Master Mix, Ex. D, Four Violinists

TOR / ODESSA Montreal / Subject 1 / Anatomy of a Mix / Master Mix / Example D

This mix has multiple perspectives and distances of the violin sound, now blended together, in order to recreate the sensation of listening to the burgeoning violin section from an ideal position at the center of a well-tuned room. This is a hyperrealistic representation of that position, and not a true rendition. The idea is to use different microphone systems in order to supplement what the main system is missing. As many orchestral mixes are, it is built around the Decca tree which provides overall context and anchors the sound image. The violin section sits left of center in this image, and the position of the spot microphones will have been panned and delayed in post production to reflect this. While creating an ideal perspective, the Tonmeister also decided to change the setting to an ideal room: because the reverb tail in the recorded hall was relatively short, the final mix is supplemented by artificial reverb in order to create the impression of a larger space.