KVR Audio

Mike777 · Post by **Mike777** » Sat Feb 07, 2026 3:09 am

"Night Train Home"
I watched a modern jazz quintet on youtube and wanted to write a piece and sound like it. I had never studied jazz theory, but now I had to, to make a jazz piece.

So two weeks ago I dug into jazz theory and started writing this piece, my first modern jazz quintet composition!

Features piano and trumpet, with sax, upright bass and drums to complete the virtual jazz band. I wrote all the chords and notes and performed the virtual instruments on keyboard. Except drums which started with midi loops that I heavily edited. No AI.

Comments and suggestions welcome. Fiirst time using my new Mackie monitors.

https://soundcloud.com/mike_jf/jazz-pia ... al_sharing

ChameleonMusic · Post by **ChameleonMusic** » Sat Feb 07, 2026 4:02 pm

Overall - It definitely captures that cool jazz vibe and groove...some nice little melodic touches at times as well in the playing, although I do feel that the melodic hooks could be slightly improved rhythmically? (All opinion obviously)

Piano drums bass - pretty effective timbrally , but the trumpet / sax sounds just don't cut it sound-wise - needs much more variation in articulation / dynamics for me to be convincing...

Then again I played jazz trumpet in a quintet for a decade so I'm slightly biased regarding virtual instruments!

Mike777 · Post by **Mike777** » Sat Feb 07, 2026 4:05 pm

ChameleonMusic wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 4:02 pm Overall - It definitely captures that cool jazz vibe and groove...some nice little melodic touches at times as well in the playing, although I do feel that the melodic hooks could be slightly improved rhythmically? (All opinion obviously)

Piano drums bass - pretty effective timbrally , but the trumpet / sax sounds just don't cut it sound-wise - needs much more variation in articulation / dynamics for me to be convincing...

Then again I played jazz trumpet in a quintet for a decade so I'm slightly biased regarding virtual instruments!

Thanks! I agree about the trumpet/sax. Those are the most difficult to make. I also played trumpet in school. And I do have a jazz trumpet vst. But I liked the trumpet in Studio ONe Presence even more, because of the tone.

Mike777 · Post by **Mike777** » Mon Feb 16, 2026 2:52 pm

I've made many improvements to the piece. Same SC link in first post. Comments welcome!

"Night Train Home" - virtual jazz quintet