make this possible. The musicians are playing at the same time, but no two people can place precisely note for note at the exact time like a computer can. This fraction of a millisecond difference when each musician puts their bow to the string can be multiplied by all the musicians playing. This produces a thickness to the sound texture of orchestras and choirs.
Another reason for being able to hear the various instruments is due to the timbre of the individual instruments or choir voices. No two violins or voices have the exact same tone or vibrato. This variance allows human hearing to differentiate between sounds.
An additional reason for variance is the use of multiple ranges of notes. Orchestras have first and second violins, violas, cellos, and multitude of other instruments playing different notes in different octaves.
The last reason is where the musicians reside in the linear plane of hearing. For example, violins are heard more to the left, cellos basses are heard more to the right, and woodwinds are more central. This is a result of where they are seated in the orchestra during a performance and where a listener would commonly hear them from the audience.
APPLYING THIS
Knowing this information can be vital in providing a more organic sound to recordings.
Instrumentation- If you are using more than one type of the same instruments like guitars from a keyboard or digital strings, try using completely two different textures. You can even adjust one to be more treble sounding than the other. If you are adding a digital woodwind or flute of some type, add in the vibrato. If you are using multiple instruments, use different octave ranges and divergent notes within the chord structure of the song.
Panning - Use the pan feature and place instruments left center, another center, another right center, etc. This allows the listener to hear the individual instruments. If you are a band but want to achieve a chamber orchestra sound, place the orchestra how you would hear them live-- violins on the left, viola left center, cello/bass more to the right. Place these instruments more to the back by using reverb while placing your guitar, bass, and vocals more up front.
Quantizing - By all means, quantize your rhythm and drums and a few of the instruments. In other cases, play the instruments all the way through the song and allow for that millisecond variance, as if multiple musicians were playing at the same time.
Timbres - Add a real voice, real percussion, or real other instrument along with your recording. If you are using the digital ah's in a song from a keyboard, get a real person to sing along with them. Adding in live actual sounds goes along way to making the recording more organic.
All the Way Through - I will use quantization to make drum tracks or basic percussion
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