Reason or Komplete for Brass sounds

[IMAKEMADBEATS]

Originally Posted by mequaz

SO im getting back into production and i wanna taylor my sound to have more horns and brass. I was a once time loyal reason user but that was back in reason 4. Back then i was never completly in love with reasons brass/horn sounds. I would eq, add reverb, layer them, etc. But a while back a friend of mine was playing with an all horns section in kontackt. WOW. never heard any horns in reason sound like that. Anybody else feel the same way? I love reason cause ive learned it and really like Thor, combinator, and the other synths, but lord knows those horns are not where its at. Any refills out there that sound a little bit more realistic?

man for horns, Komplete all day.

[mr.head]

kontakt libraries seem to have the best brass i have found...kontakt is in komplete...im abasolutle loving the chris heins compact right now...and its super reasonably priced!!!

[Halma]

Just want to add a new Refill that came out recently. Unfortunately I haven´t bought it but I plan to do it in the near future.

Big Fish Audio Vintage Horns

Damn, they sound totally sweet.

[mequaz]

Originally Posted by Halma

Just want to add a new Refill that came out recently. Unfortunately I haven´t bought it but I plan to do it in the near future.

Big Fish Audio Vintage Horns

Damn, they sound totally sweet.

See now something like this gives me more hope for reason. And because im used to working in Reason i wanna stay. But at the same time...i cant depend on one refill to make my decision. decision, decision.

[Zachariah]

Reason has the worst horn sounds. Yea you can get some cool patches in refills and chop up some cool samples, but reason is really lacking in the horn department.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

[gradylives]

Well, Kontakt has a ton of 3rd party instruments that are insane. CineBrass, ProjectSAM, etc, etc...I'd say kontakt has higher quality sounds available over-all for horns

[TYPHY]

are the brass in contact good for trap?
or are they mostly for orchestral pieces?

[mequaz]

Yea i think im just gonna go ahead and get Komplete and start sequencing in FL studio. (Still dont unsderstand why ppl act like you cant make hits in FL). Just dont use the stock sounds. I digress. Yea i want horns that give diffierent articulations as well. I produce hip hop but i want the horn instrumentation so good others will sample me. lol.

[Atak]

Good refills for horns are Miroslav also the Motif refills the Sonic Reality I should have mention last and also there are several decent Sound Fonts for the NNXT that are free downloads online. Hope that helps

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[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by TYPHY

are the brass in contact good for trap?
or are they mostly for orchestral pieces?

mostly orchestral.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by mequaz

Yea i think im just gonna go ahead and get Komplete and start sequencing in FL studio. (Still dont unsderstand why ppl act like you cant make hits in FL). Just dont use the stock sounds. I digress. Yea i want horns that give diffierent articulations as well. I produce hip hop but i want the horn instrumentation so good others will sample me. lol.

Are you referring to orchestral brass or jazz horns? If you are referring to orchestral sounds then Kontakt has no shortage of these or if you want to go the whole 9 yards buy a dedicated library from East West or Project Sam.
Perhaps the best libraries out now for orchestral brass.
Hollywood Brass Diamond and Gold Virtual Instruments

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Are you referring to orchestral brass or jazz horns? If you are referring to orchestral sounds then Kontakt has no shortage of these or if you want to go the whole 9 yards buy a dedicated library from East West or Project Sam.
Perhaps the best libraries out now for orchestral brass.
Hollywood Brass Diamond and Gold Virtual Instruments

What about jazz/funk horns?

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by mequaz

Yea i think im just gonna go ahead and get Komplete and start sequencing in FL studio. (Still dont unsderstand why ppl act like you cant make hits in FL). Just dont use the stock sounds. I digress. Yea i want horns that give diffierent articulations as well. I produce hip hop but i want the horn instrumentation so good others will sample me. lol.

People don't, weirdos or the disingenuinous do. that said ive been trying to persuade my writing partner to stop using fl....

Sorry for OT

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

What about jazz/funk horns?

Hmmm to tell you the truth, there are very VERY few libraries out there that try to address this and even fewer that come remotely close to any kind of realism for jazz horns. I don't know why but it seems that from a development standpoint there has not been anywhere near as much investment in the development of vsts addressing this. It might have something to do with the fact that the market is not very viable for a comprehensive jazz library not to mention most of the people interested in high quality jazz recordings are brass players themselves and record their own work and good jazz recordings nowadays are relatively cheap.

Best of the bunch I think would have to be Chris Heins horns. There is also a pretty good one from vir 2 instruments, mojo horns. East West had a brass section set for Kontakt but I think they took it off their site. Again though beware because even Chris Heins stuff in the end still sounds like semi - static samples. Problem is brass sections tend to be so dynamic with them changing all the time in a live brass section whether it be from sforzandos to long crescendos and the market just doesn't seem all too interested in a product like that.

