Favorite non-orchestral brass library?

[ckbarlow]

Folks, what is your fave library for non-orchestral style brass parts?

As an example, I'm working on a movie soundtrack for which the director wants a lot of oldies soul style tracks (they come from the car radio and home stereo of the protagonist, who loves the oldies station, and the director also wants some of that feel in the score -- I'm writing/producing all of it).

I listened to some Chris Hein Horns Vol I examples yesterday and was somewhat impressed, but it's still pretty obvious that they're samples. And just now I'm listening to some Arturia Brass 2.0 examples (that's physical modeling rather than samples) and to my ear they're less convincing but by definition should be more flexible than sampled libs.

Anyone have experience with / recommendations for a great non-orch style brass library?

I also think I might enough time to bring in real players, which of course would rock. I've already got two songs just about baked and they're still shooting for another two weeks!

Thanks much!

[mazz]

Live players would be the #1 choice, of course!

For samples I'm totally enamored with the SampleModeling instruments. The trumpet comes with first, second, third,German orch trumpet, piccolo, fleugel and all the mutes. They have a tenor sax and another sax library with both alto and Bari. They just came out with a great trombone library so all the elements are there. They run in kontakt but I think they come with the player but I'm not sure.

I've used First Call Horns with some success but now the SM stuff is my go to library.

Have fun!!

Mazz

PS: Here's a piece that features the SampleModeling trumpets and the SM Tenor Sax doubling the lead trombone. This was before their trombone library came out so I used SAM Orchestral Brass bones which sound pretty good for this kind of thing but doubling the lead with the tenor was good because the tenor has such great legato for some of the phrases. The library owner was pleased with the horns on this one!

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2737697

[Fullertime]

What I usually do is use the best samples I can find, and then hire either a trumpet or sax player to layer a live part over it. This helps tremendously and saves tons of cash!

[Len911]

ck, I bought an arturia brass 2.0 bundled with an ewai. I have been playing around with it a little for jazz type stuff. It's mainly a toy right now, it's fun to play, and a lot better than I could do otherwise considering I only played flutophone in the 4th grade,lol! For brass samples I think you'd almost have to find a specific cd with the exact sound you want to be useful. The arturia has the basics to do it yourself. The ewai lets you put your own "soul" into the music, though I believe there are preset articulations also, like the stabs you are probably looking for. The arturia webpage has an awful lot of cheap reverb sound on they're demos. At the risk of being a salekiller for the company,lol, this is how it can sound if you're not a horn player and a beginner.

http://www.taximusic.com/download/316995/Altabasso.mp3

[mojobone]

Check out WIVI Brass and Broadway Big Band. (and Mazz' suggestions are spot-on, as well) It's also true that layering a single live brass instrument can lend credibility to an entire section.

[Kolstad]

NI's 49EU extension pack "Kontakt sax & brass" is actually pretty good. It's well worth the money, sounds great and is really playable too. Besides single patches, it comes with an arranger tool for full sections patches, and an old gramophone patch and a muted trumpet patch as well. Great value for money IMO

[mojobone]

Jason Miles' Psychic Horns might be useful, too; I haven't heard samples, but they got a nice review in Sound On Sound, IIRC. UPDATE: Nope, it was EM and a long time ago, jes' checked 'em out, and I think it's overpriced; sounds like a 16-bit Akai sampler, you don't get all notes, and there's very little programming done for you; the horn patches in your hardware keyboards are probably better, if it's less than six years old, heh.

[ckbarlow]

Guys, thanks so much. Hugely helpful.

I will buy a round at the Rally!

[musicliner]

One more to add...
I got a good mileage from Sony'sJazz Solos & Sections sample/loop CD from their Classic collection.

It helped me get an honorable mention in Billboard's World Song Contest for "Return To Wonderland" (can be heard on http://www.taxi.com/georgesolo

Cheers,
George

[mojobone]

Stephen Baird posted about this on Facebook; looks promising:

http://vir2.com/instruments/mojo-horn-section

Between this and the Samplemodeling stuff, you could cover a lot of ground.