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Brass Libraries?

LiamHKW

New Member
TL;DR: I want to get some quality brass libraries for making orchestral music, and CineBrass and Hollywood Brass both seem like good options. Looking for opinions on both.

(Sorry for the novel in advance!)

As of late, I've been really getting into making orchestral music. And I really wanna try getting a solid arsenal of libraries and other assets to get a pretty realistic sound (so far I have BBCSO Core from Spitfire Audio and Nucleus Lite from Audio Imperia).

I love both of these libraries, but the only thing I'm not suuuper jazzed about is the sound of some of the brass patches in both of them. BBCSO brass has a decent sound and a lot of different articulations to help it sound more real, but sometimes in a full, loud orchestra sound, they can sound a little underpowered/soft next to the other instruments, sorta killing the vibe I want to give off. And Nucleus Lite brass has a bit of a more powerful sound that I like, but also is a bit to trailer music-y for my taste.

Some different libraries I've seen that seem appealing are CineBrass (Core and Pro) from Cinesamples and Hollywood Brass (Diamond) from East West. As someone who doesn't have a huge budget, and the fact that they are both on sale for $199 right now, is very appealing. With CineBrass, I really love the sound of it, though the lack of articulations does sorta put me off a bit. With Hollywood Brass, I think that it has a pretty good sound (but I've heard varying qualities on different demos), but also has a ton of articulations (including some other instruments like Cimbasso, which is a plus). I'm at a crossroads as to what I should go with.

Have any of y'all tried these libraries out? If so, if I were to go for one or the other, which would you recommend? Or, if your opinion is neither, what are some other libraries that I could look for in the $200 range?

To give an idea of the sort of sound I'm looking for, I really wanna shoot for the sound of the London Symphony Orchestra (see John Williams' work with them on Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith's soundtrack for more of an idea of what I wanna get close to emulating).
 

Anyone watching this should note this comment on the video page from almost a year ago, from Scamper.

I made these examples.The Tuba at 2:00 is NOT CineBrass, but Cinematic Studio Brass. At 2:06 it's also Cinematic Studio Brass, the Bass Trombone.The Bass Trombone examples are also not correct. The CineBrass version is Tuba+BassTrombone (there is just this patch) and Cinematic Studio Brass is again Tuba + Bass Trombone playing together.
 
I recommend you also put 8dio Century Brass Ensemble and Solo Instruments on your long list for further research.

Bundle price: $248. They’re still my favourite library when it comes to brass, and include some of the best sounding solo brass samples I’ve heard. The value per $ is huge in any case.


 
Probably more expensive then what you are looking for but I highly recommend Infinite Brass. In particular it's a nice alternative to "traditional" sample libraries, highly flexible and very playable. Also, large range of instruments and the fact that you don't need any keyswitches etc. really speeds up your workflow.

In particular, whenever I find that some other library cannot give me the sound/technique I am looking for, I can usually do it with Infinite Brass.

I guess once or twice per year there is a sale (I don't know the details) and there is also a 30 % EDU discount in case you are eligible.

PS: I'm a hobbyist myself and IB was my most expensive purchase so far - I contemplated for quite some time before buying it. But as soon as I loaded up the first patch I knew I made the right decision.
 
PS: Since you are looking for a Star Wars type sound, you might want to check out these tracks by @DANIELE

 
CineBrass from the Native Instruments sale right now, it doesn't get much better than that unless you want a bundle with all the additional small brass libraries they made after Core+Pro. Hollywood is a dead end (I have it, it's fine), Century is great but inconsistent, and you can get a much better deal than the current price later. CSB also great in the price range. Sample Modeling and Infinite will take too much work at the outset to be worth it, but they are great.
 
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TL;DR: I want to get some quality brass libraries for making orchestral music, and CineBrass and Hollywood Brass both seem like good options. Looking for opinions on both.

(Sorry for the novel in advance!)

