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Audiobro Modern Scoring Brass (MSB)

Over reading on another forum and see that some like the trombones and dislike the horns. I'm just the opposite. In any case, looking forward to the closer look video on the trombones which will hopefully convince me.
 
Over reading on another forum and see that some like the trombones and dislike the horns. I'm just the opposite. In any case, looking forward to the closer look video on the trombones which will hopefully convince me.
As someone who played trombone back in high school, nothing professional by any means, but I would say the only odd sounds I'm noticing is that dynamic range that a trombone typically would not play in an arrangement. The high notes in the beginning would have taken quite a lot out of me to perform and the low notes were waaay lower than anything a trombone player would typically play, so in real life (at least by high school standards:) ) the trombone would not cover such high and low ground but be more in the middle, which to my ears sounds pretty good. I did notice a bit of a metallic sound that I didn't like but it wasn't too bad and in a mix would probably be less noticeable. Overall, I am glad they gave the instrument the range they did because I'd rather have more than enough range than too little (here's looking at you Tina Guo Legato).
 
As someone who played trombone back in high school, nothing professional by any means, but I would say the only odd sounds I'm noticing is that dynamic range that a trombone typically would not play in an arrangement. The high notes in the beginning would have taken quite a lot out of me to perform and the low notes were waaay lower than anything a trombone player would typically play, so in real life (at least by high school standards:) ) the trombone would not cover such high and low ground but be more in the middle, which to my ears sounds pretty good. I did notice a bit of a metallic sound that I didn't like but it wasn't too bad and in a mix would probably be less noticeable. Overall, I am glad they gave the instrument the range they did because I'd rather have more than enough range than too little (here's looking at you Tina Guo Legato).
Old trombone player myself, though I haven’t touched the instrument in decades. Maybe I was distracted by the extreme registers. (I agree completely that it’s nice they covered the range.) But the usual register sounded to me generically brass. I am most interested in hearing the trombones and the horns side by side to alleviate my concerns. (Or maybe when I get back to my rig I’ll isolate that chunk of Guy’s file and find something similar in one of the horn demonstrations.)
 
Old trombone player myself, though I haven’t touched the instrument in decades. Maybe I was distracted by the extreme registers. (I agree completely that it’s nice they covered the range.) But the usual register sounded to me generically brass. I am most interested in hearing the trombones and the horns side by side to alleviate my concerns. (Or maybe when I get back to my rig I’ll isolate that chunk of Guy’s file and find something similar in one of the horn demonstrations.)
I know I was distracted by the extreme registers at first but when I went back and listened to the middle part over and over I found the tone to be pretty pleasing, but like you I have not played in decades so I have no real world frame of reference.
 
It's taken me a while to figure this out, but what is labelled as "Trombones" is not a hybrid of Altos, Tenors and Basses to stretch the range, but must in fact be pure Tenor Trombones, with the pitch extremes extended by stretching the samples. So in addition to the Trombones I did a quick demo on, there are additional patches for 1x Alto Trombones, and 2x Bass Trombones. So all in, you have 2 different Trumpet patches featuring Bb, C and Piccolo, 2 different horns patches covering 8 horns in total, plus separate Alto, Bass and Tenor Trombones patches, Cimbassi, Tuba, Euphonium and Flugelhorn. PLUS the Intuition series.

Its a beast. A beastly beast.
 
It's a busy few weeks so bear with me!
I have it on good authority that by far the easiest way to write a tune is by using dogs, so things may go more smoothly if you enlist their help. (Source)

Seriously though, thanks as usual for your examples, Guy. They're always very helpful. Looking forward to more!

