# HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier (Revised version posted for comparison)



## José Herring (Oct 14, 2011)

Testing out HB solo brass. Give me your thoughts.

http://soundcloud.com/jherringmusic/req ... en-soldier

B Version:

http://soundcloud.com/jherringmusic/req ... -soldier-1

C Version: Fuller Forte Brass Choir

http://soundcloud.com/jherringmusic/req ... -soldier-2


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## rgames (Oct 14, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*

Nice, especially the choir towards the end.

To me it feels like it needs a bit more space around the solo tpt - that line seems to want a more distant feel, not quite so close.

The sound is good but the vibrato might be a bit too wide in some spots, especially when the rest of the brass joins in. At that point, it seems like it doesn't have the coherence of a brass choir because of the vibrato on the lead trumpet, it's sort of like brass choir with solo trumpet on top. But maybe that's what you want...!

rgames


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## trumpoz (Oct 14, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*

Lovely piece - the solo trumpet is a really tough instrument to get right, you did a very nice job. I agree about the vibrato - it seems very wide for this style, and IMHO as a trumpet player it starts too early in the note (though we are all at the discretion of samples). When the tpt plays 8va you have the sonority and timbre of the instrument close to spot on....... it sounds great o=< 

Just an interpretive thought, maybe you could slightly lean on the groups of two semi-quavers (slightly lengthen them and fractional louder)? If I were playing that line, that is how I would interpret it. 

The French Horn programming sounds excellent and works well with the 2nd trumpet. 

I haven't really worked with the solo trombone in HB - but in that register (2 octaves down from the tpt) it just seemed to stick out a fraction too much for my ears. It may just be the timbre of the instrument in that register though. 

Again, the piece sounds great.


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## José Herring (Oct 14, 2011)

Thanks for listening guys. Your observations are spot on. That's what I was feeling.

The Tbone was tough. No matter what I did I couldn't find the right solo tbone sound. Even soloed it didn't sound right and the doubling probably will change it later on or maybe come up with another line.

I chose the vibrato patch for the trumpet because the other patches were just not warm enough. I think if I spend more time on it I'll try and go back and forth between the nonvibrato patch and the vibrato one. I wish they had found a way to do modwheel vibrato like in HS.

I'll post a revision with non vibrato patches later tonight and see if I can get more of that cohesive brass quintet sound. I know this library is capable of it. I just need to figure out how to do it. It could be just a balance issue. We'll see.

Good ear on the semiquavers. I leaned on them a little in second part of the piece because I couldn't hear them. I could lean on them more in the solo. It could give it a little more expression.

At any rate I'm so stoked about this library because for the first time I was able to actually get out something that resembled a melody using solo instruments.


Thx again for listening. Very helpful as I figure this library out.


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## Jimbo 88 (Oct 15, 2011)

Yeh the vibrato is kinda of off for me. I think besides what the others are saying, the vibrato is exactly the same each time, giving away the fact that it is a sample.


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## EastWest Lurker (Oct 15, 2011)

Jimbo 88 @ Sat Oct 15 said:


> Yeh the vibrato is kinda of off for me. I think besides what the others are saying, the vibrato is exactly the same each time, giving away the fact that it is a sample.



Personally, I don't cae. What I here in Jose's piece and here as I am playing it now is that it sounds gorgeous and inspires me to write in an emotional manner. I will be using this patch a lot!


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## chimuelo (Oct 15, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*

Ladies & Gentlemen....Jose.
Nice. It reminds me of the Brass Quartet in the movie Clear & Present Danger when they were pulling the Caskets of the fallen DEA/FBI guys off of the plane.
HB Sounds good. 
I'd love to hear the Pines Of Rome using HB..


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## JohnG (Oct 15, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*

sounds great Jose. More reverb! and / or maybe add a mic position on the trumpet to give it a bit extra depth.


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## José Herring (Oct 15, 2011)

Thx for listening guys!

Chim, I was thinking of doing a big bad Pines of Rome type piece next. TJ said that with the slur sus accent patches you can do 99% of what a real brass section can do, so I wanted to put that to the test.

I'll experiment with more verb. As for more mics, I'll need to get the upgrade. I was thinking that the midtree mixed in would work really nicely.


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## JohnG (Oct 15, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*



chimuelo @ 15th October 2011 said:


> Ladies & Gentlemen....Jose.



hmm-- is there deep irony in this opening?


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## José Herring (Oct 15, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*



JohnG @ Sat Oct 15 said:


> chimuelo @ 15th October 2011 said:
> 
> 
> > Ladies & Gentlemen....Jose.
> ...



I'd think he wasn't being honest if he treated me in any other way.