As of late, I've been really getting into making orchestral music. And I really wanna try getting a solid arsenal of libraries and other assets to get a pretty realistic sound (so far I have BBCSO Core from Spitfire Audio and Nucleus Lite from Audio Imperia).

I love both of these libraries, but the only thing I'm not suuuper jazzed about is the sound of some of the brass patches in both of them. BBCSO brass has a decent sound and a lot of different articulations to help it sound more real, but sometimes in a full, loud orchestra sound, they can sound a little underpowered/soft next to the other instruments, sorta killing the vibe I want to give off. And Nucleus Lite brass has a bit of a more powerful sound that I like, but also is a bit to trailer music-y for my taste.

Some different libraries I've seen that seem appealing are CineBrass (Core and Pro) from Cinesamples and Hollywood Brass (Diamond) from East West. As someone who doesn't have a huge budget, and the fact that they are both on sale for $199 right now, is very appealing. With CineBrass, I really love the sound of it, though the lack of articulations does sorta put me off a bit. With Hollywood Brass, I think that it has a pretty good sound (but I've heard varying qualities on different demos), but also has a ton of articulations (including some other instruments like Cimbasso, which is a plus). I'm at a crossroads as to what I should go with.

Have any of y'all tried these libraries out? If so, if I were to go for one or the other, which would you recommend? Or, if your opinion is neither, what are some other libraries that I could look for in the $200 range?

To give an idea of the sort of sound I'm looking for, I really wanna shoot for the sound of the London Symphony Orchestra (see John Williams' work with them on Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith's soundtrack for more of an idea of what I wanna get close to emulating).
I've been obsesses with Brass libraries since the start of the pandemic. I've gone out of my way to purchase every one I could so that I can start getting that John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith brass sound.

Firstly, since the inception of Media Ventures and the way Hans and team exploded on to the scene by use of samples and production chops not to mention the really cool music, many libraries tend to lean in that direction. But, if you lay off the extreme upper dynamic of many libraries which are often enhanced you can get a lot of more intricate brass work done.

BBCSO--French horns I can't stand. Trumpet has a nice warm full classical sound as do the low brass. I can't seem to get the higher dynamics for ripping lead lines and double tongue from it but I like the sound a lot for brass choirs and really filling up a space. Trumpet can lay down a good melody line and the tbones and tuba fill up a lot of space.

Hollywood Brass--Great all around. Tough to use. Maybe the update will change that. For 10 years HB gold was my only really modern brass library and it did great. If I had to choose only one brass library it would be HB. I now have HOD and love every bit of it. I may be forced to upgrade to HOOPUS soon but for now I'm chill with the Play version. Trombones are not the best in this library.

JXL Brass -- just got some of the horns and trombones patches. It's got some energy and fire to it. Not very playable but very programmable once you get the hang of it. If you treat the low brass like they were real players it can do a lot of the bread and butter brass stuff really well.

AROOF brass--limited but surprisingly good. Manages to have a really high quality sound and the low brass patch is very useful. Can't live without it now looking forward to the future of Abbey Road One.

I just got Cinebrass a few days ago. I got Core and Pro. very good sound. I can't comment because I haven't used it. The only reason I got it is because of John Powell. He writes the kind of music I want to write for film and so I'm doing my best to mimic his setup. His is so lean though so I'm not sure I'll be able to rely on just one string library like he is now. That's scary to me.

8dio Century brass--- Mixed bag of goods. What works really works well. Great horns and I like the ability to place them where I want. Trumpets are great actually. Can do convincing double and triple tongue with just the staccatissimo patches. It's a secret weapon library rather than a main library but it can handle a lot. Low brass lacks a little something that JXL brass has. So I tend to use only trumpets and horns in this library.

Caspian Brass--Very playable and great sound if you get off the default mic settings and do your own mix. Jasper does some really musical programming. Can handle powerful melody lines very will. Fairly agile up to a certain speed but I can't get those John Williams double and triple tongue patches from it. A lot of times since Caspian is so playable I'll do the line on that and either keep it or move it to another library.

