Which Saxophone on Ample Bass Upright II Demo Song?

[MiddleElf]

Hello All,

Probably a bit off topic, considering this is a guitar based forum.. BUT...visiting site for first time, as part of a general hunt for guitar and other instrument samples, I was struck by the saxophone (or other brassy sounding instrument, don't shoot me I don't know my brass/woodwind? ) that plays over the top of one of the Demo songs on this site. Does anyone know what brass/woodwind sample was used on the Demo song "Dinner with Ally" for the Ample Bass Upright II ??? Any pointers to where one might get hold of this or any recommendations for similar sounding samples?

[planetearth]

Are you asking which kind of instrument it is in general, or where you might get the library?

It's not a sax, it's a muted trumpet. You might already have that in a standard ROMpler library, if you have Kontakt or SampleTank, or something like that. You may also find a good, free muted trumped sample library somewhere.

Muted trumpets are fairly common in Jazz and (old-style) "club" music (like "torch songs"). You'll hear a lot of them in cliche film noir soundtracks.

And for what it's worth, a saxophone is considered a woodwind (even though they're not made of wood), and the trumped is, of course, brass.

Hope that helps!

Steve

[MiddleElf]

Thanks Steve, you have answered my question on all fronts.. I am off to somewhere to find a good, free muted trumpet library

[planetearth]

Thanks Steve, you have answered my question on all fronts.. I am off to somewhere to find a good, free muted trumpet library

Which sample player or ROMpler/synths do you have? There are many good, free libraries available, and someone here might be able to help you find what you want quickly and easily, if we know what you have for instruments.

Steve

[MiddleElf]

Well I'm starting from scratch (Newbie alert) and still in the homework and research phase before descending like a vulture on upcoming audio Christmas specials in my country or online. That said I'm not in a hurry to spend money on the sampler/library side of things so any pointers to good free stuff would be hugely appreciated! It's a jungle out there!

[MiddleElf]

*sample player not sampler

[planetearth]

Well I'm starting from scratch (Newbie alert) and still in the homework and research phase before descending like a vulture on upcoming audio Christmas specials in my country or online. That said I'm not in a hurry to spend money on the sampler/library side of things so any pointers to good free stuff would be hugely appreciated! It's a jungle out there!

For starters, check out BigCat's extensive collection of orchestral instruments: http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/?view=classic

Then check this out: http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/sound_samples.

I don't know that you'll find a muted trumpet in either of those, but they'll certainly fill up your orchestra pretty quickly with the other instruments you'll need!

You can also check out this KVR thread: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 8#p6545738 for free sample collections.

Finally, this KVR thread should have a decent selection of trumpet samples (including muted): viewtopic.php?t=273834

Someone on KVR this week was giving away Air's XPand! (even though it usually only goes for about $1). This is another ROMpler with a pretty big selection of sounds, and it's easy to use. Also, grab Zampler (a free sampler/ROMpler), and let me know when you have it. I've put together a few hundred sounds for it that I can send to you. Should be plenty of stuff in there for you, too!

Finally, are you on a 32-bit or 64-bit DAW? Either way, you can try the free E-MU Proteus VX, which has roughly 2,000 sounds, and comes from a wide selection of E-MU's Proteus ROMplers. It has a muted trumpet, but the VX synth/ROMpler only runs in 32-bit DAWs.

Good luck!

Steve

[MiddleElf]

Wow, that's heaps, that'll keep me busy checking stuff out for a while.Thanks Steve! I'm planning on starting the Cubase Elements 8 Trial just after christmas, hopefully will have picked up a bargain on a midi controller, audio interface and studio monitors by then to get the show on the road.

What is the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit? I believe some daws have the option of both? What are the pros and cons? Which is preferable, 32 or 64 ?

Also what are one shot samples? There was a free saxophone pack made of loops and one shot samples.

Sorry, I haven't worked out how to do the quote thing for the top of the Reply.

[planetearth]

Wow, that's heaps, that'll keep me busy checking stuff out for a while.Thanks Steve! I'm planning on starting the Cubase Elements 8 Trial just after christmas, hopefully will have picked up a bargain on a midi controller, audio interface and studio monitors by then to get the show on the road.

What is the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit? I believe some daws have the option of both? What are the pros and cons? Which is preferable, 32 or 64 ?

Also what are one shot samples? There was a free saxophone pack made of loops and one shot samples.

Sorry, I haven't worked out how to do the quote thing for the top of the Reply.

One-shot samples are just individual notes, whereas loops are repeating phrases. For an instrument, "one-shot samples" is usually what you want, so that you can "play" the samples as the instrument. If you wanted a bass loop or drum loop, you can get those, and then play your own stuff over them, but you're restricted as to the tempo and key of the original loop (in most cases). If you want to "play" a muted trumpet (and they sound cool, don't they?) then you want one-shot samples, where each sample is just one note. If there was a sax loop, it's probably just a melodic riff someone played. You can play over it, or add it to other loops (assuming the tempo and key are the same).

