# Untold Stories - Caspian Brass (Demo)



## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 28, 2017)

Hej Guys,

So this is a mixed post. This track is part of a project where I study with other composers style in orchestration, but it is also a track where I used Caspian Brass and did some beta testing for the patches. I am very excited about that new brass library and I think it is very playable and has very good dynamics. I am a composer and not collector of sample vi´s, I wouldn´t support something of what I don´t think is cool but here I think it is really a great product and Jasper really deserves having some good sales with his new library.
My track is "Not modern", but you can use the library also with its more decca and wide micings to get that more epic sound. Just to clarify that, so everything sounds here much more close miced therefore not that huge, but you have a lot of details in the music. So that is an honest demo which means I stress tested Caspian Brass with a lot of agile lines and writing and extremes in dynamics. Such things are often with other brass libraries very difficult and demand a lot of post production midi editing and tweakings which isn´t here the case. And that is great because it speeds up your workflow and keeps you focussed on the music. So this library falls into the category of a performance friendly library, one patch for everything, for shorts, longs, swells, repetition staccs etc. etc. The whole template uses just "3" midi channels for the whole brass department and additonal 25 for all of the rest. (19 GB)

Brass I used here:
Caspian Brass

Only the tuba was from ADB
Strings: Hollywood Strings
Winds: Spitfire Winds, Orchestral Tools
PRC: Spitfire Percussion

Hope you try it out. And the intro price actually is really a steal imo..ecspecially what you get.



Brass only:


----------



## rottoy (Nov 28, 2017)

Absolutely wonderful writing and showcase of Caspian Brass!


----------



## sotosonic (Nov 28, 2017)

Thanks for the demo - Caspian Brass sounds great


----------



## Cass Hansen (Nov 28, 2017)

Boy Alexander, you’ve grown exponentially in your compositional chops over the past few months. Your studies you’ve eluded to have really paid off! Your orchestration was always impressive but now so are your compositions! Kudos! _(had to go back and listen to some of recent posts because of my absence here of late.)_

The one thing that always impresses me when hearing your music is the inherent internalized dynamic energy you display in all your music plus the unstoppable drive, forward momentum, to the finale of the piece. You’re one of the very best here regarding that aspect of music. Keep up the great work!

This is a great across-the-board demo for Caspian Brass. They should be very pleased indeed.

You chose to have a fairly dry sound stage and for the brass to use close micing to demonstrate detail and tonal clarity. Good choice! I have no problem with this because it does focus on the capabilities and color of the Caspian brass library. Further, it really helps in hearing the quality of the release tails of the brass without the addition of reverb smoothing, and I found them to be excellent!. The strings also are not as “wide” which again is a good choice because it lets the brass resonate better and doesn’t have to fight string EQ interference.

But the timpani…. It bothered me a bit. Either you have two sets, one on the R and L stage playing in unison, or you have one of the mics panned way over, opposite of the close mic, or you’re using some kind of delay bounce. Not sure what it is but it was distracting because the timpani then envelopes the whole stereo field where as everything else is kept fairly narrow. The effect is that it covers up the lower brass every time the mallets hit their mark. 

In keeping with the “showcase” intention of the brass in this demo, I would keep the timpani in one location, preferably on the right ( 1st violin side of the stage), away from most of the brass on the left stage, especially the lower brass. Small detail I know, but I thought I’d mention it.

At any rate, excellent track, wonderful composition, brilliant brass, you’ve convinced me to buy it!

Cass


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 29, 2017)

Cass Hansen said:


> Boy Alexander, you’ve grown exponentially in your compositional chops over the past few months. Your studies you’ve eluded to have really paid off! Your orchestration was always impressive but now so are your compositions! Kudos! _(had to go back and listen to some of recent posts because of my absence here of late.)_
> 
> The one thing that always impresses me when hearing your music is the inherent internalized dynamic energy you display in all your music plus the unstoppable drive, forward momentum, to the finale of the piece. You’re one of the very best here regarding that aspect of music. Keep up the great work!
> 
> ...



Hej Cass, 
You are too kind with your words regarding the music here. What can I say..thank you...I will check out the thing with the timpani. I guess point for me was still using more of the tree / ambient micings to keep that "smashing impacty" which gets lost pretty due to its recording (Spitfire Timpani). Maybe I try a different one also..
One thing: When you have the brass please let me know your opinion and impressions. I am very interested what you have to say. Thank you and hopefully I will get to hear more great piano works from you. The last one was astonishing.(revenge of the duppie)..just thinking of great composers like you are.


----------



## Saxer (Nov 29, 2017)

Great stuff!


----------



## leon chevalier (Nov 29, 2017)

Good one !


