Acoustic Samples are after a year out to release VHorns Extended Brass, available at the intro price of €149.00, increasing to €199.00 after the promotion. Theniffer ends February 1st. Each instrument can be purchased separately.
Acoustic Samples’ final VHorns library is here!
Following on from the success of VHorns Brass Section and VHorns Saxophones, VHorns Extended Brass fills the gaps from missing standard instruments, offers a true muted trumpet to lead a section and also brings a new option to the table, in our choice of brass band and marching band instruments. Thanks to Acoustic Samples’ work on a revolutionary hybrid technology (which we call H.A.T.), they are able to blend the authentic recorded sound of world-class instrumentalists with state-of-the-art modeling techniques giving users unparalleled playability and impeccable sounds which are all but indistinguishable from the real thing.
Acoustic Samples are confident in saying that these VHorns are not only the most realistic and playable instruments of their kind, but are among the most versatile and realistic virtual instruments ever made.
The VHorns Brass Section contains 6 instruments: Cornet, Muted Trumpet, Euphonium, Valve Trombone, Bass Trombone and Sousaphone.
Each individual instrument has a distinct sound and was recorded by a different musician.
Thanks to their proprietary H.A.T. (Harmonic Alignment Technology), VHorns is not just another heavily multi-sampled instrument – you can play articulations exactly like a live player would, with just a mod wheel to control air flow (or even just by drawing in automation).
There are no elaborate keyswitches involved to play staccatos, marcatos, legato, etc. – you simply load up the instrument in your DAW and play. Vibrato can even be automated.
Recording a brass instrument can be done in various ways and at different positions. Acoustic Samples used 4 different microphone positions to offer a variety of colors. This can produce even better results when using the “virtual space”, detailed below. You can apply reverb and EQ to mix it completely to your taste.
The Virtual Space perfectly replicates a real recording of an ensemble, using convolution reverb. When you record a big band, you usually place a pair of microphones in front of the musicians and they naturally take position in the stereo field depending on where they are in the room. The Virtual Space does exactly the same thing; you can place the musician wherever you like. When using this with multiple tracks, you immediately have the feeling of being in front of a real Horns section.
Acoustic Samples carefully measured the different parameters that change when a brass player uses vibrato and they combined everything into a highly realistic and customizable vibrato for VHorns. There are multiple ways to control the vibrato: automatic, automatic depending on time, and manually.
Fast legato transitions are often the main give away that an instrument is virtual rather than real, so we spent a considerable amount of time and effort carefully extracting every tiny detail of several recorded live transitions to make ours indistinguishable from a real performance. These transitions range from lightning fast note changes to extremely slow bends, with and without extra attack. We covered everything – and you have complete control. The legatos behaviour can be adjusted and even randomized for more life-like performances.
No Big Band horn section or Brass Band would be complete without mutes – they are an integral part of the sound. VHorns offers a variety of mutes on all relevant instruments: Harmon, Plunger, Straight, Cup and Bucket. Simply select the mute you want in the top right corner of the instrument’s interface and start playing.
The general controls allow for different playing techniques such as flutter, control over the harmonic series and volume of every note, as well as extraneous noises, natural variation and round robins. MIDI controls offer the possibility to finetune live ensemble playing, as well as the usual tranposition, pitch control, MIDI controller selection and a grid to tweak the shape of the airflow curve.
VHorns can be played using a keyboard by selecting the notes on the keyboard and controlling the air flow with a MIDI controller like the modulation wheel or a breath controller. You can also use a wind controller like an EWI, an Aerophone a Sylphyo or any other brand, in which case you need to use the appropriate controller menu in the MIDI section.
If you load multiple instruments at the same time, it will play unisons exactly at the same time. Acoustic Samples added some smart features that first can change the timbre of the instruments, transpose everything by a fixed interval and also act on the MIDI performance. For example, you can have all 6 instruments with a different transposition value play the same C minor scale, so no matter what you play on the keyboard, it will sound in key.
Watch the overview video HERE.
VHorns Extended Brass requires Acoustic Samples sample player (available as a FREE download).
For more information on VHorns Extended Brass, click here:
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