Kirk Hunter Concert Strings/Brass?

[onelight24]

Just wondering if anyone is familiar with or using Kirk Hunter Concert Strings II or their Concert Brass. The group buy is at a phenomenal price!

Any thoughts either way would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Vincent!

[kclements]

Hello Vincent -

I just picked up the Concert Brass II library a month or so ago on the Group Buy deal. I didn't think it was a bad decision to get it all for $90 or so.

I haven't worked with it much yet - getting into it a bit today. As this stuff is so subjective, it's hard to tell you if you should get it or not. Here are my initial thoughts after spending about an hour or so with it:

- The Trombones and Tubas seem nice.
- FH are ok.
- Trumpets sound a bit synthy to me. I am still working it out, but so far, I like Kontakt Standard trumpets better.
- I like the Divisi abilities
- There are a couple of efx that I don't have in my library that KH does - like rips and such
- The interface is a bit crowded - something to get used to. But it does have a clear explanation of keyswitches that helps.
- The graphix on the instrument (or skin, if you like) seems very dated - at least to my eyes. Maybe this won't be an issue for others and I used to be a graphic designer. Still, it seems to effect the way it feels to me.

As I said, I haven't spent a lot of time with it - so these things may all change as I get into it.

hth
kc

[onelight24]

Hi KC, thanks alot for sharing your experience, it really does help! The price of both strings and brass is really great, and I felt if I decided to get these i would have another source library to draw from for the orchestral/trailer/epic material, it would at least add to the realism to have the variety.

I'll continue to do the research before I jump in, as i have until the 7th to pull the trigger!

Thanks again KC, much appreciated!

Cheers,
Vincent!

[Cruciform]

I bought both in this group buy.

I really like the french horns. Haven't played with the trombones and tuba. Again, the trumpets don't quite sound right but in contrast to Kayle, I prefer them over the Kontakt standards. I like the way the articulations are all available from the single interface (if you can load them all - I don't have enough ram). I haven't tried the strings yet due to being out of town for a month. I also like that it gives me a fairly well-rounded Kontakt option if I don't want to use Play instruments.

This piece uses the brass (with some underlying SO Gold to add thickness). Vince R advised me on the brass work but any mistakes and issues remain mine. http://soundcloud.com/cruciform/tiberian-ascent-choral

For the price tag, I don't think you could really go wrong with these. I would have preferred Cinebrass and Hollywood Strings but budgetary restraints ruled them out for a while yet and this was very doable.

[matto]

IMHO Kirk Hunter makes very solid mid level products, and they are always getting better. So if you don't see yourself buying any of the top of the line sample libraries in the forseeable future, or are not into spending that kind of money on sounds, period, then I think KH products will add a lot of quality color to your sound pallette...and at an extremely reasonable price during the current GB. Kirk also provides excellent customer service and is a pleasure to do business with, and he's always working on improving his libraries which is something I really appreciate.

On the other hand if you *are* planning to buy top of the line libraries in the forseeable future and are saving up for them, it might be better not to give in to group buy temptation and stay the course. There *is* a reason why those libraries cost what they do and why you don't see them on $199 group buy sales...

matto

[kclements]

... I think KH products will add a lot of quality color to your sound pallette...and at an extremely reasonable price during the current GB. Kirk also provides excellent customer service and is a pleasure to do business with, and he's always working on improving his libraries which is something I really appreciate.

On the other hand if you *are* planning to buy top of the line libraries in the forseeable future and are saving up for them, it might be better not to give in to group buy temptation and stay the course. There *is* a reason why those libraries cost what they do and why you don't see them on $199 group buy sales...

matto

I would agree totally. I had an issue with my download and emailed Kirk on a Sunday - I had an answer within an hour and the problem was solved. I would support his company on this issue alone. It's, unfortunately, getting harder and harder to find a company that actually cares about it's customers more than its profits - and KH seems to be one that does.

I don't regret my purchase, but you get what you pay for. I think as I increase my sound pallet, there will be a place for Concert Brass, perhaps just not on the main stage.

Cheers -
kc

[onelight24]

Hi Rob, Matto, and KC, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! I suppose the temptation to add to the sound profile was really heightened by the group buy sale. I have looked at Lass as well as Hollywood Strings, and they do sound much better to my ears. Budget is always an issue, however as you suggest Matto, perhaps in this case its better to hold off!

Thanks to all of you for your input, its helped a great deal!

Cheers,
Vincent!

[mazz]

I fully agree with matto's assessment. I think the kh stuff has some good sounding instruments and some that aren't as good. I had good luck blending the kh strings with east west. The kh strings are capable of rosiny "bite" so for faster moving stuff they worked well. The expressive vibrato also works well folded into a section of, for instance, east west strings, which can help create a sound that is unique to you as a composer.

I also like some of the low brass when blended into another libraries' section. On their own they can be a bit thin sounding.

I think that in making these decisions, and I speak from experience here as a hopefully recovering impulse shopper, that it's good to decide what types of things you will be composing. For full bore orchestral stuff like Kayle is doing, several libraries are often necessary to be able to pull off realistic sounding productions. If you only need strings behind smooth jazz or pop productions, then maybe one could get around having to own the ultra high end stuff.

And of course, writing to the strengths of the samples is key. And no sample library is a magic bullet. Every library needs to be learned to get the fullest out of it, of course.

That's all. Happy New Year!

Mazz

[onelight24]

So John, if I understand you correctly, KH would be a good mix with the EW Platinum Plus that I have? I have looked at the Hollywood Stings as well as Lass, and I think am I would lean more towards the Hollywood Strings. Your thoughts on the two?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Vincent!

[mazz]

I think KH would be a good adjunct to EW.

As far as the strings go, I'm very partial to LASS for several reasons:

1. It is made by a small developer who is a working composer and who is very responsive to his user base. He has made several improvements and upgrades and is set to release a very nice 2.0 version around the time of the NAMM show. In contrast, East West is more "locked in" with their libraries, Platinum hasn't had a major upgrade in some years.

2. LASS is sampled relatively dry, which allows for much more flexibility in composing and production. Often I don't want the big "Hollywood" sound and the ability to "scale up" or "scale down" with the divisi sections in LASS is another plus. I can add my own amount of reverb rather than having it "baked in" to the sounds like it is in Platinum.

3. LASS runs on the Kontakt platform which East West abandoned in favor of their Play engine and unfortunately Play has turned out, IMO, to be incredibly underwhelming in it's usability and, at least at the beginning of it's life, a terrific CPU hog. I think they've improved it somewhat since, but Kontakt is such a robust platform that it's a no-brainer for me to use libraries that are written for it and there's so much great stuff for it out there, I'd rather support that than EW's weak entry into that world. Kontakt has memory management capabilities for 32 bit systems and has a ton of developers writing for it so it's somewhat of a standard in the industry and is rock solid in it's performance, in my experience at least.

4. LASS is very expressive, it works for the way I like to do things. I think Hollywood is probably similar in that department but LASS has all the right sounds and features that seem to favor the way I write and work. The sound, to my ears, is very realistic and not "hyped" as some of the EW libraries often are.

I bought LASS prior to the release of Hollywood Strings and to be honest I haven't looked back or even really looked at Hollywood Strings because I've had such great luck using LASS. LASS is a "living" library and a work in progress and I really like that aspect because I know if I have a suggestion, it will at least be heard directly by the developer and possibly addressed in the future because it's not a "fixed" product like a lot of the EW libraries are.


Matto and I have discussed this at length and we are both die hard LASS guys. I highly recommend it.

Good luck with your decision.