If it’s not already EQ’d for the other instruments, consider a low cut, after any effects you might have.,you could notch out some frequencies around 1kHz as well to let the snare pop through. It will let you mix the synth louder without muddying up the sound. And in general, loud sounds better. :grinning:

Do you use LiquidSonics Tai Chi in Global Rackspace? Unfortunately, I haven’t found a setting or a preset that can generally be used to bring richness to all rackspaces or to improve the overall sound.

I don’t put any processing in the Global Rackspace, except a limiter and headphone compensation that is bypassed most of the time, but I have a unique, multi instance setup. But I do have some reverb on the mix bus. I have other Liquid Sonics products. I use Tai Chi on synths, and Seventh Heaven on guitar and snare. I would use SH on the mix bus, but I couldn’t turn down the holiday sale and got Cinematic Rooms. I use CR on the mix bus and on acoustic piano.

My take is:

  • Tai Chi for effects and modulation to liven things up.
  • Seventh Heaven for character and a great sounding reverb.
  • Cinematic Rooms for a transparent reverb.

Tai Chi is unique, in that it can be pushed into weird effects territory. It can be for general purpose, but that would use a narrow part of its scope.

Seventh Heaven is my top choice for general purpose. Super rich. I’d give up Cinematic Rooms to keep SH. But SH is memory heavy, using samples. CR is algorithmic.

For the mix bus, the key is to duck the reverb. The Pro version of these three plugins includes ducking. The lite versions do not. But you can do it externally with a compressor with sidechain.

Put the mix bus into the reverb and set the mix at 100% wet. Also, apply the mix bus to the sidechain input. Set a fast attack and a slow release. A ratio of 2:1 or 4:1 works well. Adjust the threshold so that the compression is strong for a full signal and the compression dips down in the gaps. Mix the output of the compressor with the mix bus signal for the final result.

This gives very subtle reverb when the signal is high and fills in the gaps for a full sound. If your signal stops abruptly, you’ll hear a long tail, but when the signal comes in strong, the reverb is reduced, so the attacks aren’t smeared, unclear, or weak. It’s a brilliant trick.

The built-in ducker has a subtle advantage. You can keep the initial reflections at full strength, giving character to the sound and putting it in a space. You can apply ducking to the tails only. But frankly, this is subtle. Simple ducking works great.

If you choose a Tai Chi setting that is reasonably neutral (for a mix bus) and duck the reverb, you can likely find something that works globally. If you’re just using GP for synths, you could use a more creative setting and ducking will keep it from smearing the attacks.

If you have natural piano patches as well as synth patches, you might go with a conservative ducked reverb globally, as well as a more creative ducked reverb for synth only.

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Wow, thank you for the detailed answer, I have a lot to try out. But not until next year. :wink:

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It is important to have the output gain of your audio interface adapted to input gain of the mixer. Use the pink noise in the free MNoiseGenerator from Melda to produce a 0dB level out of GP, set the mixer gain to a standard input gain level, adjust the audio interface level such that the mixer pre fader level comes close to 0dB (that’s a very high level, do this with the mixer master at a low level). Once done adjust you GP levels to something more reasonable and the the mixer levels appropriately.

I don’t know, but I know is that OP-X Pro III has several killing Jump sounds and also the 1984 Sweeps and Strings and a huge famous sounds library. They all sounds terrific. (But only the very last version of OP-X Pro III which has been optimized to run with GP).

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Okay im a newbie and I already have Valhalla reverb - and I just found out that’s what was causing the thin sound! I took it out of global and now if I understand you correctly - you put it in the Audio mixer? (Right now I have a 4 channel mixer) - do you add it as an another stereo Inout at 100% wet and then adjust how much comes through? And then off to the global Rackspace?

The simplest way to use it is to put it on the output of the synth (or whatever instrument) and adjust the wet/dry control of the reverb. If you are using Gig Performer to host a single sound, then this works great.

If you have multiple instruments and want reverb on them, you can connect the instruments directly to the output, and “send” some of their signals to the reverb, which gets mixed into the overall signal.

Here’s an example of implementing “sends” to the reverb. (My audio computer isn’t connected to the internet right now. I need to clean its screen!)

Note that I didn’t connect the audio directly to the audio interface. I put my instruments in the local rackspace. I connect the interface in the global rackspace.

In this example, set the reverb to 100% wet.

That is such a clear example - thanks!!!

I’ll add that in using Valhalla and give it a try