Tenor Saxophone?

[stephenpaulharper]

Anybody know of a great and I mean GREAT Tenor Saxophone Sample?

[james0tucson]

SaxLab can be pretty convincing, but the problem isn't so much "the sample", as the infinite range of articulations, the microtonal characteristics of woodwinds, and certain aspects of voicing. It's hard to play saxophone on a keyboard, and it's hard to play guitar on a keyboard, no matter how good your sound source is.

[Ben H]

The Bigga Giggas John Rekevics Tenor sax is great. Lots of articulations, awesome tone. GIGA format. Very underated, and slipped under the radar when it came out.

BTW the Bigga Giggas sax set is my main "go to" for saxes and has been for years. I keep an eye out for the other stuff, but the BG just works.

You could also try the new Chris Hein Horns vol.1 library (distributed by Best Service). It's slowly growing on me, but I'm just learning how to get the most out of the programming. (This is in Kompakt format).

The VSL Tenor sax is very disappointing. Way too much vibrato to be useful. I much prefer a non-vib instrument so I can add / control the amount of vibrato I need.

You could also try Yellow Tools Candy. (That's 9GB worth of saxes). I haven't personally though so I don't know what it's like.

Hope this helps,

Ben H

[stephenpaulharper]

Thanks guys. I don't have Gigasampler, but the Bigga Gigga Tenor Sax appears to be just what I'm looking for. I have the demo version of Extreme Sample Converter which will convert the files but only at 10 bits.

Evidently you can no longer buy the real deal ESC, and I've heard less than stellar comments about the Chicken Systems Translator.

I mostly use Sampletank which converts wavs and AKAI.
Suggestions?

[kevink]

In terms of converters, you might look at CDXtract. In terms of good bang-for-the-buck playback samplers that might be able to do a clean import of the Giga library, you might look at VSampler.

[stephenpaulharper]

Aha! V-sampler to wav, wav to Sampletank! Excellent idea. Thanks so much.

[Ben H]

BTW samples can't replace a sax.

I know this is stating the obvious but a sax seems to be harder to pull off than other instruments in samples.

[stephenpaulharper]

Agreed, but the Bigga Gigga sure sounds pretty darn close in the demo. Plus, I've yet to hear anyone articulate ANY instrument exactly on a keyboard (with the exception of keyboards, of course. I'm not trying to fool anybody, just get a great sound.

[fonkyfrog]

Hi algodon,

if you're looking for a great sound, Liquid Instrument Saxophone of http://www.ueberschall.com might be a good choice for you. It's an instrument that comes with a wide range of sax phrases which are editable with the included Melodyne engine. Especially regarding realistic articulations you can get better results out of it as if you try to play sax samples over the keyboard.

There's a demo in the download section of http://www.timespace.com.

Have fun,
FF

[stephenpaulharper]

Thanks FF. The Liquid Sax is indeed very cool, but
I'd prefer something I can actually play as well.
I may end up getting this anyway.

I've bought the Sonic Implants Sax bundle, but have yet to receive it. Anyone familiar with these sounds?

The Yellow Tools Candy thingamajig is VERY realistic, but I'm reluctant to shell out that kinda cash for it.

The search continues...

[soulata]

I'd go for SaxLab for playability (although the real deal sounds a LOT better)

[stephenpaulharper]

Thanks for the tip, sir.

I tried SaxLab and found it to be a little synth-y for my taste. Of course the real deal is MUCH better, but I gotta find something that's at least somewhat authentic. I use loops as well and need
the transitions between loops and performance to be as seamless as possible.

S