Emulating "Live Performance" through Software?

[D.L]

Hey, I was just wondering if anybody had any tips on emulating a live or a "BIG" dramatic sounding performance through software DAWS. Does anybody know of any songs that were produced in this manner?

[D.L]

examples:

Cascada - Everytime We Tocuh (Slow version)

Chris Brown - Crawl

Keyshia Cole ft Monica - ( I forgot the name of the song but its her latest single, I think its trust or something)

[ryst]

I listened to the songs you mentioned but I'm not sure what you mean by "live performance"? None of those sounds sound to me like live performances in the way I'm used to hearing live performances (real musicians playing real instruments).....except maybe the Cascada track (piano).

Regardless, if you want some thing to sound live, then play it live and use real instruments. That's the best way. Add some real drums and real guitars to your productions. Real pianos, real strings, real horns.....it makes a big difference.

Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding what your asking though....

[illacov]

Originally Posted by ryst

I listened to the songs you mentioned but I'm not sure what you mean by "live performance"? None of those sounds sound to me like live performances in the way I'm used to hearing live performances (real musicians playing real instruments).....except maybe the Cascada track (piano).

Regardless, if you want some thing to sound live, then play it live and use real instruments. That's the best way. Add some real drums and real guitars to your productions. Real pianos, real strings, real horns.....it makes a big difference.

Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding what your asking though....

Ryst is right on the money!

If you can find musicians locally then hire some e session players.

I happen to offer something like this if you don't mind paying for session players.
Drums, guitar, bass, keys, acoustic piano, horns.

PM me if you want rates, they are dirt cheap!
You can spend hours tweaking software or get a good take and move on. I'm too old school for alot of software emulation.

Peace
Illumination

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by illacov

Ryst is right on the money!

If you can find musicians locally then hire some e session players.

I happen to offer something like this if you don't mind paying for session players.
Drums, guitar, bass, keys, acoustic piano, horns.

PM me if you want rates, they are dirt cheap!
You can spend hours tweaking software or get a good take and move on. I'm too old school for alot of software emulation.

Peace
Illumination

Same here but its not cheap.

[The Beatsmith]

PLAY the music in. a crazy concept eh

[theyungboss]

i see what everyone means by play them live

but i think i get what your trying to say,

try adding some reverb or echo...they make some cheezy VST echo plugins (lol echo) and it has a stadium setting

[ryst]

Originally Posted by theyungboss

i see what everyone means by play them live

but i think i get what your trying to say,

try adding some reverb or echo...they make some cheezy VST echo plugins (lol echo) and it has a stadium setting

Reverb isn't going to make something sequenced in a DAW sound more like a live performance. Only a live performance will make something sound more like...........................wait for it...................................wait for it.................................................a live performance.

[illacov]

Originally Posted by ryst

Reverb isn't going to make something sequenced in a DAW sound more like a live performance. Only a live performance will make something sound more like...........................wait for it...................................wait for it.................................................a live performance.

Yes like you can actually make the musician a heavy lunch, they get the itis and they play more laid back.

I even went so far as to buy a real piano (in my living room but I will gladly mic it (11 ft ceilings!), get real percussion (shakers, tambourines etc) and where you can get it real, I go for it. So far Ive only found one local violin player that was willing to do studio work but they as of late are MIA. Otherwise I know quite a few, drummers, guitar players, bassists, about 10 guys that play horns, several excellent keyboard players. So I really do go there as far as sticking with the real deal.

I'm definitely looking forward to the Blakroc album, however regarding the videos of it, being in a studio with people who play instruments and getting good takes, all rolled into a hip hop format, that's like everyday for me LOL. I definitely dig who they are doing with the videos, its eye opening to the doubters who think that live instruments can't get you some dope ass hip hop music. If you listen to the compositions off the Blacrok videos, they are at times simple but really about playing in the pocket and presenting the right feel to the song. But because they are using that old school equipment all over the place, it helps to give you that old school sound you are used to hearing with samples.

The engineer mentioned how they would intentionally screw around with start points for spliced together takes, there's a good tip. It helps to make things loop inaccurately at times to make it sound like a sample or choppy. It adds a little authenticity to the sound of the clips.
I like bussing guitars through my Gates Solid States Man, all those damn transformers just do something evil to the signal. It doesn't help that I pad the output so I can crank both stages into saturation and distortion

Peace
Illumination

[D.L]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

PLAY the music in. a crazy concept eh

I understand that, thats not necessarily what im talking about though. You can play some cheap midi sounds all the way through if you want too but that still wont get the effect that im talking about. Feel me?

[Lrmusic]

Crawl and Trust are two of my favorite songs lol.

Read storyville's thread on reverb; get live instrument samples.

One of my favorite techniques involves chopping a riff up into X different pieces (iwith all the various individual notes, articulations, and "human playing effects" such as fret noises and mutes or whatever). I'll either put this into X different samplers and program a part using the various articulations, or have them in one slicer, and use the pitch setting to control the pitch of the notes. X is usually in the 6-8 range for me. Tuning the root key to their actual note is important as well, so that you can actually program things as one part. Reverb can mask any sudden pseudo-gating sounds. Mess around with automating the ADSR/filter settings. It might sound tedious, but it sounds so good that time flies. If you do it well, it should sound live, as long as it's part of a bigger ensemble that masks some of the "sample-soundingness".

The rest is good reverb/delay use, and good starting samples. If you want that live-ish drum feel on trust, you'll have to have similar samples.

[D.L]

Thank you for the reply Lr!