Check em out and see if they spark your interest
Mojo: Horn Section
Chris Hein Horns Volume 1-4


If you are interested though in recording live brass here is a site.
Grammy Award Winning New York City Live Brass Sound - On Your recording! Quotes, Recording tips, How-Tos and FREE Beats

Seems highly recommended from some of the folks here at GS not to mention they have done a lot of work for some pretty big names, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna, Rick Ross and Kanye just to name a few.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Hmmm to tell you the truth, there are very VERY few libraries out there that try to address this and even fewer that come remotely close to any kind of realism for jazz horns. I don't know why but it seems that from a development standpoint there has not been anywhere near as much investment in the development of vsts addressing this. It might have something to do with the fact that the market is not very viable for a comprehensive jazz library not to mention most of the people interested in high quality jazz recordings are brass players themselves and record their own work and good jazz recordings nowadays are relatively cheap.

Best of the bunch I think would have to be Chris Heins horns. There is also a pretty good one from vir 2 instruments, mojo horns. East West had a brass section set for Kontakt but I think they took it off their site. Again though beware because even Chris Heins stuff in the end still sounds like semi - static samples. Problem is brass sections tend to be so dynamic with them changing all the time in a live brass section whether it be from sforzandos to long crescendos and the market just doesn't seem all too interested in a product like that.

Check em out and see if they spark your interest
Mojo: Horn Section
Chris Hein Horns Volume 1-4


If you are interested though in recording live brass here is a site.
Grammy Award Winning New York City Live Brass Sound - On Your recording! Quotes, Recording tips, How-Tos and FREE Beats

Seems highly recommended from some of the folks here at GS not to mention they have done a lot of work for some pretty big names, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna, Rick Ross and Kanye just to name a few.

Thats been my experience... Best i heard a few years ago was garritan. It wasnt great but better than everything else but not for me

And jazz style i can live with out as its just something that wont translate but funk horns are far simpler. Often staccato and sparser in arrangement

A round robin of various length stabs and stuff which you could stack realistically shouldn't be hard to do... Emulating a new orleans marching band would be (if i can paraphrase) like fitting wheels to a tomato - time consuming and ultimately pointless :D

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Hmmm to tell you the truth, there are very VERY few libraries out there that try to address this and even fewer that come remotely close to any kind of realism for jazz horns. I don't know why but it seems that from a development standpoint there has not been anywhere near as much investment in the development of vsts addressing this. It might have something to do with the fact that the market is not very viable for a comprehensive jazz library not to mention most of the people interested in high quality jazz recordings are brass players themselves and record their own work and good jazz recordings nowadays are relatively cheap.

Best of the bunch I think would have to be Chris Heins horns. There is also a pretty good one from vir 2 instruments, mojo horns. East West had a brass section set for Kontakt but I think they took it off their site. Again though beware because even Chris Heins stuff in the end still sounds like semi - static samples. Problem is brass sections tend to be so dynamic with them changing all the time in a live brass section whether it be from sforzandos to long crescendos and the market just doesn't seem all too interested in a product like that.

Check em out and see if they spark your interest
Mojo: Horn Section
Chris Hein Horns Volume 1-4


If you are interested though in recording live brass here is a site.
Grammy Award Winning New York City Live Brass Sound - On Your recording! Quotes, Recording tips, How-Tos and FREE Beats

Seems highly recommended from some of the folks here at GS not to mention they have done a lot of work for some pretty big names, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna, Rick Ross and Kanye just to name a few.

Thanks for the suggestions though, perhaps ill find what im looking for

[Tnevz]

Originally Posted by mr.head

kontakt libraries seem to have the best brass i have found...kontakt is in komplete...im abasolutle loving the chris heins compact right now...and its super reasonably priced!!!

Kontakt!

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

Emulating a new orleans marching band would be (if i can paraphrase) like fitting wheels to a tomato - time consuming and ultimately pointless :D

Lol this is going to be my new quote whenever someone asks me about this again, has happened to me several times. Programmed for several hours then at the end of it all I took a listen and said...forget this.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

Thanks for the suggestions though, perhaps ill find what im looking for

Hope it works out, whenever I have the chance, I'm just going to record live and thankfully they are very reasonable in their pricing especially considering who they have worked with in the past.

[jdsowa]

Music & Arts, which is a nationwide retailer, rents trumpets for $25/mo and tenor saxes for $45. They also have trombone, but you need to be a dedicated trombone player in order to have an easy facility with the slide positions, so I just bought a valve trombone instead for practicality. I just gradually learned how to play them over the years. Was thinking of offering a horn section recording service over the internet, but the painful process is probably not worth the low rate I could charge.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Hope it works out, whenever I have the chance, I'm just going to record live and thankfully they are very reasonable in their pricing especially considering who they have worked with in the past.

