Spitfire Audio / ARO Thematic Horns

[Piet De Ridder]

"The first of our Film Scoring Selections to feature two legatos, Thematic Horns provides an agile section of eight horns, capable of going from speedy playing with fast run articulations across dynamics to slower, stately and more lyrical performances all with the sound of cinema - Abbey Road Studio One and London’s A-list players - right out of the box.

Designed to be the more acrobatic and instantly playable legato, the performance legato patch is performed with accented attacks at the front of sustains. Allowing for fast runs across every dynamic, this is very much the 'plug in and play’ of the two legatos. The lyrical legato patch offers a more measured and deliberate alternative, with a softer entry, perfect for slower lyrical lines. The difference between how the two patches feel is significant, as is the way they each uniquely influence a composition’s melodic character.

Performed in the unmistakable acoustics of Abbey Road’s Studio One, Thematic Horns further enriches the available offerings in the Abbey Road One orchestral range by commanding the forefront of instantly playable, instant cinema - from the moment you open the first patch."

€49

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[Guy Rowland]

Just 1 velocity layer? I guess at €49 that’s understandable.

[Linos]

Where did you read that Guy? If it's true then this library is more a proof-of-concept for the modular Abbey Roads range than the 'fully-fledged, stand-alone library' they are selling it as. The horn has the widest timbral range in the orchestra. One dynamic layer only is but a tiny snapshot of all the colors of the instrument.

[Guy Rowland]

Where did you read that Guy? If it's true then this library is more a proof-of-concept for the modular Abbey Roads range than the 'fully-fledged, stand-alone library' they are selling it as. The horn has the widest timbral range in the orchestra. One dynamic layer only is but a tiny snapshot of all the colors of the instrument.

That was just from the video - the CC1 control seemed to be quiet to loud but I didn’t really hear any timbral change.

(Caveat - just listening on an iPad, and skimming the video).

[Linos]

Got it, thanks. I haven't listened to the walkthrough yet. The two demo pieces definitely feature more dynamic layers. Paul Thomson's piece starts at a cautious forte dynamic, Dan Keen's at a mezzoforte layer turned down to piano. Makes me assume that the short articulations have more dynamic layers, maybe two or three. And the legatos possibly only have one.

Edit: I am hearing two velocity layers on the lyrical legato articulation. A piano layer, and one somewhere between mezzoforte and forte:



The middle of the phrase with the modwheell at 127 sounds brassier than the beginning. I don't hear a crossfade between the two. Either it is programmed very well, or Paul played around it effectively. Still, it's far from the 'full dynamic range' Paul mentions in the video. Or, to be precise, the dynamic range may be full, but the timbral range is all but.

[Lawrence]

It occurred to me recently that not only do we never have enough strings, we never have enough horns either. I’m still not really settled on a solo horn.

[retroreel]

From Spitfire:
'The Selections are designed for a specific purpose. Thematic Horns is 3 dynamics, from mf and up. This was decided based upon speaking to the players, as well as practical use for a "Thematic" selection.

Those wanting something more comprehensive in terms of dynamic range will obviously be covered in the Modular Orchestra.'

[Guy Rowland]

Fair play, I had a proper listen just now and yup you can clearly hear the range there including the legatos. It doesn’t hit the end stops at their end but it sounds good and useable.

Did anyone get this yet?