1.  How do I make the bass sound less muddy (besides getting better samples) and 2.  how do I make the piano sound like it's in the same hall as the violins and celli?  I have an emt plate on the master bus, but the strings still sound like they're in they're own space.
 
https://soundcloud.com/da...14/smoke-signals-large

I gave up putting stuff like reverb on the master bus and now I use a dedicated reverb bus, and use sends on individual instruments or submix buses. The reverb plug on the reverb bus is set to 100% wet signal, and I control the submix or instrument level into the reverb bus with the send gain knob, and control the overall mix of reverb with the reverb bus fader. This sounds much more natural to my ear than other methods I've tried.

thanks kevin, here I put the brass and strings each on their own bus, but still not happy with the results.   I'll play with it.  BTW if you're interested.  The story is:  You're in a bar in Paris drinking your Roy Rogers.  A saucy braud sits next to you and lights up.  She smiles and starts blowing smoke.  Suddenly  you're sent back to Ms. Peters class, third grade where she told you about native american smoke signals.  That lady next to you is trying to tell you something, but what could it be?
 
 
https://soundcloud.com/da...324214/smoke-signals-1