Horn arrangements ?

[ras.s]

Hello folks,


would you share a little insight into to the subject horn arrangement and harmony?

I love the sound of a horn section, but I've been sort of avoiding doing it myself, because I've always thought wind instruments are one of those that really shouldn't be synthesized.. Well, I still don't have any good sounds to do them with, just cheesy synth mockery, but I'd like to know more about them. (Not that they're horns, but I've got a few melodicas and a xaphoon in my arsenal. )

Like a section of trumpet, sax and trombone. Playing the instrument sounds with keyboard, what kind of stuff should I be aware of regarding the instruments themselves? Their limitations, for example. Sax can't glide but the others can? The instruments aren't always 100% in tune?

What makes a sweet horn section harmony? Is it just the instruments playing unisono or scale intervals? Is it blasphemous having three trumpets honk a triad?


Are there some key concepts I should know?



I'm more thinking in the frame of band music (reggae particularly), not so much of orchestra music, but that's interesting too, anything goes really. I guess I'll do some searching on Google and experimenting in my sequencer, but I'd really appreciate any information regarding the instruments you might be willing to share.

[jancivil]

well one thing you should be cognizant of, is wind instrumentalists in concert with each other adjust intonation all of the time to obtain concords that ET kind of violates. so samples usage, making a section can have this sort of effect we tend to find deficient.


the VSL libraries with their interface/engine provides ways out of this via assigning intonations to a matrix of articulations so you switch to a matrix with a new one. also pitch deviations, particularly the attack 'finds tune', and there is an envelope control here, eg., for 'falls from tune', etc. and a good stretching engine.

a sax would tend more to 'bend' than 'slide' like a trombone. it is a different mechanism to 'portamento', ie., targeted pitch bend, the trombone literally has a slide, the sax player is doing it with pressure through the mouthpiece. what actually happens is not linear, so pitch bend in the key editor is kind of deficient*
the less harmonic (overtone) content you perceive the less problematic is a pitch bend applied to it. that said, for instance the Sample Modeling sax library approach to expression does rely on pitch bend a fair bit. both things built in that use scripting and literally via the pitch wheel.

for reggae, you want quite some humanity and 'error' in it I think. the thing I like to use [WarpIV] has a lot of *articulations, ie., *gestures* out of the [jazz] vocabulary; having the sample for a fall away from or slide into a note beats faking it, kind of thing.

[tapper mike]

http://www.hornarrangements.com/basicsh ... nging.html

[BertKoor]

Their limitations, for example. Sax can't glide but the others can?

You'd be amazed what a skilled player can do. I don't know how they pull it off, but I've heard glides on instruments that can't (trumpet & sax) and I heard a glide trombone do fast trills (without moving his glide at all! ) So imho all bets are off. Analyse some killer horn arrangements and then draw your own conclusions.

[phingzjash]

hi
horn arrangements issue:
well:
Being said as a purchasing solution:
maybe some good sounding samples should immediately suggest You the kind sound U are strugglimg for, first of all
fantom xr for example
more recent vst plug ins like NI brasses and things like that.

Being said as a technical solution:
You could promptly try out a bettered use of the synth,
1st use osc section, then filters, then amp env : please follow the order
osc section means: use one osc, not two;
use mixer of this section ( not the mixer external, lol), etc...( how can I explain to You how much there is to do, just to explai shortly ?)
use filters, so as to prepare a sound which will, then, result , more coherent( please consider the use of welsh cookbook softwares, by the way ) to the next one, which You will join in as a second track...
Amp Env, in order to discover a sudden convincing sound & timbre resemblance
And so on, sorry

Being said as a musical solution:
please study every book affordable and available by arnold schoenberg
Or take some private lessons, either by myself or someone else near You ( for example by myself )
Jokes apart: try and consider the rules of one voice , the rule of one voice and another one UP or DOWN , by octave, in the order- by octave as I said, by fifth up or down , third minor , third major : i repeat third minor first, third major afterwards;
then try with CONSONANCES, which are all the abovmentioned;
then try with DISSONANCES: in the order: seventh second ninth fourth
try studying as I already said to You through other words, Counterpoint; then immediately after AND during the same time ! please study harmony
a trick , so to say : please listen!
listen with
listen with Your
listen with Your here
Listen with You are hear
LIsten with Your hear
PLEASE: listen with Your Ear
search the typical fifth as harmonic event , being present in the sound itself
the third is there, too: of course there is also the octave, although a mandatory event, so to say ...
Best Regards