I own way too many brass libraries already. Here's what STILL excites me about CSB from the demos:
"Edge of Reality" - really impressive demo. The smooth crescendo from mp to fff with no tangible "breaks" for both short and sustain articulations. Not something you can do with Hollywood Brass for instance, there's a really obvious break at 91 velocity for most of the shorts. There are many competing brass libraries released since HWB that APPEAR to have better programming but that's because their layers are close together and don't represent the full dynamic range of the instrument (had unfortunate experiences with Auddict & Orchestral Tools brass for this reason). This sounds like there may well be 4 dynamic layers sampled for all the sustains, and the 4th is a truly blasting fff that I've only heard captured by Performance Samples and Musical Sampling's Trailer Brass.
"The Long Road" - the solo tpt just seems really well recorded and fits nicely with the strings. The low brass have that really nice warm round quality that I tend to use Berlin Brass for right now.
"Vanguard" - agility & very natural switching back and forth between shorts and longs.
The general sound. Tight, controlled, sounds like a studio.
Having mutes, flz and rips in one package. There have been a few really nice libraries like Adventure Brass and Caspian that sell as "alternatives" to the main flagship brass libraries out there, but then you need to go back to HWB or Spitfire or OT for the special articulations. Century Brass was another recent library that was aiming for the all-artics-in-one library approach. This is cheaper and IMO sounds better.
Also notice, at least according to the GUI, there are
two legato speeds! The biggest nuance and selling point of CSS carries over to the brass.
In the same vein, separately recorded tenor and bass trombones, nice.
So those are all great.
What I'm not excited about: Well, the design doc is finally revealed and it's NOT an individual-instruments library like Berlin, so Berlin & Chris Hein remain the sole contenders in that category if I remember correctly. Realistically, that wasn't going to be an option for CSB because this has always been a "bread and butter essentials" designed orchestra.... but a guy can dream....
Instead of the Berlin approach, this is more like Hollywood Brass - soloists and ensembles:
- 2 Trumpets
- Solo Trumpet
- 4 French Horns
- Solo French Horn
- 2 Trombones
- Solo Trombone
- Bass Trombone
- Tuba
The ensembles & soloists chosen seem reasonable, but I think choosing between 1 horn and 4 will be the biggest gap (a2 horns would have been a great addition). It's possible that a3 trumpets and a6 horns might be another itch that can't be scratched, but maybe layering the soloists with the ensembles will produce a sufficient a3 tpt and a5 horn sound.
On the other hand the low brass seems really well represented. Another place several post-HWB competing libraries cut corners is they don't give you a tuba or there's just one size of trombone ensemble. Here there's 3 low brass soloists plus the ability to make all kinds of combo ensembles.