Best,

Geoff
 
As a euphonium player I don't love the euphonium, it doesn't sound great, but euphs often get overlooked anyways, I doubt it got as much attention as trumpets/horns/etc
 
A user on the sound board posted this one(they gave permission in the thread that examples can be cross posted here):

I like the trombones here, and despite some strange rhythmic choices - the brass does sound very cohesive here. Although not quite as thick and warm as teldex - I think the space seems real.(And ofcourse it's nice to hear a more mp-mf demo)

*I downloaded the file and uploaded it here for convenience, but if for any reason that user wants me to remove it - simply private message me*

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/msbaltiverb-mp3.19659/][/AUDIOPLUS]
 

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As a euphonium player I don't love the euphonium, it doesn't sound great, but euphs often get overlooked anyways, I doubt it got as much attention as trumpets/horns/etc
It will be a shame if they cut any corners on the Euphonium as that's one of the elements that makes this library stand out from the competition for me. I will have to wait to see how it sounds in the relevant Closer Look video when it's up. I wasn't sold on the trumpets or horns until they did their closer look videos for them, so I'm reserving my judgement on the other instruments until the upcoming videos are posted.
 
It will be a shame if they cut any corners on the Euphonium as that's one of the elements that makes this library stand out from the competition for me. I will have to wait to see how it sounds in the relevant Closer Look video when it's up. I wasn't sold on the trumpets or horns until they did their closer look videos for them, so I'm reserving my judgement on the other instruments until the upcoming videos are posted.
Agreed I'm only currently basing my opinion on stuff that has been posted here so far.
 
Still can't believe they included an Alto Trombone & 2nd Tuba before a Contrebass Trombone! Tuba unison with Contrebass Trombone is instant low-end balls. The bells on the Cimbassi are similar to Tenor Trombones (iinm) and don't really serve the same purpose. Oh well...
 
Still can't believe they included an Alto Trombone & 2nd Tuba before a Contrebass Trombone! Tuba unison with Contrebass Trombone is instant low-end balls. The bells on the Cimbassi are similar to Tenor Trombones (iinm) and don't really serve the same purpose. Oh well...

it's a very strange choice - but honestly I'm okay with that. bass trombone and cimbassi cover a lot of ground. Especially considering they sampled so many instruments that haven't been sampled individually to this degree.
 
In this saga of a thread, I've read some fairly funky statements, and also some smart and educated ones. If you'll all indulge me, I'd like to add my 2 cents as well. You may find them to thoughtful words from experience, or simply a ranting diatribe from a nutcase. (spoiler alert, both are correct!)
Audiobro will be posting a demo from me soon (unless they think it blows), so that will also help you judge whether or not you feel I know what I'm talking about in this post.

MSB is a FANTASTIC brass library, with more real-time playable flexability WHILE still having a good "cleanly recorded" sound than any brass library I've used, and MSB will be the backbone for my brass template going forward. That's not to say that it's a "silver bullet" either. Some of the other libs I've been using will still be there for support, of course, but no other library I know of sounds as close to what I hear in the booth like MSB (read: recorded well and articulate, not polished and mastered). Plenty of libs sound like mix/mastered scores, but now you're "stuck" with that sound, and the seams start to show quickly as you work.
I personally have not found a library with the 'finished mastered' sound that ALSO is a consistantly playable and malleable workhorse from a composition standpoint (such as having musicians is).

I suppose there are two different ways of looking at it:

A - either you want a library where you hit a note and it sounds like soundtrack albums we all know and aspire to, but then when you actually have to write your own music you can't go far with it and it will quickly show it seams.
B - Or you want a library that takes some skill and setup, but can be used for any score in any style, and it's up to YOU to have to chops to know exactly how you want to write and produce it.

For me, MSB kinda strategically strattles the middle, but leans closer to B - Which I love.

I think a common misconception is that when you get a big live orchestra in a nice space, you set some mics up, record the performance, and now you're done! yeah, no.
Even in that ideal situation, there's a TON of really intricate (and interesting!) tricks with routing, side-chaining, stem-swaping, reverb tickling (read: NOT set-and-forget) yada yada, that goes into getting a great 'sound'. ESPECIALLY with scores in the last 15 years.

