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Berlin Brass still a viable Library for Media Music in 2021 ?

Paul Jelfs

Senior Member
From what I can gather from my research, those with BB love the tone, but wish that it had a true "FF" layer, compared to some other libraries.
I also note there were a fair few posts about small dynamic errors etc with the library , and odd programming decisions.

With all this in mind, and the fact the library is now 5 years old and since we have had ones like Aarons Venture, and the latest Synchron Brass - Do those who purchased who have Berlin Brass still think, despite the lack of the highest dynamic, and other small niggles, that the tone holds up today as well as it did back when released ?

I believe OT intends to update Berlin Brass to add the top dynamic layer, when they bring it to the SINE player. With all this in mind, those with Berlin Brass, does it still have a place in your templates for realistic midi mock ups, especially when you do not need the "Huge Epic Brass" sound ?

Or have users replaced it with libraries since then, I.e. maybe the Synchron Brass or JXL Brass etc .

Really interested in peoples opinions, as to me the legato still sounds amazing in the demo's, but it is a massive investment.
 
I use Berlin Brass all the time! I use it for almost everything. I use Cinebrass if I need something louder and more cinematic
 
While there have been some new advancements in scripting and such, there has not been any new advancement in recording brass. And Berlin brass was recorded really well. So it still sounds great and is competitive with contemporary libraries.

One of my favorite things about the Berlin series is it was recorded at the Teldex scoring stage. Teldex, unlike Spitfire's Air Studios, allowed impulse responses to be made from their studio. I think I have three different versions now.

This allows one to put other sample libraries or recorded instruments into the Teldex soundstage which adds a lot of cohesion to the mix.
 
While there have been some new advancements in scripting and such, there has not been any new advancement in recording brass. And Berlin brass was recorded really well. So it still sounds great and is competitive with contemporary libraries.

One of my favorite things about the Berlin series is it was recorded at the Teldex scoring stage. Teldex, unlike Spitfire's Air Studios, allowed impulse responses to be made from their studio. I think I have three different versions now.

This allows one to put other sample libraries or recorded instruments into the Teldex soundstage which adds a lot of cohesion to the mix.
Excellent - What VST plugin do you use for Impulse responses ? Altiverb , VSL Mir or maybe even Cubase own VST ?

Thats a very good idea, I should look to getting the Impulse for one of my convo reverbs.
 
Excellent - What VST plugin do you use for Impulse responses ? Altiverb , VSL Mir or maybe even Cubase own VST ?

Thats a very good idea, I should look to getting the Impulse for one of my convo reverbs.
I've had good success taking single VSL instruments through MIR Teldex and adjusting the dynamic range to match Berlin. They can comfortably sit side by side. I was surprised.

Altiverb doesn't quite hit the mark compared to Berlin Series. Could be any one of a thousand reasons why, like the mics and speakers that recorded the library versus the ones recording the impulses, the position of all of the above on the stage, etc. But Berlin is not difficult to blend with so Altiverb probably has a handful of other impulses that would all do the trick
 
Every time a threads pops up with "is xy still god in *whatever year is*?" I'm thinking:

Hm, what did I miss? Why in earth should it have become bad in that little amount of time since it came out - in most cases the libraries on topic are what a certain company has brought up as their flagship for that section... I mean, we're not talking about some 20 year old library that has been ported from gigastudio to kompakt or something alike.
 
Every time a threads pops up with "is xy still god in *whatever year is*?" I'm thinking:

Hm, what did I miss? Why in earth should it have become bad in that little amount of time since it came out - in most cases the libraries on topic are what a certain company has brought up as their flagship for that section... I mean, we're not talking about some 20 year old library that has been ported from gigastudio to kompakt or something alike.
I won't give my thoughts on the library, but rather the nature of the question itself. In that, I somewhat agree with you, but over time some people do start to favor (or at least get intrigued by) "newer" or "better" recording techniques such as performance-based sampling (Performance Samples) or modeled/partially modeled instruments (Infinite Brass, SWAM, Sample Modeling).

But, yes, it's not like this a truly old release with, I dunno, something like simulated legato.
 
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I think it is just really valuable to get input from professionals , about the state of the library as a lot changes in the sampling world.

These libraries are huge investments for a lot of people (including me), so I guess you want to be as sure as you can that you are not making an investment in something you will use for years, only to find out the library is not seen as a viable product.

I guess it must be quite annoying to see the same type of posts pop up every few weeks, but again, some people browse and write on the forum daily, while others may only pop in every few weeks for some advice, or to catch up.

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's input, sometimes it feels like things move extremely fast in the world of sampling, even if in reality , things are perhaps different :emoji_thumbsup:
 
GUIs can change quite a lot, and the scripting has gotten much better over the last decade. So newer instruments are often easier to use but also sound better, even if the sample set hasn't changed. But by the same count often libraries can be completely revitalized by new scripting, and often a better measure of how current a particular library is can be derived from when it received its last substantive update/redesign, not when it was recorded.
 
I've been wondering about this as well recently. The real question for me is does Berlin Brass offer (much) more to the table than what I already have and use, specifically CSB and JXL Brass (have CineBrass as well, but don't use it as much - although I am rediscovering how capable it is)?
 
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