VA Mixing Session - Record Store

Going into this iteration of implementation with the aim of utilising tested setups of VA rendering to incorporate into the mixing process, the session began with the 6-Ch source arrangement utilised in the Session 6 audio project. Again working with Logic Pro and Unity Engine bridged via Blackhole software for on the fly rendering during the mixing process, this project differs with the context of the track itself being a VA remix therefore allowing for more creative flexibility.

With this in mind, the aim of this was also to determine whether there is a consistency in overall room timbre to recordings passing through the same VAS model where the stems themselves still then belong to separate tracks. The undertaking then began with rendering some backing layers including piano, synth and pads in the 6Ch arrangement passing through the hall model.

Following rendering these layers and listening in comparison to the session 6 project track, the final room acoustics do convey a timbre which is consistent as the longer tailed reverb and reflection cues path the same lines to generate the audio, however this is a more subjective aspect in it’s detection and otherwise potentially unnoticeable to listeners unfamiliar with specifics of the encoding process. Separately to note, 44.1kHz exported stems playback and record correctly in a 48kHz DAW session.

To add in then a degree of variety to highlight the wider use of stereo placement within this remix, as well as to raise some instrumentation out of the heavily populated areas of the mix’s stereo field, another VAS model and placement arrangement was setup for rendering. The render of the acoustic guitar was moved into a much smaller VAS space, utilising the mirror material constructed in session 3 to create a high density of reflected cues to contrast against the previous layers in such a way that might lift the recorded playback into a higher azimuth position relative to the listeners perspective.

For this, the placement of sound sources was altered using only 2Ch for each LR mono signal of the split stereo stem which was then positioned around 40° above the horizontal plane directly to the sides of the HRTF receiver.

The render once recorded does exhibit these placement characteristics of being perceptually above the previous layers, and comes with a higher density of reflections within the fall-off from initial transients. The additional qualities of timbre for this render includes a movement to the guitar’s stereo image within the overall stereo field which is distinctly particular in that it captures a fluidity to the sound which is unique. By this it is meant that the image flows up and down the azimuth position subtly due to the movement of frequency response on each melodic phrase, rather than programmed movement of sources in the VAS.

The frequency content of the stems lends to a dynamic which results in vertical reflection movement which adds a timbre similarly to a horizontal rotor or ring shifting modulation but not with as obvious timbre impact. This movement can also partly be heard in the background stems, as the mid range and high mids move into wider stereo positioning which does differ in that it was likely due to the wider far front positioning of sources.

These layers can be heard isolated here -
Record Store VA Stems.wav https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cw74YArjXdAjl9MQv6n4PZbUmQ2apNpU/view?usp=sharing

The final VA remix using these layers can also be heard here -
Recordstore VA Remix B2.wav https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sr5G9MoE_xnVs7XISz_6f1I8yWwds0R2/view?usp=sharing