KVR Audio

musictronics · Post by **musictronics** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 5:03 am

Hi everybody (Hi Doctor Nick...)

What is the best Brass Section sample library out there, for Tower Of Power/EWF style brass arrangements. Orchestral brass libraries just don't cut it.

I have tried a few, but I keep going back to the trusty old Brass Supersection from Best Service. The instruments have great "attitude", the right combination of spit, sizzle & sleaze... I don't really know how else to put it!

However, the library is lacking a few important articulations, and I'm wondering what other libraries might be available that would complement this one. Any opinions gladly noted!

RyanG · Post by **RyanG** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 5:13 am

You might look into Chris Hein Horns:

http://www.chrishein.net/CHH%20V1.5/chh ... ctsite.htm

I haven't used them myself, but I've heard good things about them.

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 7:41 am

+1 on Chris Hein. You might also want to check out the upcoming Mojo VSTi from Vir2 Instruments:

www.vir2.com/4DCGI/vir2/products/mojo/index.html?1205

/Yoss

the_bill_harmonics · Post by **the_bill_harmonics** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:02 pm

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PRIZM has OUTSTANDING pop and orchestral brass, good for stabs, sections, etc.

www.hardcoreharmonics.com (http://www.hardcoreharmonics.com)

Bill

Armadillo · Post by **Armadillo** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:45 pm

and if money is no issue there is always Broadway Big Band.
http://www.sonivoxmi.com/ProductDetail. ... =CDBigBand

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 6:34 pm

the_bill_harmonics wrote:PRIZM has OUTSTANDING pop and orchestral brass, good for stabs, sections, etc.

Complete nonsense. They're mentioning their socalled "kickass" Brasstopia product in about any thread about brass samples since months, yet they're not able to deliver anything, not even a demo. Yeah, it's all "coming soon" and "oh, some unfortunate things happened" and so on. In fact it's some semi-pro (or even less than that) folks trying to catch some attention. They will *never* develop an even remotely semi-professional brass sample library.
I'd happily be proven any different.

- Sascha

Karmacomposer · Post by **Karmacomposer** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:19 pm

Sascha Franck wrote:
the_bill_harmonics wrote:PRIZM has OUTSTANDING pop and orchestral brass, good for stabs, sections, etc.
Complete nonsense. They're mentioning their socalled "kickass" Brasstopia product in about any thread about brass samples since months, yet they're not able to deliver anything, not even a demo. Yeah, it's all "coming soon" and "oh, some unfortunate things happened" and so on. In fact it's some semi-pro (or even less than that) folks trying to catch some attention. They will *never* develop an even remotely semi-professional brass sample library.
I'd happily be proven any different.

- Sascha

Sascha,

I understand how you feel. However, you are sadly mistaken.

http://www.hardcoreharmonics.com/documents/61.html

(*Note - the brass section - acoustic, analog and modelled - feel free to listen to the flash players that show off a small amount of what is included in the core library)

It takes a long time to create a quality sample library. Things can go wrong - and instruments have to be re-recorded.

That is exactly what happened. However, we also felt it more prudent for us to focus on our atmospheric synth, PRIZM, because of what we felt our potential customers would want more as well as competing instruments that were being introduced. Essentially, the time was right and we took advantage of it.

To date, all the people that have bought PRIZM are totally satisfied. The strings and brass are incredibly lush and symphonic. The entire library was sampled and crafted with the utmost care.

So, if we are semi-pro, then why would gearwire and many other magazines, e-zines and individuals say such excellent things about PRIZM (and we ARE being reviewed by no less than 5 publications this month alone!!!).

BRASStopia will be finished when we are done with it - and when it is, those that desire a custom brass-only instrument featuring a wide variety of acoustic, analog and modelled brass will be in brass heaven. Until then, PRIZM has an amazing and top-quality brass assortment fantastic for film, television and game scoring, as well as pop, rock, instrumentals and all other forms of musical expression.

It's a shame, Sascha, that you have to feel the need to belittle me, my partner Bill and our company because you are totally ignorant to what we do, how we do it and the results of our hard work - and labors of love.