Adventure Brass--surprising little gem. Again you have to go pass the default mix settings which aren't doing the library any favors. Also, you have to do the old school of one track for each articulation but it can do things others can't seem to do. Agile like crazy. Even the sustain patch can do convincing fast passages. I was shocked.
 
I own both Hollywood Brass and CineBrass (Core and Pro), but I have not taken the time to really look into Hollywood Brass yet, so I can't comment on that.
What I can say is that CineBrass is very solid - it has a nice tone and is fairly comprehensive (if you have both Core and Pro). I just wish it would offer a little more control over the length of the short notes (there are three recorded lengths but there is - at least to my knowledge - no way to further adjust these, for example in seperate time machine patches). Aside from that, the double and tripple tonguing isn't real and does not sound very convincing if you want it to go fast.
But, again: CineBrass is great and a real bargain for the current price.
 
I own both Hollywood Brass and CineBrass (Core and Pro), but I have not taken the time to really look into Hollywood Brass yet, so I can't comment on that.
What I can say is that CineBrass is very solid - it has a nice tone and is fairly comprehensive (if you have both Core and Pro). I just wish it would offer a little more control over the length of the short notes (there are three recorded lengths but there is - at least to my knowledge - no way to further adjust these, for example in seperate time machine patches). Aside from that, the double and tripple tonguing isn't real and does not sound very convincing if you want it to go fast.
But, again: CineBrass is great and a real bargain for the current price.
Curious in John Powell's template he has Polylegato patches. As far as I can tell the legato patches in CB are just mono patches. I am missing something? Or does he just mean sustain patches?
 
Also a CineBrass owner here of Core & Pro. I have other libraries (CSB & Spitfire Studio Brass Pro) but once I bought CineBrass I rarely reach for anything else. I love the sound of the MGM scoring stage also.
 
Also a CineBrass owner here of Core & Pro. I have other libraries (CSB & Spitfire Studio Brass Pro) but once I bought CineBrass I rarely reach for anything else. I love the sound of the MGM scoring stage also.
Since you've owned it for a while. What are these Polylegato patches in John Powell's template? I can't see any polylegato patches.
 
I've been obsesses with Brass libraries since the start of the pandemic. I've gone out of my way to purchase every one I could so that I can start getting that John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith brass sound.

Firstly, since the inception of Media Ventures and the way Hans and team exploded on to the scene by use of samples and production chops not to mention the really cool music, many libraries tend to lean in that direction. But, if you lay off the extreme upper dynamic of many libraries which are often enhanced you can get a lot of more intricate brass work done.

BBCSO--French horns I can't stand. Trumpet has a nice warm full classical sound as do the low brass. I can't seem to get the higher dynamics for ripping lead lines and double tongue from it but I like the sound a lot for brass choirs and really filling up a space. Trumpet can lay down a good melody line and the tbones and tuba fill up a lot of space.

Hollywood Brass--Great all around. Tough to use. Maybe the update will change that. For 10 years HB gold was my only really modern brass library and it did great. If I had to choose only one brass library it would be HB. I now have HOD and love every bit of it. I may be forced to upgrade to HOOPUS soon but for now I'm chill with the Play version. Trombones are not the best in this library.

JXL Brass -- just got some of the horns and trombones patches. It's got some energy and fire to it. Not very playable but very programmable once you get the hang of it. If you treat the low brass like they were real players it can do a lot of the bread and butter brass stuff really well.

AROOF brass--limited but surprisingly good. Manages to have a really high quality sound and the low brass patch is very useful. Can't live without it now looking forward to the future of Abbey Road One.

I just got Cinebrass a few days ago. I got Core and Pro. very good sound. I can't comment because I haven't used it. The only reason I got it is because of John Powell. He writes the kind of music I want to write for film and so I'm doing my best to mimic his setup. His is so lean though so I'm not sure I'll be able to rely on just one string library like he is now. That's scary to me.