If you want to midistrate like a beast, it's not going to happen cause you bought ANY specific sample library. I know mockups from 15 years ago done with shit libraries (by today's standards) that still don't have many rivals to this day. The real answer is this: Know what you want to do, and know your shit. Know how to write and arrange EXACTLY how YOU want, and then know how to produce EXACTLY how you want. Trust me, there is no university, academy course, Masterclass, etc, that can do for you what getting in the trenches learning what you want and what process that actually requires will do for you. It's not an easy road, for sure, but it's definitely more rewarding. (And, on deadlines, learn to know instinctively when "90% right" is when it's time to move on to the next cue).

If your a professional composer, or midistrator, whatever, the choice between A and B is easy - buy everything and make your own jambalaya.
If that's not an option for you, then yes, you'll need to make choices that have tradeoffs on your approach/workflow. Both Pizza and Cheeseburgers are awesome, but you won't find them at the same restaurant, and if you do, you know it's going to be SHIT. If you REALLY want both Pizza and Cheeseburgers, and you want it to be really good, then learn your way around a kitchen, cause that's the only way it's gunna happen in a single meal. You dig?

IMO, MSB will require some time and setup to use it to it's potential - It's so flexible that I spent more set-up time implementing it than any other commercial library I've used yet. I spent the time to learn how I would use the lib, and programmed a majority of a Behringer X-touch to control any and all midi CCs for MSB. All attack options are toggled via buttons, and every single anything that is assignable to CC has been assigned so I can touch/perform it in real-time. Every. Single. One.
I set up my template so that MSB is routed through something like 6 different aux's that also have sends to other buses, yada yada. Getting mockups to sound great with any combo of libraries is a whole thing, man. With MSB, once you have it down, it's as fast to work with as any other library, but (IMO) much less frustrating to get it to sound really solid.

At the end of the day, I'll say this: on a action movie, I'll start my brass writing with MSB, on an intimate drama, I'd start my brass writing with MSB.

PS - I think the two demos that Audiobro posted are pretty damn good, while sounding quite a bit different (I think anyway) to what I turned in, both compositionally and sonically. To me, that's a pretty cool strength for a library.

I always find audio demos for sample libraries difficult to evaluate; it can be challenging to know what the skill-set/tool-set ratio is. SO, if any of you hear my demo and want to know anything about it, PM me and I’ll post and answer it publicaly with as specific a answer as possible. Not that I think it would be anything mind-blowing, but then you’ll be able to evaluate what the library IS vs. what I DID with it.
Alternatively, if you think it sucks, feel free to PM and tell me how much I stink. All are welcome! So...there ya go.

Also, I could spend a whole day getting into that Star Wars "demo", and why it's always a terrible idea to do sample demos using iconic scores that cost millions to produce and utilized the talent of only the best of the best on earth, but I don't have the energy to get into that...
 
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Great post, Nathan.

Picking up on a couple of other points from others, I think someone here commented on my Flugelhorn on-the-fly demo as having too much vibrato which wasn't natural for an orchestral piece. Two points on that - first the vibrato is of course optional, secondly I'm a HUGE fan of the Flugelhorn and Euphonium in general and for me they're both going to get some particular love for classic brass band stuff, which imo DOES use vibrato. That's why I naturally lent on it. On vibrato in general, I think it's needed for the trumpets to get some movement in those chords, I think it sounds great on the solo horns and then the Euphonoium / Flugelhorn for band writing, but for most of the rest of the instruments its not really needed.

Also I think having Bass Trombones, Tenor Trombones, Cimbassi, Euphonium and Tubas makes this among the very best-covered libraries for low end heft. Most of these go down to C1, also, and several are sampled to very nearly this point. Personally I think I'll be able to live without Contrabass Trombones AS WELL.
 
Is anyone here able to test MSB in combination with MIR PRO? I'm curious if the sounds are mic-ed "in place" (meaning with panning already applied). With MIR PRO I need the sound to be dead center, for it to do its job correctly.

Any input is greatly appreciated!
 
Dare I also ask if anyone who has both Cinematic Studio Brass and Modern Scoring Brass could do a comparison..? That seems to be the elephant in this here room.
 
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