I am seriously interested in this and def gonna check them put, now i just need similar services for pianos snd drum tracks :D

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Lol this is going to be my new quote whenever someone asks me about this again, has happened to me several times. Programmed for several hours then at the end of it all I took a listen and said...forget this.

Yep, oddly enough my orchestral emulations are listenable but any dub or funk horn section ive tried to emulate has sucked

My last brainwave was to split the horns sonically using microtuning and different mic emus and all that kind of thing... Still sounded GM :mad:

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

I am seriously interested in this and def gonna check them put, now i just need similar services for pianos snd drum tracks :D

you are in luck

Check this site out

Drum Tracks, Session Musicians, Online Studio - GoranGrooves.com

They do everything from drums to keys to bass. Dude has some serious drum chops. Pricing is very affordable as well, same as the previous site. Depending on the instrument anyway but as far as I saw the price was the same as the horns on the previous site, this was for drums. Haven't checked for the other instruments. They also do horns on this site as well. They have some examples on the website but for the life of me I can't figure out how to listen to them but from the looks of it they all are serious accomplished musicians. Hopefully you have better luck than I and hope they can provide what you are looking for.

[3rd Degree]

I know nothing about Komplete but I am not happy with Reason horns. There are some decent patches for a one shot but it's hard to find any that are "expressive" which is one reason I love brass instruments. Even when using multiple patches for one melody, I can only get about 80% of where I want and that is a lot of work to get it all to mesh.


I have found brass instruments, in general, to suck. I don't know if Komplete will do the job either, if it's like most other soundbanks I have used. What you can do, which is a pain, is find actual recorded trumpets in royalty free soundbanks. You then just take all the loops, put them in a daw so you have one long loop, chop that up. Then you have a bunch of one shots you can arrange into a melody. The big problem with this is they are not arranged chromatically. For someone who chops up samples all day, this doesn't bug me, though I may end up with a horn section melody that I didn't really initially plan on. It's also a pain when you can't find the right note, with the right sound. You may be looking for a heavy A# but only have a muted A#, for example. These are also hard to layer up.


If you have played any type of wood wind, and you know how to read sheet music, you may consider just buying one. I have been playing on doing this for awhile. I then want to take some lessons (fairly expensive), but only really focus on tone, not trying to learn the instrument thoroughly.

You likely only need to have the skills of an average 6th grader in school band but you do need to have good/great tone to make it work. I know I got by in band because my teacher taught me great tone, even though I wasn't particularly talented in classical (clarinet). My high school teacher said I that I basically sucked (I really didn't care much at that point) but he wanted to keep me because my actual sound was one of the best he had heard. I can only attribute that to my private teacher I had when I first started.


The other obvious thing is paying for a session player. I don't know a brass player myself so it's not something I can afford. I can get people to lay down guitar all day for free, violin sometimes, just no brass players that are still local to me.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

Yep, oddly enough my orchestral emulations are listenable but any dub or funk horn section ive tried to emulate has sucked

My last brainwave was to split the horns sonically using microtuning and different mic emus and all that kind of thing... Still sounded GM :mad:

Tell me about it, I have tried pretty much just about everything to try and get the funk horn sound, from micro tuning, to tiny amounts of distortion to layer upon layer upon layer, I have pretty much given up on making brass of this nature sound realistic.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Tell me about it, I have tried pretty much just about everything to try and get the funk horn sound, from micro tuning, to tiny amounts of distortion to layer upon layer upon layer, I have pretty much given up on making brass of this nature sound realistic.

It's definitely been one of my most futile musical endevours...

Before i knew what i was doing i tried GM horns, a nanosecond later i realised it was not just the wrong path it was just wrong, it was anti music

Years later i had same the bright idea as explained above, i used the george clinton p funk stems cds and had exact same problems in finding the exact note/expression combos i needed

I braved it again with garritan, really liked some of their lead sounds but they just wouldn't stack or play nice together or sound in any way pleasing so yeah wish i could say it has been fun

As a guitarist i should have realised that horns fall into the same un-emulatable camp but had to bloody persist with it didn't I? :rolleyes:

[KevWest]

Reason brass sounds have not been updated but there are brass refills if you dig Reason. Try Kontakt player its free and it comes with a few brass patches and if you decide you like it its expandable and you can even upgrade to the full version of Kontakt. Best of both worlds as long as you don't mind rewire.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

As a guitarist i should have realised that horns fall into the same un-emulatable camp but had to bloody persist with it didn't I? :rolleyes:

Lol we live and we learn my friend, we live and we learn.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Lol we live and we learn my friend, we live and we learn.

:D