8dio Century brass--- Mixed bag of goods. What works really works well. Great horns and I like the ability to place them where I want. Trumpets are great actually. Can do convincing double and triple tongue with just the staccatissimo patches. It's a secret weapon library rather than a main library but it can handle a lot. Low brass lacks a little something that JXL brass has. So I tend to use only trumpets and horns in this library.

Caspian Brass--Very playable and great sound if you get off the default mic settings and do your own mix. Jasper does some really musical programming. Can handle powerful melody lines very will. Fairly agile up to a certain speed but I can't get those John Williams double and triple tongue patches from it. A lot of times since Caspian is so playable I'll do the line on that and either keep it or move it to another library.

Adventure Brass--surprising little gem. Again you have to go pass the default mix settings which aren't doing the library any favors. Also, you have to do the old school of one track for each articulation but it can do things others can't seem to do. Agile like crazy. Even the sustain patch can do convincing fast passages. I was shocked.
Curious what you feel is not very playable about junkie xl? I find that library extremely playable. I like to mix it with Abbey road as well. I also have cinebrass Sonore which is great for an older Hollywood sound, blends very nicely with bbc core. But I think junkie xl blends even better especially with abbey road for that bigger Star Wars/lotr sound. The ability to make your own articulation grid via dynamic velocity in the sine player and mic merging is game changing too imo.
 
Curious what you feel is not very playable about junkie xl? I find that library extremely playable. I like to mix it with Abbey road as well. I also have cinebrass Sonore which is great for an older Hollywood sound, blends very nicely with bbc core. But I think junkie xl blends even better especially with abbey road for that bigger Star Wars/lotr sound. The ability to make your own articulation grid via dynamic velocity in the sine player and mic merging is game changing too imo.
I'm not a wizard at playing while keyswitching so compared to the playability of Caspian Brass I don't find that I can sit down and play JXL Brass. I can program it just fine though. But in general the sustains in JXL have a very long attack time making moving around difficult. The short articulations jump around dynamically too much, ect. So I can't just sit down and play it like I can some other libraries that I have. Many libraries I have I can play around at least on the sustain patch, but for some reason I just can't do that with the JXL I have.
 
I'm not a wizard at playing while keyswitching so compared to the playability of Caspian Brass I don't find that I can sit down and play JXL Brass. I can program it just fine though. But in general the sustains in JXL have a very long attack time making moving around difficult. The short articulations jump around dynamically too much, ect. So I can't just sit down and play it like I can some other libraries that I have. Many libraries I have I can play around at least on the sustain patch, but for some reason I just can't do that with the JXL I have.
Ah I see. I havent tried those other libraries So I guess I’m more used to it. I felt the legato flows pretty nicely and anything I need to fix can be tweaked later. But yeah I’ll usually just play legato and then re record the key switches over the top later, or create my own velocity based/poly mapped patches in the sine player. It’s pretty amazing. U can also decide at which velocity u want the shorts to trigger etc. I love mixing a sustain or legato on the soft layer, long-short marcato in the 2nd/3rd layer, and when I hit it the hardest have it be staccisimo. I can perform the horn piece to ‘The Surrender’ by ennio moriconne in one go and it sounds amazing!
 
I'm not a wizard at playing while keyswitching so compared to the playability of Caspian Brass I don't find that I can sit down and play JXL Brass. I can program it just fine though. But in general the sustains in JXL have a very long attack time making moving around difficult. The short articulations jump around dynamically too much, ect. So I can't just sit down and play it like I can some other libraries that I have. Many libraries I have I can play around at least on the sustain patch, but for some reason I just can't do that with the JXL I have.
Have you ever tried stacking patches, like sustains and staccato/stacatissimo? When the velocity determines the attack and mod wheel the sustain/release of the note, damn near any library can be as flexible as Performance Samples.

Alex Pfeffer shows this with JXL trombones in this video where he stacks sustains, staccatos AND stacatissimos and it sounds huge.

 
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