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## dogforester (Oct 15, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*

What a lovely tune Jose, wish it was longer! o=<


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## José Herring (Oct 15, 2011)

*Re: HB Solo Brass--- Requiem for a Fallen Soldier*



dogforester @ Sat Oct 15 said:


> What a lovely tune Jose, wish it was longer! o=<



Thank you.

I got a plan to extend it, adding a choir section and then perhaps some additional orchestration. Having used the library for only a week I just wanted to get this out and get some comments. I'm so thrilled with this library. I'm not a keyboard player or a guitar player so I think of music primarily as interconnected melodic lines. Since my primary musical medium has become samples in the past 5 years, I had been struggling because I was never fully able to get expressive lines with any sample library. HB has opened up that world again and this piece only took a short amount of time. I probably only spent 3 hours on it. Hopefully when I can afford HS I'll find the same thing. From what I've heard of HS I think its capable of doing what I need even if the programming may be a little more challenging with HS. In the end, I'm so excited with the direction of HB. It just seems to be perfect for what I like to do. Hopefully I can get others to like it too!


Jose


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## noiseboyuk (Oct 16, 2011)

Hi Jose - yes I agree with the general comments. Nice piece, more reverb on the solo instruments. Without wanting to start a debate on it, this kind of part is tonally exactly right for the CineBrass solo instruments out of the box, though the range there in the basic version is limiting. I'd love to hear a 2nd version of yours with HB and with all the comments taken into account, which would make a really interesting A/B comparison.


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## Pochflyboy (Oct 16, 2011)

Yeah I have to agree that the low dynamics tone off of Cinebrass would maybe fit this a little bit better. Though different Mics and appropriate reverb will really excel this bit. Excellent piece though. Some good room added to the piece and it will sound great!


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## José Herring (Oct 16, 2011)

I'll do a version with the non vib trumpet patch and add some reverb. Funny. I was trying to make this piece kind of an up close and personal brass sound, which I don't think cinebrass can do. I kind of wrote this piece in response to a poster that was complaining about the solo trumpet sound. So I brought up the solo trp and started just noodling around and out came this melody, which I though sounded pretty good.

To my ears though this library beats the demos I've heard of cinebrass. To be honest I'd been so fooled in the past with confusing great samples with a great room sound that I really payed a lot of attention to the quality of the sampled instrument when debating whether to go with HB or cinebrass. Cinebrass sounds great, but 50% of that sound is just the great room. The actual samples themselves aren't that impressive to me. The Legato doesn't actually sound that good in Cinebrass and a lot of the single notes just aren't that expressive. I'm also miffed that I had asked for a demo from cinebrass of brass choir stuff, they said that would be easy, yet several months later I haven't heard anything. So I guess not so easy.

But, I'm hoping that they improve upon the actual quality of the samples they capture for cinepro because I'd like to get it.

Jose


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## José Herring (Oct 16, 2011)

Replaced trumpet with non-vibrato patch. Also, changed a few of the inner parts. I wish I could experiment with more mic positions, but alas I don't have them.

Oh also added a bit more reverb. Used the reverb that comes with the library, then added a deep hall from the TC electronic IR from Peter Roos Samplicity.

B version:

http://soundcloud.com/jherringmusic/req ... -soldier-1


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## José Herring (Oct 17, 2011)

Uploaded a C version with a louder brass choir 

http://soundcloud.com/jherringmusic/req ... -soldier-2


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## noiseboyuk (Oct 17, 2011)

josejherring @ Mon Oct 17 said:


> Uploaded a C version with a louder brass choir
> 
> http://soundcloud.com/jherringmusic/req ... -soldier-2



That sounds more natural to me, Jose - nice work! It does feel like it needs a bit of a halfway house vibrato-wise, but this is definitely the better of the two. Funnily enough I just had a noodle with Cinebrass on this piece. I think the CB tone and vibrato is spot on for this, BUT I have to be honest there are numerous issues which prevent it working well in practice on this (uneven transitions etc). I know there's more in depth soloists in CB Pro, but in this particular shoot out, HB wins for me.


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## trumpoz (Oct 17, 2011)

Guy beat me to it - it needs *some* vibrato. Definately the Bb @ 1:02 and in longer notes whilst the trumpet is playing 8va. I think in version r2 the trumpet needs to come up a bit when the choir enters.... a sparkling tone like that needs to soar, almost like an eb cornet in a brass band and it is slightly obscured to my (biased towards trumpets) ear.... I preferred the balance in the original.

These are small things - HB is a great library and I look forward to seeing what else you can do with it.


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## José Herring (Oct 17, 2011)

Yes. I found myself wanting a patch that has light vibrato. The fully vibrato patch is too heavy and the non vibrato patch is a little too straight for my taste, but as far as samples go I have to admit that this library kicks ass!


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