Audiobro Modern Scoring Brass (MSB)

[Geoff Grace]

180 days of beans and rice. I await the other demos, especially ones featuring the muted patches. But the price here is really amazing—do we know what the regular price will be?—and I wonder how OT will be able to maintain their pricing structure for Berlin Brass if the regular price for this is in the neighborhood of $799.

I had guessed $999 regular and $799 intro (and that was low by Audiobro's established standards); but after learning the intro is $599, I'll be surprised if the regular price is higher than $799. Audiobro is shaking up the marketplace with this one—both in terms of features and price!

Of course, a lot of hobbyists and low-budget composers will balk at even $599; but it's a no brainer for those earning a reasonable living at composing.

Best,

Geoff

 

[josejherring]

The tone is great. Really musical as well. Very impressive.

The only thing I'm not really liking so far is the high range of the trumpets. Suffers from the "too perfect" that it's not convincing. Need a little crackle, a little struggle, a little pitch warble in that upper range of the instrument to make it life like.

 

[Guy Rowland]

I hear huge strengths, but also some areas that concern me a little, really need to wait to hear more on vibrato which is sort of skated around, the whole ensemble and mixer pages, and a bit more forensic on dynamics. There are times when the range feels constricted but has smooth travel like in the solo trumpet section, while the sustained horns clearly have a good range but we don't hear the travel between them. Such an important area for MSB, as the phasing issues with solo instruments have always been a real problem for sample libraries, and the vibrato is also crucial... I have a feeling that it must be an effect not real recorded vibrato, which is a potential issue.

So lots to like, outstanding feature set, sounds amazing in some places and less amazing in others. Overall keen to hear more.

Delighted to eat humble pie on the price, this is definitely new territory for Audiobro and I think its pretty likely to have a ripple effect on competitors new offerings (and old, for that matter).

 

[jbuhler]

I had guessed $999 regular and $799 intro (and that was low by Audiobro's established standards); but after learning the intro is $599, I'll be surprised if the regular price is higher than $799. Audiobro is shaking up the marketplace with this one—both in terms of features and price!

Of course, a lot of hobbyists and low-budget composers will balk at even $599; but it's a no brainer for those earning a reasonable living at composing.

Best,

Geoff

I had guessed even higher ($1199), and I had sort of thought I could file this away for a potential future purchase and not have to consider it carefully right now. But this pricing has my attention, and I'm going to have to mess with the walkthroughs to see how well it might blend with libraries I have.

 

[jamwerks]

Man, I was totally wrong about the price!

 

[MrCambiata]

Some great features, besides auto-divisi I also find the keys for repeated notes and tempo-sync trills/ crescendo very useful.

 

[lucor]

I hope they'll continue to release videos through out the coming days. I'm especially curious about the newly announced Intuition Series Instruments. I'm a sucker for playable instruments like Performance Samples and Musical Sampling, and that sounds really interesting.

 

[Clawrence]

But will JXL and OT do a better job.....more money or not? It seems like OT is actively taking concepts and ideas from working composers to create a library that at the very least will be a contender. I love a lot of things about MSB....a lot. But with a hoard of brass libraries I can only justify one or the other. MSB appears to fill some playability gaps. The thing is when I started literally EVERYONE said get Berlin Brass...because it was the best. So...what to do

 

[Hans-Peter]

I was really looking forward to this one (got up early in the morning to check it out). However, is it just me or do others also hear that strong metallic ringing or hiss in all the demo tracks and video? Especially in the trombones and horns it's extremely evident. That's what concerns me!

So far I'm everything other than impressed by MSB's sound. But again, the feature set and agility of the articulations are very impressive and keep me hoping that those sound issues are just specific to those demos or can be fixed by minimal EQing. Specifically, to me it sounds like those issues stem from a bright and mechanics hall like set of IRs - to be compared with a "ressource-friendly" (read low-cost) reverb trying to mimic Carnegie Hall (in other words: Doppler Lab's implementation as found in the Here One smart in-ears). So that ringing might be easy to fix by swapping those IRs with another set. Another thing to note about the demos (, which were otherwise impressively put together) is that no brass section plays like this - I mean, at times all sections, all players play a crazy fff - perhaps due to the humanizing implementation in MSB - but normally this is something you are supposed to hold off from when aiming for a realistic mockup.

The sound might be a matter of personal taste - though, normally I tend to prefer a brighter quality in brass, which is why it surprises me nobody has noted the nasal quality of the demos yet. But, as some have pointed out, it is too early to judge the library by the demos provided so far. One can just hope that AudioBro will upload a few more walkthrough videos to give a better idea about the sound. Usually, their products belong to the very, very, very best in the business (IMO, of course).

 

[Mihkel Zilmer]

Really need to hear separate microphone positions! Not 100% convinced by the sound yet. How much (if any) reverb are we hearing in the demo video? Not a huge fan of the slightly metallic, thin tail..

Other than that - lots to like here though! Impressive engine, and that solo tuba is one of the most gorgeous sampled instrument I ever heard!

 

[jamwerks]

I've extremely impressed! Seems that they've pretty much that about everything, and a great mix of realism & playability! Horns are soooo hard to get right, but here they seem to have got it.

As for the price, they are being very aggressive & daring. That might even be lower than a normal "best-revenu" price point. That could even put other devs in a difficult position (survival-wise)!

 

[jononotbono]

So stoked for this. Sounds amazing to my ears and the intro price is fantastic. I'll definitely be buying this!

