My "King of the Hill" shot

[mazz]

Happy Dog:http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... tream=true Good luck everyone!! Mazz

[daniel481]

Cool, I dig the horns!

[guest4254]

Yeah, that's a happenin' tune!

[guest4254]

That sounds great Mazz. Nice clean production. Felt like I was at the Copacabana!How do you get the Brass sounds?

[rfrey]

Oh man! Again I am humbled. This is cool. I agree, great horns!

[ragani]

Hey Mazz! This has a great island feel to it-- nicely upbeat and happy... It's got all the right features going for it. Boy, sure makes me wish I had my production software up-to-par for running out pitches like this one. I wish you the best on this one, Mazz!! Raags

[mazz]

Hi folks, thanks for the kind words.Horns: Lead Trumpet - Sample Modeling "The Trumpet".2nd and 3rd trumpets and 3 trombones - First Call HornsHorn tricks:1. Create an instrument for each part. In my case, in Kontakt, I had 6 instruments, each with their own MIDI channel. Play each part separately. Nothing screams "fake horns" like playing chords with horn sounds on the keyboard, unless that's what you're going for. In this case, I wasn't going for that. I prefer to write them out ahead of time or work the parts out by viewing each in the notation window and playing along and then tweaking the pitches afterward. Also, don't quantize strongly, I usually go about 85% strength and then edit notes individually from there to make it sound tight but not mechanical. Voice the chords appropriately for brass. I used more block chords for the bones and more movement within the chords for the trumpets. The bones support the trumpets, this is pretty common. Everyone plays the same rhythm which gives a nice tight sound. Bones will speak a bit slowly so slide them forward (to the left) in time a bit, this will give a tight feel as well.2. Send each section to their own stereo track. In this case I had two stereo tracks, one for trumpets, one for bones.3. Pan each instrument to a slightly different place. In this case I started with pretty far left with bone 3 and worked my way up with each part until bone 1 was just slightly left of center. Same with trumpets. Trumpet 1 was just slightly right of center and then 2 was further right and so on.4. Send both sections to the same reverb. For horns, I love plate reverbs. In this cut, I used IK Multimedia CSR plate but I think it sounds a tiny bit "ringy", not as smooth as the UAD-1 Plate 140. It still sounds very good, just different. The reverb really glues the sound together.Have fun and good luck!!Mazz

[rfrey]

Sept 7, 2008, 7:11am, mazz wrote:Hi folks, thanks for the kind words.Horns: Lead Trumpet - Sample Modeling "The Trumpet".2nd and 3rd trumpets and 3 trombones - First Call HornsHorn tricks:1. Create an instrument for each part. In my case, in Kontakt, I had 6 instruments, each with their own MIDI channel. Play each part separately. Nothing screams "fake horns" like playing chords with horn sounds on the keyboard, unless that's what you're going for. In this case, I wasn't going for that. I prefer to write them out ahead of time or work the parts out by viewing each in the notation window and playing along and then tweaking the pitches afterward. Also, don't quantize strongly, I usually go about 85% strength and then edit notes individually from there to make it sound tight but not mechanical. Voice the chords appropriately for brass. I used more block chords for the bones and more movement within the chords for the trumpets. The bones support the trumpets, this is pretty common. Everyone plays the same rhythm which gives a nice tight sound. Bones will speak a bit slowly so slide them forward (to the left) in time a bit, this will give a tight feel as well.2. Send each section to their own stereo track. In this case I had two stereo tracks, one for trumpets, one for bones.3. Pan each instrument to a slightly different place. In this case I started with pretty far left with bone 3 and worked my way up with each part until bone 1 was just slightly left of center. Same with trumpets. Trumpet 1 was just slightly right of center and then 2 was further right and so on.4. Send both sections to the same reverb. For horns, I love plate reverbs. In this cut, I used IK Multimedia CSR plate but I think it sounds a tiny bit "ringy", not as smooth as the UAD-1 Plate 140. It still sounds very good, just different. The reverb really glues the sound together.Have fun and good luck!!Mazz Mazz,How awesome of you to share your tips! This type of community attitude is exactly why this forum so amazing. In case you all haven't seen the threads about why this forum rocks:http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?a ... d=9229I've learned so much from TAXI and this forum I can't begin to describe. Mazz, thanks again. Good luck with that piece!

[crystallions]

This sounds awesome! This midi brass is among the most realistic sounding I have ever heard (would have thought it was real if you hadn't told us it wasn't). Thank you for sharing your tricks on how to make it sound so good. I have always found it hard to make midi brass sound realistic. Now I have some things to try. ~ Lydia

[mazz]

Hi Lydia,Thanks a ton, your comments are most appreciated.These tips were mostly for pop brass but can apply to orchestral brass as well, although I would change my panning tips and recommend to pan the brass to orchestral seating. Since I combine libraries more and more these days, having a good reverb is essential to give the instruments from different libraries a cohesive sound stage.Cheers!!Mazz