Orchestral Tools / Glory Days (Big Band Horns)

[trumpoz]

The tone of the spot mics is really good.

In relation to the swing 8ths the difference can be subtle or less pronounced. This is the issue with samples - many devs will record limited dynamic levels. Sample Modelling or Audio Modelling have got it right in this respect. With a breath controller/EWI/MDT and knowledge of idiomatic playing techniques it is possible to capture that.

Glory Days screams samples in the legato lines - but all sample libraries do that.

[KyleJudkins]

Man, I really wish they would make a Berlin brass revive LMAO

Seems like they have learned a lot, or more or less gotten better in general since Berlin brass

Listening to the screencasts, this is just a killer product... and the legado release trigger it's such an awesome feature, it would be really cool to see added to some of their orchestral libraries, like adding horn rips or falls to the trombones

[FriFlo]

The Saxophones Walkthrough is up:

Glory Days screams samples in the legato lines - but all sample libraries do that.

That was exactly my thinking. The only way to get a (nearly) perfect performance with all the details is using a performance oriented instrument like sample modeling, which is on the other hand hard to get a good ensemble sound from. That is kind of why so many people buy the same instruments multiple times from different developers - all the good ones have different strengths. To me it seems, you can do quite a lot with this library alone. I miss growls for the saxes which are kind of important for Big Band sound. In case this is a success, they might do an extension.
@Saxer: In the video you can watch some examples of marcato and staccato combined in a multi to try to simulate a DooBaDooBa-8th line. It looks like you can even slur the (slightly longer) tongue-stop legato. I am not saying it sounds totally convincing, but it kind of sound good enough to me to get away with it, especially in an ensemble context. Of course, you always loose some clarity about those phrasings with samples, but - again - that almost seems like a given to me.

[KyleJudkins]

When I get home I'll try to make a short demo of what happens when you combine the two

Unfortunately I don't have Berlin brass, just the expansion, but I will match the piccolo trumpet from the expansion with samplemodeling piccolo trumpet

You get the extra dynamics of a lead trumpet, as well as manually controlling the Bvibrato

[FriFlo]

With good speakers in a treated room, you can definitively hear some problems with the individual instruments:
- some weird panning differences within one instrument (that might be only scripting bugs)
- some shorts having a completely different timbre than the longs within the same instrument, therefore a disconnected sound trying to combine them within one phrase
- limited dynamic layers (great to have Trombones in real ff, but these only start with mf ...)
- the walkthrough seems to mostly avoid using crossfades between layers ... I suppose any crescendo/decresendo with modulation wheel will be unconvincing on its own (with larger number of players it might be usable , though)
...
I suppose, this is not perfect, just the way no library ever is. Still, it seems like a very usable product to me and probably even the best choice, if you ever do anything with Jazz/Big Band sound. It is a niche product in comparison to orchestral libraries and especially to the mega-sellers like Metropolis Ark. So, it remains to be seen how much OT will be committed to improving this release in future updates, as they have done with the Berlin Series. I will buy it. I am just waiting for the Trumpet Walkthrough ...

[Luciano Storti]

Good observations FriFlo. I agree with what you mention, and two of those three points are issues I had with Mojo2. They are present in GD but seem less pronounced. Am going to buy as well, curious to see if it holds up.

[SirKen]

With good speakers in a treated room, you can definitively hear some problems with the individual instruments:
- some weird panning differences within one instrument (that might be only scripting bugs)
- some shorts having a completely different timbre than the longs within the same instrument, therefore a disconnected sound trying to combine them within one phrase
- limited dynamic layers (great to have Trombones in real ff, but these only start with mf ...)
- the walkthrough seems to mostly avoid using crossfades between layers ... I suppose any crescendo/decresendo with modulation wheel will be unconvincing on its own (with larger number of players it might be usable , though)
...
I suppose, this is not perfect, just the way no library ever is. Still, it seems like a very usable product to me and probably even the best choice, if you ever do anything with Jazz/Big Band sound. It is a niche product in comparison to orchestral libraries and especially to the mega-sellers like Metropolis Ark. So, it remains to be seen how much OT will be committed to improving this release in future updates, as they have done with the Berlin Series. I will buy it. I am just waiting for the Trumpet Walkthrough ...

Well, they never went back and fixed the bad looping points in Ark 2, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

[The Saxer]

@Saxer: In the video you can watch some examples of marcato and staccato combined in a multi to try to simulate a DooBaDooBa-8th line. It looks like you can even slur the (slightly longer) tongue-stop legato. I am not saying it sounds totally convincing, but it kind of sound good enough to me to get away with it, especially in an ensemble context. Of course, you always loose some clarity about those phrasings with samples, but - again - that almost seems like a given to me.

Sorry, a bit busy at the moment. When I have time I'll try to make some examples. Meanwhile the trombone video is up. I really like the tone. But for me it feels like classical musicians tried to make jazz demos. Not a single swinging line and no jazzy chords to listen to how this library blends. It looks like a big 1000 pieces puzzle when trying to mockup big band stuff. May be good for some jazzy flavor accents using doits and falls and different mutes and plungers. But that is like shouting "Nastrovje" and "Davaj Davaj" to pretend to speak Russian.
Possible that new demos will deliver great mockups and I revise my first impression. But for now I'm missing the essential part: doing agile but connected melodies with accents and tough timing. In realtime.

[KyleJudkins]

in real time? not really possible. You'd be way better off tracking with a sustain patch and then shifting the notes around to different channels(articulations).


inorder to pull that style off in real time you'd have to just be using modelled instruments lol.

[FriFlo]

Sorry, a bit busy at the moment. When I have time I'll try to make some examples. Meanwhile the trombone video is up. I really like the tone. But for me it feels like classical musicians tried to make jazz demos. Not a single swinging line and no jazzy chords to listen to how this library blends. It looks like a big 1000 pieces puzzle when trying to mockup big band stuff. May be good for some jazzy flavor accents using doits and falls and different mutes and plungers. But that is like shouting "Nastrovje" and "Davaj Davaj" to pretend to speak Russian.
Possible that new demos will deliver great mockups and I revise my first impression. But for now I'm missing the essential part: doing agile but connected melodies with accents and tough timing. In realtime.

I am downloading the library right now. If you have the time to get back to this thread, I would be happy to receive some ideas from a Jazz guy like you (others are welcome as well) of some swinging brass examples and I will try to accomplish that with the library. Of course, I could find examples myself as I am not completely without any Jazz roots! But I am far from calling myself a Jazzer! ;-)