Straight Ahead's "Birth Of The Trumpet"

[Piet De Ridder]

Announced but not yet released: Straight Ahead's "Birth Of The Trumpet", the first in a series of instruments which Straight Ahead calls 'The New Standard'.

- Beautifully warm and rich Bb trumpet performed by a seasoned professional jazz player.
- The New Standard method of sampling. Over 2,000 samples per note for a level of detail and realism never before possible. Goes beyond simple round-robins and legato transitions to a truly unprecedented number of note variations.
- 2 microphone positions (close and room), with custom bleed convolution reverb.
- “Smart Delay” feature which analyzes dozens of details about the played phrase and intelligently selects the appropriate samples. Works in tandem with our New Standard sampling method, to eliminate the need for auditioning countless keyswitches just to create a realistic melodic phrase.
- “Real Acoustic Mute Sampling” (RAMS) technology for adding all the standard trumpet mutes to the sound. Available on all samples.
- “Reconstructed Vibrato” the recreates the timbral embouchure characteristics of a real player’s vibrato.
- All the standard articulations required of a trumpet player in this style (legato, staccatos, falls, trills, scoops, glisses, etc).



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[wst3]

I like what I hear.

[Ashermusic]

Sounds very good.

[playz123]

So far, very impressive and I like what I hear. Looking forward to learning purchasing details.

[trumpoz]

Impressive.

The double time lines in 'State of the Art', chromatic runs in other demos caught my attention. The inflections, scoops, smears work very well.

[kpc]

Anyone get this and have any thoughts?

[Ashermusic]

Anyone get this and have any thoughts?

I really like what I hear, but then I have to ask myself, "do I need it?" and so far the answer is, not yet.

[Piet De Ridder]

I'm pretty sure I'll get it someday, but nothing of what I heard so far is making it an irresistible "I have to have this now" item. Truly impressive though most of it is, no question about it, it all sounds to me a bit like a soloist who's just finished a draining week of marathon concerts and has arrived at the recording session in a state of complete exhaustion. There's very little energy, punch and dynamics in a lot of these phrases, I find. It's all a bit 'mezzo'. Still, if restrained mezzo playing is what's required, then I'm pretty sure there isn't anything better than this at the moment. Technically speaking, it's pretty sensational.

Straight Ahead seems to favour the more restrained side of jazz, I was thinking the other day. Their drums also happen entirely within the rather polite and well-behaved range of expression. It bops, but it never bops hard.

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[Scoredog]

It is too polite, I have not opened it yet but am redoing Mood Indigo for an album and it seems like it might be perfect for that so I took a flyer on it. Would have not bought if not for this specific application. I know many people are amazed by this look ahead function but I remember Synful did this ages ago.

[Ashermusic]

Well, considering the name of it tips it’s hat to Miles’ “Birth Of The Cool” I wouldn’t expect it to sound like Diz or other bebop burner types.

[kpc]

Ah - thanks. You saved me $100 bucks.

[Scoredog]

Kayle if you want an un restrained trumpet playing FF for solos look at Fire trumpet, it will cost you now around 25 bucks. It goes out of tune at times but that is the tradeoff for serious blowing in this case. Its agility is impressive.

[kpc]

Thanks Craig. I’m not necessarily looking for that. I guess I am thinking I have things covered with Swing and Swing More if this trumpet isn’t really 4 steps ahead.

But thanks. I will check it out.