I invite you to our website to hear the demos of PRIZM. I also invite you to watch the TV shows we shoot in high-definition, broadcast quality, edit and that air on channels such as SUN network and ESPN. Since we are so amateurish and semi-pro, executive producers of tv and film shouldn't use us - but they do. I guess we should not be scoring for games, tv and multimedia, but we do. I also guess companies like NASCAR, CITIGROUP, Price Waterhouse and even Tony Robbins, to name a few, should not have paid us to create custom production for them, but they all have.

If after you hear all that, you can say we are amateur, low-end and semi-pro, then you are entitled to your opinions.

Mike

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:21 pm

all very well but all the time it uses wusikstation you may as well be talking jibberish to us MAC users.

sample libraries, sure but sort out a cross platform player with all the performance modes and maybe I would look again.

Karmacomposer · Post by **Karmacomposer** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:45 pm

Yes, that is true. PRIZM and all of our products utilize the wusik engine, which is Windows-only. Unfortunately for Mac users, they will have to wait till we decide how to best represent a Mac version of our libraries.

We are dedicated, however, to releasing Mac versions in the future.

Mike

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:52 pm

new brass sample lib : Mojo by Vir2.

Quite good audio demos there too. I was more impressed by their acoustic guitar lib but Mojo can have a "live" sound too if used carefully in some tracks.

All this is only baesd on the audio demos though and it will be out in a few weeks as far as the site informs.

Might be worth to check though before making a decision for BBB cos the libs are rather erf ..... pricey

LtZ

musictronics · Post by **musictronics** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:43 am

Yossarian wrote:...You might also want to check out the upcoming Mojo VSTi from Vir2 Instruments:

www.vir2.com/4DCGI/vir2/products/mojo/index.html?1205

Thanks Yoss, this looks promising.
The demos are inspiring, especially Moonlight Serenade, I can almost feel Glen Miller breathing down my neck! All the demos seem to be of the Big Band variety, although apparently more are coming soon. I'll keep an eye on this one.

musictronics · Post by **musictronics** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:41 am

RyanG wrote:You might look into Chris Hein Horns:

http://www.chrishein.net/CHH%20V1.5/chh ... ctsite.htm

I haven't used them myself, but I've heard good things about them.

Thanks Ryan, just checked these out.
Volume 1 (Solo) - OK, not quite what I need, but nice enough.

Volume 2 (Sections) - WOW!!! That's what I'm talking about!

Mr. Hein, if you're reading this, I would have to say that CHH Volume 2 is the best sampled brass I have ever heard, for the particular style of music that I'm interested in. I'll start saving today...!

musictronics · Post by **musictronics** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:54 am

Armadillo wrote:and if money is no issue there is always Broadway Big Band.
http://www.sonivoxmi.com/ProductDetail. ... =CDBigBand

Thanks Armadillo, checked this one out too.
It seems more geared, as the name suggests, to Big Band style arrangements, which is not really my thing. I was not particularly impressed by the demos, and not convinced at all that it is worth the price they are asking!

Finally, the Syncrosoft dongle issue... I'll be leaving this one alone!

The song lyrics (Dream No More) were quite amusing though!

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:48 am

Mike, you can tell me all you want. So far there's a single sample of what might sound like a natural brass thing on your site (the one from your link) and it doesn't even remotely suit the "Jazz, Funk, etc." criteria asked for in this thread. In addition, you're already around half a year late in deliviering what was supposed to be ready mid of last year. All too apparantly you underestimated what it takes to get a realistic sounding brass library done.
However, PRIZM is not even remotely a choice for what was asked for in this thread and Brasstopia is vaporware. It's ridiculously bad advice to recommend PRIZM to anybody looking for funky horns and it's just as ridiculous to tell someone to probably wait for Brasstopia, which just seems to be delayed again and again.
And that statement has got absolutely nothing to do with belittling you and your partner. It's good advice to keep someone away from purchasing exactly the wrong tool for the job. But feel free to show me some funky horn arrangement done exclusively with your libraries at any time. Otherwise you better stop telling everybody how much of great horn sounds you'll be able to deliver.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but bad advice has to be called bad advice.

- Sascha

Paul Russell · Post by **Paul Russell** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:31 am

For good funky stuff I've heard good things about First Call Horns and the Chris Hein volume 2. Both demo sets sounds good, but still working up the courage to buy one or the other.

I can, however, heartily advise you to stay away from Kick Ass Brass.

Best Brass Section Sample Library for Jazz, Funk etc.?