 

[ProfoundSilence]

*gulp*

Here I was hoping I'd wake up to no-good-news. Guess I'll probably be 600$ poorer. Drooling over the auto divisi - and cimbassi. Can't *hurt* having both berlin brass and MSB.(well it will probably hurt the checkbook)

 

[Brian Nowak]

I think there were really strong sounding parts. The features are certainly great. But I was not blown away by the sound. It was "fine" but not mind-shattering.

Methinks I will have to wait and see what jxl brass amounts to. But so far mum is the word on that little chunk of hope.

 

[ProfoundSilence]

I think there were really strong sounding parts. The features are certainly great. But I was not blown away by the sound. It was "fine" but not mind-shattering.

Methinks I will have to wait and see what jxl brass amounts to. But so far mum is the word on that little chunk of hope.

Im actually surprised at the response of mediocrity for the sound. I think the horn sounds iffy - but all in all, I can't fault it for the sound. Berlin brass is darker and fatter - but this contends. Brighter and thinner at top dynamics - with a tigher bottom end.

Is it rude to ask what kind of music you like? JXL's tone didn't grab me - because it's just a wall of sound. 12 trombones/trumpets sounds like hot garbage at ff to my ears. On one hand - I like adding to my "stuff sampled in teldex" but its so far beyond the scope of traditional scoring to my ears - that it just sounds like it's unapologetically sampled brass. I joke about 12 horns, but horns are weak enough that 12 of them can still sound thick.

heck even 6 bones/trumpets at ff sound as abrasive as a literal motorcycle to me.

Again, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but considering there are really only 2 fully sampled divisi libraries for brass, this is actually killer. And from me arming my template and noodling over the walkthrough, they don't sound THAT far off from each other. Major difference is that this seems to capture that ensemble interaction better than BB somehow - and it handles rhythmic patterns like a king.

It's like Berlin brass had a stepchild with some chris hein features but with way better tone. Either way, for anyone who intends to sound like a brass ensemble rather than a brass patch on a keyboard - This *seems* like it's not a weak entry.

maybe ill dig up some real recordings to AB and ill sober up about the sound.

 

[ProfoundSilence]

I mean - comparing to a real recording, with excellent players - and a top notch recording(modern) this sounds pretty good.

although It would have probably been better if the demo from audiobro kept the dynamics a little lower to keep the fatness in the bones

 

[jamwerks]

Some live recordings do treat individual close mic's with tape saturation and other, aiming to "faten" the sound. These demos probably don't even have added reverb (other than their stage ir's) much less other processing. But nothing is stopping us from doing it.

 

[Brian Nowak]

First of all, at no point did I say it sounds bad. I said it sounds "fine but not mind-shattering".

Second, as per words out of Holkenborg's mouth I seem to recall hearing regarding the upcoming library, it's supposed to be a very all-encompassing brass library. From traditional classical writing to modern film scoring. Not just blasts of brass. If it ends up just being a giant wall of sound, I'm not going to be all that interested because I've already got Ark 1-3. Is there some demo out there of jxl brass I'm unaware of? I like the sound of the brass I do have from Teldex. I'm thinking jxl brass will be like an updated Berlin brass that is able to push things a bit further.

I have CSB, which I got for $250. So I'm just not so floored by the quality of sound here I feel the need to throw $600 at it.

The auto-divisi is cool. The crescendos are cool. The attack types at all dynamics is also cool. I'm just not so taken by the sound of the library, which seems a little flattened and reminds me a bit of VSL.

Also, most of the audio was taken from demos, and we don't know for sure what type of jiggery-pokery was done to make them sound the way they do. So until I see a walkthrough with patches on display I'll stand by what I said.

It sounded fine, but not "compulsory buy" great even at that price point.

 

[jamwerks]

The fact that it's recorded centered, then artificially panned may be bothering some. Imo that can get you about 85% there, but not as good as in-situ.

When these patches play solo, then added players, I wonder if all players are panned accordingly?

 

[ProfoundSilence]

The fact that it's recorded centered, then artificially panned may be bothering some. Imo that can get you about 85% there, but not as good as in-situ.

When these patches play solo, then added players, I wonder if all players are panned accordingly?

its not too bad as long as you don't EQ the left and right the same. I've got all the reverbs anyone could reasonably want(sans spat)

as far as the JXL library - sounds like the brass in the background of the announcement(I think it was the announcement)

and it's set up like this solo x, 3a x, 6a x, 12a x.

a good argument could be made for 6a ensembles(like SSB) but 12a horns is pushing it -- and 12a bones just sound like noise. every 6a trumpet patch I've heard is unbearable to me.


this doesn't sound like the other OT libraries, but it does sound like 6a/12a patches.

And again, not saying you can't have that opinion - but given where the sample world is right now, there is only 1 real competitor library given what this is - and the tone slants towards berlin personally, but even I understand it's just a matter of taste.

CSB does not have divisi, and is in the league of Cinebrass - and faces a similar comparison(Cinebrass has better tone quality, CSB has better programming) Ironically I passed up CSB because it's not worth 250$ of an upgrade over cinebrass to me.

But thanks for atleast giving the perspective you're coming from, butlike I said, it's kind of apples to oranges.

this is the first true competitor to true divisi brass - and the tone is definitely within a matter of taste. If you like the thinner "Williams" sound - its probably better. I guess the reality is that divisi writing is not important to everyone, so it makes little sense to buy another library for the feature of having 30+ instruments sampled if you just use ensemble patches