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Hey everyone,
I am getting feedback that my horns sound too synth-y. And I have read that realistic-sounding horns are nearly impossible to find. Argh! I love to write with horns, but don't play and it seems very time consuming and expensive to bring in horn players to my little studio (ouch)

Any ideas?

thanks, Susan
http://www.taxi.com/susanhillman
http://www.soundcloud.com/susanhillman

Were you looking for solo or ensemble horns? Natural symphonic or epic trailer? For soul and R&B horn sections, I like Session Horns Pro, but I'm not in love with it; the instant gratification presets leave somewhat to be desired, but the samples can work great with a little forethought and programming. I think Samplemodeling does the best solo horns, particularly trumpet trombone and saxes, but Session Pro has better tuba shorts.

Hi Susan,


Part of the answer depends on the style of music you want to use Horns for.... If for example, you want a mixed horn section( for jazz, New Orleans, funk,etc) you might look into Session Horns Pro- included in later versions of Native Instruments' Komplete... and can be bought not too expensively. Another name to look at is Mojo Horns by Vir2.. both packages work pretty well for the styles I mentioned.. Other horn packages might be better for different styles. Also when you use horn Vi's, be very careful with velocity, volume, and timings- that will help to cut down on the "synthy" parts...

for Strictly a French horn ensemble for classical and orchestral, you might check out Cinebrass- they have some nice velocity sensitive horns that sound pretty convincing..


Hope that Helps, Others may chime in with some of their favorites....

John

as Mojo said!

With your song, "I'm Your Woman (All the Time)" as a reference, perhaps audio loops, wav files?
http://www.bigfishaudio.com/catalogview ... 15::Page=1

Do you mean those would possibly work on my song "I'm Your Woman"? If you have time, could you listen to "Something To Believe In" instrumental featuring horns....

Thanks for the great replies. I heard somewhere that it could be because horns don't sound believable because of the breathing ..... (lack of live breathing..? ) Susan

+1 Session Horns Pro

Susanstunes wrote:Do you mean those would possibly work on my song "I'm Your Woman"? If you have time, could you listen to "Something To Believe In" instrumental featuring horns....

Thanks for the great replies. I heard somewhere that it could be because horns don't sound believable because of the breathing ..... (lack of live breathing..? ) Susan

It really depends. Notes and stabs are probably easier, but adapting phrases might be a little trickier.

"Something To Believe In". Something tells me if I heard this on a synthesizer it would be spectacular! The arrangement as it is now doesn't give me a clue to the style, it sounds rock/pop, but the drums?, the symphonic sounding horns?, the thing with real instruments is that they need to sound real for some strange reason, like time to breathe, and what is possible, when you can get the tone you want on a synth and not be concerned if it sounds "synthy", who has ever said a synth sounds synthy,lol!

Arranging real horns for your song, you'd first need to know the style of your song, and the tempo, range of the instruments, etc. Your song has a fairly brisk pace, you'd probably need to slow down the tempo for many of those styles, or drop some notes.

Sounding believable is a lot more than just breathing. It's the expectation that this is a real person playing a real instrument in the style and phrases they are supposed to be playing.

I like ProjectSam Swing and Swing More for jazz style horns. I think thats the gold standard right now. Samplemodelling, if you are a player and use a wind controller. For film/classical/epic work, Cinesamples, Spitfire Audio and Orchestral Tools are some of the headliners, imo.

Len, thanks for all the thoughts... and I will probably create a synthesizer version of "Somethin To Believe In". Thanks for that idea! It was submitted for an upbeat instrumental and the screener said I nailed the style, but had other "interesting" production issues. Susan

Susanstunes wrote:Len, thanks for all the thoughts... and I will probably create a synthesizer version of "Somethin To Believe In". Thanks for that idea! It was submitted for an upbeat instrumental and the screener said I nailed the style, but had other "interesting" production issues. Susan

Susan, I'm looking forward to hearing it! You definitely nailed the composition! Kudos!