Here's a quick track I wrote for a gamejam over the weekend:

Chase Scene

I like most of the sound, but I still feel like the orchestra feels a little washed out, and I'm not sure how to make it feel closer. I tried just toning back the reverb, but then I lost the sense of space. Any suggestions? Is this an EQ matter?

A few ideas:

Mic positions: Many VST libraries offer this feature but sometimes it's in the premium versions of their libraries (i.e. Platinum or Complete, etc). If your current libraries offer mic positions, then try selecting the close option.

Reverb mix: there's a lot of reverb, as you said. I'd experiment with the wet versus dry ratio some.

Panning: When listening to your track, I can hear a lot of the same instruments in either channel. This gives the illusion, at least to me, of being a listener in the back of the hall. Instead try and pan/structure your sounds like a conductor would hear them - up close and personal. Dbl basses to the far right, high violins to the left (if you wanted to follow that particular seating arrangement of the symphony).

Low end: Once the reverb issue is tweaked/fixed try raising the low end of some of the ensemble. Let your percussion really have some kick, etc.

Have you considered/experimented with the EQ setting on the actual reverb itself? That way there's a tail but not one that's super overpowering?

Are you applying reverb to every track? Even the master? I agree with your concern, it's washed out and could have much more impact with less reverb all over the place. Musically, the piece sounded great!

Hey, many thanks, nsmadsen, that's EXACTLY the kind of advice I was looking for! I'll work through each of those steps and see what kind of difference in sound I can get out of it. Thanks for the ideas!

Happy to help!

An interesting trick with reverb I've noticed is to pan the initial instrument track wherever you want it, and create a send of that instrument to a reverb track that is planned equal and opposite to the instrument. It creates a really nice acoustic quality that's kind of difficult to manually program. Worth a shot I'd say! And yeah, as Nathan stated, experiment as much as you can because that's really how you learn honestly.

That track was fun to listen to! I thought of Danny Elfman scoring a chase-sequence from the Indiana Jones movies^^

Cool idea with the mirrored reverb, I'll try that one out today xCatalyst!

I agree on the notion that the track would benefit from more punch on the low-end percussion elements. Regarding reverb I find that the better orchestra libraries already offer great sounding rooms and a lot of "air" because of the rooms they are recorded in (I am using the Spitfire Albion and Loegria libraries most atm). So +1 to experimenting with seating/panning and the mic positions in Kontakt.

That way you don't need reverb on all the channels. I tend to make a dedicated effects-channel with some glue-compression, EQ and a nice natural room reverb where most of the instruments are rooted to on a bus and then turn that channel up just slightly until it is audible. I feel that helps with fattening the sound while being very controllable. Though I am not a professional audio engineer, so keep that in mind ;)

Cheers,

Patrick