Hey all,
I've just got my hands on kick ass brass reason refill. Although the samples are great when played separately, i'm having a hard time making them sound "real" when i play them in succession of one another like in a phrase or melody. It's frustrating as the demos sound so good.. So, does anyone know how to make great brass samples sound less synthetic when soloing them?
Cheers,
Matt

I'm confused, restate the question. You're saying that they sound good separately, but saying they don't when soloed.

Joe

Are you saying that the horns sound good when you just play them by themselves one note at a time, but they don't when you put a melody together of horn notes?

Joe

Hey,
Sorry if i was unclear. Yeah, when i play a melody with, say a trumpet or sax, the sample (trumpet) itself sounds fake and synthetic. I guess it has something to do with how each note leads into the next, its decay and the next notes attack. I'm just finding it hard to make an entire melody of notes sound smooth and fluent and it's killin me because the samples were top dollar and as i said, sound awesome when you play them as single notes.
Cheers

You can trying changing the attack/decay/sustain/release.

I always find reverb helps but you need to think about its decay setting, so it suits the melody tempo.

Others tips might be to play the instrument "live" and don't quantize, or check out the re-groove.

Try layering them and changing the length of the note on the seperate splits.

There's a few idea's.

Well, it also has a lot to do with the style that you're shooting for. If you can give me an idea as to the style you're after then I might be able to give you a couple of pointers.

I'm gonna try to paste a link to some short pieces of tunes I've done using horns . I tried to give it a Tower of Power horn feel with the bari sax. These horns are just the horns that came with Reason. I don't have the refill pkg. If you think Titan's dated, wait till you hear this. Old, old school.


http://media.putfile.com/trumpet-and-horns-mp3

Click here to watch funk-MP3

http://media.putfile.com/percy-mp3

Joe

Hey,
Thanks for the samples... Although the horns themselves that come with reason sound synthetic, you manage to make the 'performance' sound real. I particularly like the first link (www.....trumpet-and-horns.Mp3). The fast ascending runs over a full range sound really good man, how did you get that effect? That's what i'm having problems with. I need my piece to sound as if it was played by a trumpeter and saxophonist. It's a half an hour jazz piece, kind of "blue note" jazz, the trumpet similar to Miles Davis, a little wishful i know. The sustained notes are no drama, they're sounding great, it's just the short and fast runs between each sustained note that are sounding a little "fake". Thanks heaps mate,

Matt

Matt,

Thanks for the nice words on my music. You're not gonna believe how I did the fast trumpet runs on Trumpet and Horns. I used Bomes virtual keyboard. I used the mouse pointer to get those runs. I suppose you could get that effect on your real keyboard by slowing the music down and run your finger up and down. Never tried it, but think that it would work.

When you play horns on your keyboard, you have to think like a horn player. For example, take a basic progression like C to F. If you play the 1 3 5 of the C chord going to the 1 3 5 of the F chord, it would not sound authentic. 1 3 5 in C would be c e g and F would be f a c. So, the change would go like this: the c note would hold through the change, the e would go to f, and the g would go to a. In other words the voicing is very important.

Now, some other things to consider. The note duration is important. Try not to make each note the same duration. Well, not make every note different, but break it up a little. Also, most horn players don't play every single note the same volume. Maybe hit hard on a note then let it get a little softer and then bring it back up. Then, the next note might be a little softer altogether. Play around with that some.

Now for horn selection. I don't do it the same way every time, but this'll give you an idea. I might pick a brass section, then add a bari sax on a different sequencer. Then maybe add a trumpet or two moving more independently. Then, I will sometimes add a sax section, group the brass and drag it to the sax section so that they all are play the same riff. I will sometimes pan the brass a little one way and pan the sax section another. Then according to the style, add some reverb, maybe some eq, maybe some compression.

It's gonna be a tough one to play like Miles, but give it a try. My fav horn player is Charlie Parker.

Hope this has helped. Why don't you try somthing and post it, or send it to me privately. Then I might be able to pick up something that would help.

Joe

Hey Joe,

Thanks for taking the time out mate, really appreciate it. I'll take all that onboard and see how it goes. I'm used to playing all my instruments live with a MIDI controller but a keyboard and a brass instrument are worlds apart you know. Perhaps a bit of mouse work may be the answer. I'll let you know how it turns out, i'm just at the end at writing my thesis and then i'll tackle the piece.

If you want to check out some of my other work, i have two pieces posted on this website.

http://www.noise.net/mattcartwright

In my profile, just click on 'work' and they should come up. Both were written in reason, recorded the live instruments in Protools. I'll be in touch in around a month when the tracks finished. Take it easy mate,

Matt

Matt,

Went to your site and only one tune would come up. It's the one with a piano intro, and later, some chanting with a lot of reverb. Well, the recording sounded very good, but the style was a little too far out there for me, but then again, I'm really old school.

Off topic, I see that you do video. Can you, or anybody else, recommend some software for video editing? Something free or not too pricey? I want to edit some footage of my band and post it on my soon to be web site. I just want to cut and paste where one song stops and another begins.

Thanks again and good luck with your horns.

Joe