Another Kirk Hunter Group Buy!! at 362.. 75% off!!

[rnrmachine]

are the studio/solo concert brass patches appropriate for non-orchestral stuff, like jazz/funk?

As far as I know, but ask on the kvr forum to be sure.

[rnrmachine]

Reminder bump...

[mazz]

are the studio/solo concert brass patches appropriate for non-orchestral stuff, like jazz/funk?

I have the full Kirk Hunter library, and while the brass sound excellent and are useful in an orchestral setting (particularly when mixed with other libraries), they are not at all designed for pop applications. For that you'd need a specialized library like First Call Horns (which is very good) or Mojo (not as good, IMO), or some of the SampleModeling stuff (the best, IMO).

Orchestral brass players don't typically articulate the same way as pop brass players do and they don't play as brightly in general. There are also certain articulations that are idiomatic to pop and jazz and funk like slides, half valve, doits and fall offs, that aren't typically written in orchestral music (except for maybe Mancini and James Bond-type film scores). So an orchestral library is not the best place to look for the pop/funk sound.

HTH,

Mazz

[rnrmachine]

are the studio/solo concert brass patches appropriate for non-orchestral stuff, like jazz/funk?

I have the full Kirk Hunter library, and while the brass sound excellent and are useful in an orchestral setting (particularly when mixed with other libraries), they are not at all designed for pop applications. For that you'd need a specialized library like First Call Horns (which is very good) or Mojo (not as good, IMO), or some of the SampleModeling stuff (the best, IMO).

Orchestral brass players don't typically articulate the same way as pop brass players do and they don't play as brightly in general. There are also certain articulations that are idiomatic to pop and jazz and funk like slides, half valve, doits and fall offs, that aren't typically written in orchestral music (except for maybe Mancini and James Bond-type film scores). So an orchestral library is not the best place to look for the pop/funk sound.

HTH,

Mazz

Hey Mazz,

Where would you say the Kontakt4 Horns - Band and or Orchestral fall into your recommendations? (I still haven't bought K8 so I don't know what difference Kontakt5 may make in that area if any.) I know the orchestral aren't that great but they can be decent at times. IF used well. But overall I know the orchestral are a bit weak with realism when compared to the KH "sample" tracks.

Anyway, thanx for chiming in... I am very weak in knowledge in this area.

Rob

[mazz]

I have not loaded the Komplete 8 yet on my system. I didn't get the ultimate version so I have a ton of DVDs to install. I don't see that happening in the very near future due to all the writing I need to do..........

That being said, I have used the Kontakt orchestral instruments here and there to fill in, but it's not a substitute for the much larger and more extensive libraries like KH, etc. I do like the Celeste and some of the mallets are good.

Also, Matt Hirt did a Virtual Instruments class at the Rally, and in one of the pieces he demonstrated, a reggae piece, he used a saxophone from the Kontakt library (he mentioned that he hasn't even loaded Komplete 7 yet! Such is the life of a busy composer) and it sounded great once he played the final "tweaked" track.

So I would say that, like any library, the Kontakt library has some real standouts and some solid performers, but it's a generalized library and by virtue of that will have gaps that can only be filled by larger libraries.

My opinion is that you need to kind of look at what kind of music you are going to be writing and then purchase with that in mind. If you are going to be doing mostly pop tracks, then maybe the strings from Komplete would be sufficient. If you're going to do full orchestral tracks that are meant to be competitive, then you'll probably need at least one "big gun" library and then start to fill in with more specialized ones that fill in the gaps in the big one. Every successful orchestral/trailer composer will have multiple libraries of each orchestral section.

Good luck!

Mazz

[rnrmachine]

Thanx a ton Mazz!!

[thekman]

Great advice! Thanks for posting all of that. I'm just getting my orchestral chops up and am looking for libraries. Cheers!

[rnrmachine]

Jumped to 255... we'll easily hit 300 before Nov 25th.

[Cruciform]

Haven't committed yet but I will probably get CB2 and if the 75% level is reached, pick up CS2 as well.

Oddly, it all depends on progress in the European sovereign debt crisis over the next few weeks! I kid you not.

[ochaim]

Thanks a lot, Mazz. That was incredibly helpful!

I'll most likely just get the pop/rock strings then.

Keeping my eye on the sovereign debt crisis too. Very interesting and exciting time for investment opportunities.

Owen.