----------



## Iskra (Nov 30, 2017)

Great piece Alexander! I enjoyed it a lot. Actually it's the kind of composition that everyone would enjoy, nice melodies (specially liked the 'oriental turn' at 2.30 aprox and the following dramatic development), wonderful variety of orchestration, and balanced sound.
The only thing that sticks out a bit are the pauken, as cass mentioned above, specially at the beginning of the piece and on the more 'fanfarrish' parts. Too much presence because of the Spitfire timpani body? Anyhow, it's a negligible detail, all in all, great track.
Plus, brass sounds terrific, and if that can be done in 3 single tracks that's obviously a big plus on easiness and playability for Caspian Brass. Did you have to mix the brass (eq'ing, reverb?) too much?


----------



## mac (Nov 30, 2017)

Nice @AlexanderSchiborr. The middle section gave me Silvestri feels, then I noticed the image you used for the track 

If you're a logic user, how was the cpu usage? More importantly, will this realistically be replacing anything in your template, or even staying in there full time?


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 30, 2017)

Thank you again, guys. Glad you enjoyed the Demo. And yes the timpani feels a bit heavy. Actually I was afraid to lose too much of the timpanis impact by working with too dry signals as things like that live through tree / ambienc micings but I will look that up to get that fixed.

To the question: Sometimes I noticed also some spikes in the kontakt but not that it makes with playback or recording any problems. Actually I don´t have any.

The brass is pretty much sound "of the box". No additonal reverb. What I did was some slight eq, so a slight attenuation on the upper mids and a slight boost on the highs..but thats it. The room is what the micings give to me. The settings are really flexible which is good and lets you dial in from very direct sounds to a lot of epic ambience with the wide micings.


----------



## mac (Nov 30, 2017)

@AlexanderSchiborr and is it going to be replacing anything in your template?


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 30, 2017)

mac said:


> @AlexanderSchiborr and is it going to be replacing anything in your template?



Oh Sorry.. I just forgot that..
Yes I will do and already do. The template was build last week from scratch and since then I work with it. I don´t feel I need actually for this kind of music much other stuff. Sure the tuba is missing which I said that I supplement from another library. But apart from that I am very happy also how quick I get results which also sound great and that is a big point for me.

Edit: Oh man..Yes and Cubase 6.5 64 bit, Win 7 64 bit here..


----------



## Quasar (Nov 30, 2017)

Bravo!


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 30, 2017)

I actually added the Hollywood percussion Timpani and Bassdrum to my template and tested around how they would add something to the sound. I used a mix of 3 micings, like a bit close, mostly room, but also vintage surround. So, in the long run I am going to replace probably the old timpani and bassdrum with those sounds. Also I used different and new crash cymbals. This is not Untold Stories, but a sneek peek alpha of my next track which I started today using also Caspian Brass.


----------



## Musician32 (Nov 30, 2017)

Great piece


----------



## FruitBat (Dec 2, 2017)

Really enjoyed your composition Alexander, some minor comments on the modulations (Peaks) at the start otherwise great work!


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Dec 2, 2017)

FruitBat said:


> Really enjoyed your composition Alexander, some minor comments on the modulations (Peaks) at the start otherwise great work!



Sure, cool that you like it. Though it is just minor, just let me know what you suggest or would do different.


----------



## chrisphan (Dec 2, 2017)

Would you use this in your template for actual productions, or only write sketches with them? I love the idea of flexible playability but also keep thinking it can't replace keyswitch when it comes to realism. Am I wrong?


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Dec 2, 2017)

chrisphan said:


> Would you use this in your template for actual productions, or only write sketches with them? I love the idea of flexible playability but also keep thinking it can't replace keyswitch when it comes to realism. Am I wrong?



No, not only for sketching. I am planning to use it in my next productions for sure. I was raving about the playbility but the tone is also great in my opinion. Wait I am gonna upload a brass only rendering. And forget about keyswitching. You don´t need that.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Dec 2, 2017)

chrisphan said:


> Would you use this in your template for actual productions, or only write sketches with them? I love the idea of flexible playability but also keep thinking it can't replace keyswitch when it comes to realism. Am I wrong?



here we go..


----------



## chrisphan (Dec 2, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> here we go..



That sounds really nice indeed. Do you think it would add anything if I already owned HB gold?


----------



## FruitBat (Dec 3, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Sure, cool that you like it. Though it is just minor, just let me know what you suggest or would do different.



Hi Alexander,

The strings are the beginning, around 4s in, rise and fall too quick (I think you call them hairpins?), so they sound artificial. If you softened this a bit, have a softer release, i think it would sound more natural. 

Cheers
Stephen


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Dec 4, 2017)

chrisphan said:


> That sounds really nice indeed. Do you think it would add anything if I already owned HB gold?



I like hollywood brass a lot. I did not yet tried to mockup that performance brass with HWB, but my guess it will be much more work and probably not sound that "fluid" because of the articulation system approach which you don´t have with caspian brass. So..point for me is you have a more consistent performance with caspian brass.

I am actually working on this one:



And here shows it again for me..I had very less tweaking with capian brass and the brass you hear is done with 3 midi channels..


----------