The difference between 32-bit and 64-bit DAWs is in the amount of memory (RAM) they can hold. A 32-bit DAW is limited to about 2 Gigabytes of RAM (unless you make some changes to Windows), whereas a 64-bit DAW has no practical RAM limit (though if you load 32-bit plug-ins into it, they will have a 2 GB limit, for each one).

How much RAM does your computer have, and which processor and version of Windows are you using? If you have 8 or 16 GB of RAM on your computer, a 64-bit DAW will have access to all of it, minus whatever Windows and the other apps are using. This allows you to run many more plug-ins in Cubase.

You'll probably want to run the 64-bit version of Cubase, but be warned that it doesn't play well with 32-bit plug-ins. There are work-arounds, but until we know what you're dealing with, we'll keep it simple and just say you should go with the 64-bit version of Cubase.

Focusrite makes good audio interfaces, and all year they've been giving away free software (decent stuff, too!) if you have any of their products. PreSonus is also pretty good. These aren't terribly expensive new, and if you want to buy used, just make sure whatever you're looking at is still being supported by the manufacturer. If you can't get new drivers for it, it may cause you a lot of problems, and it won't be worth whatever savings it offered.

With a decent audio interface, you can get by with just a good set of headphones and not worry about monitor speakers for a little while. Just make sure your audio interface has a headphone jack (most do), and you should be all set.

Steve

[MiddleElf]

For an instrument, "one-shot samples" is usually what you want, so that you can "play" the samples as the instrument.

Great, thanks for clarifying, I was concerned it might mean the opposite. Have grabbed the sax sample.

How much RAM does your computer have, and which processor and version of Windows are you using? If you have 8 or 16 GB of RAM on your computer, a 64-bit DAW will have access to all of it, minus whatever Windows and the other apps are using. This allows you to run many more plug-ins in Cubase.

I'm on 16 GB on a MacPro, i7. 64 bit seems to be the way forward.

With a decent audio interface, you can get by with just a good set of headphones and not worry about monitor speakers for a little while. Just make sure your audio interface has a headphone jack (most do), and you should be all set.

Good point, and housemate friendly too Thanks for the gear tips, I'll be getting the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and had planned on some presonus monitor speakers, but like you said, headphones are probably a wise starting point.

Still so many questions, I wish there was a free comprehensive Music production 101 course that starts from scratch and builds, covering all the fundamentals and pertinent stuff instead of piecing it together from here and there. Still its a fun learning curve.

Much appreciate the pointers Steve, will let you know if I end up getting the Zampler, which leads me to another question....no just kidding...you've been most helpful...Thanks!

[planetearth]

No problem--love to help!

And don't forget to check out Plug-In Boutique, where you can get Air Xpand2! and SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings for $1 each! You can also download Zampler while you're there. All of these instruments will work on your Mac.

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1 ... on-Strings

These will help you a lot if you're just starting out assembling your instruments.

Also, did you mean to say you were getting Cubase 8 or 9? Cubase 9 is the current version now.

Steve

[MiddleElf]

And don't forget to check out Plug-In Boutique, where you can get Air Xpand2! and SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings for $1 each! You can also download Zampler while you're there. All of these instruments will work on your Mac.

OMG, what a bargain, have just finished installing Xpand and Companion Strings. Thanks for the headsup.Also downloaded Zampler, however it seems to be a 32 bit application, so not sure if it will ultimately be compatible with cubase 64 bit?

Also, did you mean to say you were getting Cubase 8 or 9? Cubase 9 is the current version now.

I was planning to cut my teeth on the fledgling version of Cubase called Cubase Elements 8. So far I have not seen an Elements 9 version advertised anywhere although the Pro version has gone to 9.

[planetearth]

And don't forget to check out Plug-In Boutique, where you can get Air Xpand2! and SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings for $1 each! You can also download Zampler while you're there. All of these instruments will work on your Mac.

OMG, what a bargain, have just finished installing Xpand and Companion Strings. Thanks for the headsup.Also downloaded Zampler, however it seems to be a 32 bit application, so not sure if it will ultimately be compatible with cubase 64 bit?

Also, did you mean to say you were getting Cubase 8 or 9? Cubase 9 is the current version now.

I was planning to cut my teeth on the fledgling version of Cubase called Cubase Elements 8. So far I have not seen an Elements 9 version advertised anywhere although the Pro version has gone to 9.

Version 9 now has Cubase Elements. I'm not even sure you'll still be able to buy the previous version from them.

https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/c ... rison.html

And no, I don't know if Zampler will work with Cubase, as it's still 32-bit. But if it does, let me know, because I have a ton of free samples for it!

Steve

[MiddleElf]

Version 9 now has Cubase Elements. I'm not even sure you'll still be able to buy the previous version from them.

https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/c ... rison.html

And no, I don't know if Zampler will work with Cubase, as it's still 32-bit. But if it does, let me know, because I have a ton of free samples for it!

Right you are, I must have been browsing on an older version of the Steinberg website. Thanks, will keep you posted