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Mute your brass!

aaronventure

Senior Member
Some time ago I created EQ presets for FabFilter Pro-Q 2 meant to simulate brass mutes, since a lot of brass libraries either come without any mutes whatsoever or the muted content is limited. So here's a bunch of filters for your brass! Think of 'em like the simulated Con Sordino that many string libraries do these days.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lggpxsq9ok0ojfr/ProQ2%20Brass%20Mutes.zip?dl=1 (DOWNLOAD)

And here's a short demo (this is Adventure Brass)


Some snapshots:
9LHXwFB.jpg

g4dSooI.jpg
 
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These are really good. A brass mute is essentially a EQ filter. I've had good results using a matching EQ curve with a sample of a real mute and then running that through a deconvolver to create impulse responses that pretty accurately reproduce a mute (this is how sample modeling's trumpet mutes work btw). Your approach seems to be much more straight forward and the result is just as good.

Now for those of us without fab filter :) do you have settings for each mute that could be applied more generally with other EQs? What did you use as a reference to create your EQ curves?
 
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Really impressive, thanks for posting. I don't have the FF EQ either... Never thought of a brass mute as "essentially an EQ filter" but if you stop and think about it, yeah that's exactly what it is...
 
Now for those of us without fab filter :) do you have settings for each mute that could be applied more generally with other EQs? What did you use as a reference to create your EQ curves?

I've posted some screenshots in the original post so you can get a better idea of what they look like. While technically they could be replicated if I provided frequency, resonance and gain for every one of 20-24 bands, it would then come down to the character of whatever EQ you're using. Even this isn't perfect - I'm sure deconvolver can create a much more accurate filter. But unless you A/B it with actual muted brass samples, I think this works very well.

These aren't as good as the real thing or even sampled mutes. The EQ is static; not moving with pitch and preserving a changed balance of overtones. However, they'll still fool you and can sound really good, which is good enough for me.

I've no idea how I would go about achieving that without creating an EQ curve for every single note :roflmao:.

I referenced Sample Modeling Brass - it's the most muted brass library I have :D
 
These aren't as good as the real thing or even sampled mutes. The EQ is static; not moving with pitch and preserving a changed balance of overtones. However, they'll still fool you and can sound really good, which is good enough for me.

I've no idea how I would go about achieving that without creating an EQ curve for every single note :roflmao:.
SurferEQ has pitch-following capabilities so you can edit overtones, but it doesn't have enough bands, at least in a single instance, to do this. It would be interesting to stack instances and see what it sounds like, although the CPU hit might make it unusable in realtime.
 
Hey Aaron,
awesome. I also can recommend the string filters by NUMERICAL SOUNDS
https://www.numericalsound.com/universal_sordino.html (www.numericalsound.com/universal_sordino.html)

Since I do not own FAB FILTER. I like to reproduce it using Cubase filter. Can you tell me how you worked out the filter settings?
 
Hey Aaron,
awesome. I also can recommend the string filters by NUMERICAL SOUNDS
https://www.numericalsound.com/universal_sordino.html (www.numericalsound.com/universal_sordino.html)

Since I do not own FAB FILTER. I like to reproduce it using Cubase filter. Can you tell me how you worked out the filter settings?
If I recall, I used timbral matching in FabFilter to get in the ballpark and then adjusted by hand.

Looking back, these are pretty poorly done (even though they seem to get the job done :D ). If you have the time, you can do this by hand instead.
 
ah I see.
Hmm well, I could do a EQ MATCH in Cubase using my Spitfire strings vs. Strings con sordino and then take the result as a reference for the other string libs as well. Nice hint
 
Aaron, I'm in the process of making Impulse Responses using your mute settings (which are fantastic, by the way) which can be loaded into Kontakt directly. When I'm done, would you mind if I make the IRs available for anyone who wants them?
 
Aaron, I'm in the process of making Impulse Responses using your mute settings (which are fantastic, by the way) which can be loaded into Kontakt directly. When I'm done, would you mind if I make the IRs available for anyone who wants them?

I've since purchased FF Pro-Q2 (just before the grace period for the free update to v3 grrrrrrrr.....) and these mutes work really well... IRs sound like an awesome idea.
 
Cool to have this, and they sound really good, but there's really quite a bit more happening in a brass mute. An EQ can't simulate the distortions, buzzes, rings, etc. that vary in a complex manner with dynamics.
 
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