The Sound Board

From the makers of Soaring Strings: http://www.musicalsampling.com/adventure-brass/

I was pretty impressed by Mike Verta's demo video:



Four tracks, no overdubs, no KS, no editing. Raw and revealing, yet the brass kept up.

Very impressive with no keyswitches etc. The most obvious issue with that video is that it does suffer from the too-many-players phenomenon, would perhaps have been nice to have some smaller sections (can't make their website work at the mo, so just going by ear with no info). But lovely tone and Mike knows his brass onions.

Not that I'm in the market you understand... for almost anything....

Not directly related to the topic, but .. I'm starting to find Mike's Williams-fixation just a bit creepy. (Well, I've always felt that, but this new demo increases my 'Mike as a musical Zelig'-concern yet again.) It's all spectacularly well done, there's not a single note, phrase, accent, harmony or flourish here that couldn't be attributed to the masterful hand of Williams himself (even Williams on a pretty good day), and to then know that this is actually the work of a different composer ... Really, really, really strange.

I really would, one day, love to have a chat with Mike about this. I don't know about anyone else, but I've always felt that one of the more profound and unique joys of music is the ability to reveal something of *yourself* in ways that are impossible through any other means of communication. Mike clearly sees it differently, choosing to mimic and adopt, far beyond all differentiation, the voice, personality and musical aesthetic of a different composer.

_

I know Mike's writing is "reminiscent" of JWs but do you really think its that close? Compare Mike's latest to JW Summon the Hero's which to me is crafted to a much higher degree. Despite my respect and admiration for Mike's JW-style writing chops, when I switch back and forth between the two, I can't help but thinking that one is the student and the other the Jedi Master.
(embarrassing confession: I never saw Star Wars so I don't actually know what a "Jedi Master" is but he sounds like the master teacher?)

Also, am I the only one that feels that Adventure Brass (as portrayed in Mike's demo) sounds somewhat "muffled"? Forgetting that the reverb ambience isn't as good as the JW recording with real instruments, the instrument tone of Adventure Brass just doesn't have the brilliance to me. Why is this? Mics? EQ? I haven't heard anyone else comment on this so maybe I need to clean the wax out of my old ears? I'm sure a dab of Clarphonics and EQ would correct this, but in the demos, the top just doesn't have the same sheen to me. Sometimes the soft tone of brass is nice, but these are supposed to be bold and brilliant aren't they?

Marius wrote:I was pretty impressed by Mike Verta's demo video:



Four tracks, no overdubs, no KS, no editing. Raw and revealing, yet the brass kept up.

And no legato, correct?

synergy543 wrote:(...) but do you really think its that close? (...)

Yeah, I think Mike is getting more Williamsified by the day. (If this demo is representative of his current writing anyway.) Although I need to specify: I’m talking about the musical language, the style, the composing technique: the contours of the phrases, the intervals in the motifs, the harmonies, the modulations, the clusters, … All uncannily Williams, I find. Not a doubt in my mind that if that Adventure Brass demo were fully orchestrated and dropped into the latest Star Wars score, nobody — and I mean absolutely nobody — would hear that that cue wasn’t written by Williams.

Where Williams — at least, the miraculous pre-2000 Williams — remains totally inimitable however, is: inspiration. But that was the inspiration of a unique talent that only occurs every four or five generations or so.

_

Lawrence wrote:And no legato, correct?

That's my understanding! Nice and simple library by the looks of it, no frills. I do agree about the somewhat muffled sound though...maybe it's a consequence of the recording chain.

(chaps - politely - fascinating though the Mike V discussion is, isn't that better elsewhere?)

Funny about the legato, of course on re-listening to the demo it's writing that doesn't really require it - and that's not just happy co-incidence, is it? It seems entirely conceived to suit this style and work quickly for it, and that's a fine idea as far as it goes - I'm quite a fan of a product to do one thing rather than everything. Much of this could be achieved in CineBrass which has had velocity-based keyswitching for years, though personally I never got on with that way of working. There is more to it than that though, so it probably covers that territory better than CB, and there's a really nice crispness to the front of every note that suits the style and somehow isn't fatiguing or over-repetitious.

Listening now on the Adams, yes lacks a little sheen that the Clariphonic could put in easily enough I guess. Despite myself, I find myself thinking that it might be a good sale purchase one day.

Piet De Ridder wrote:Not directly related to the topic, but .. I'm starting to find Mike's Williams-fixation just a bit creepy.

Ha! Always kinda thought that...he writes in the genre John Williams, although pretty darn well.
It makes me very aware of my Morricone obsession (although he is 3 or 4 genres) so I do my best not to sound like that (as if I could really,..)

This library's demos are impressive...esp the no-keyswitching thing. but I'm not really into this style of music. It's like Universal Theme Parks Brass. Nails that though.