The Sound Board

Streamtech Music have released 'Legacy Horn' - a solo horn vst for Kontakt full:

https://www.streamtechmusic.com/

This from the creator of 'Majestic Horn'. If you don't know it, now's the time to buy. Majestic Horn is a solo horn legato patch. It can be had for just €2, and it's really a great patch. Get it here:

https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/c ... estic-horn

'Legacy Horn' is a follow up library to that patch. It's completely new recordings. 'Majestic Horn' was recorded in a large hall. 'Legacy Horn' has been recorded in a small studio. It features a set of essential articulations, five mic positions. It's the same developer and the same horn player, but a completely new library.

There is not much information about the library yet. And Streamtech Music have only one tiny audio demo of 23 seconds duration. But because I like 'Majestic Horn', I bought 'Legacy Horn' on faith. I'm downloading at the moment.

Intro price is €59.

Sounds interesting….but apart from various written info there’s no walkthrough yet. Guess you are up Linos, on behalf of all of us ;-)

Haven’t found in the written info whether it has dynamic layers, or if it’s ‘faking’ it with filters or so.
At the end of the short teaser you hear a dynamic change….but that’s it.

Let us know how you experience this horn, if you are up for it Linos.

There's not much I can tell at this point Nobody. I haven't had the time to integrate it into my template yet.

Maxime added the information about dynamic layers and round robins on Vi-Control:

Sustains: 5 Dynamic Layers, 1 RR
Staccatissimo: 5 Dynamic Layers, 5 RRs
Staccato: 5 Dynamic Layers, 5 RRs
Muted Staccato: 4 Dynamic Layers, 5 RRs
Marcato: 5 Dynamic Layers, 3 RRs
Flutter Long: 4 Dynamic Layers, 1 RR
Trills: 3 Dynamic Layers, 1 RR
Multitongue, FX and crescendos: 1 Dynamic layer, 1 RR, modwheel controls volume

(see here: https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... st-5558307)

On a first quick test, the instrument sounds very nice for soft melodic lines. There is a brassy top dynamic layer as well if that is important to you. The only bug I have encountered so far is that the triple tongue patch seems to consist of the fortissimo dynamic layer only. I am quite sure that Maxime will fix this eventually. Apart from that, I have not encountered any bugs or other problems. Legacy Horn feels very playable and sounds good. I have yet to test how well it takes to spatialization, as the recorded sound is quite dry. It was recorded in a small, well treated studio. Not much reflections going on, but it still has a bit of depth to it.

My first impressions are favorable. It's as playable as Cinematic Studio Brass, with a rounder tone. It's a pure and well articulated sound. You can tell that they recorded a great musician. From my selection of brass instruments, it's my favorite horn sound. (I have BBCSO, Cinematic Studio Brass, Sample Modeling Brass, and Hollywood Brass).
The question mark is if I can add more depth to the sound convincingly. If not it will not do well in orchestral settings, as the sound out of the box is quite upfront.

The only downside so far are the loading times. It takes about a minute to load on my system, while other instruments load almost instantaneously.

Linos wrote: ↑Jun 10, 2024 1:27 pm (...)The only downside so far are the loading times. It takes about a minute to load on my system (...).

Strange, Linos. Both patches load near instantaneously on my computer (Kontakt 6 in Logic on an M1 Ultra, running the Monterey OS).
I've only had the library installed for 10 minutes, so I've got nothing more to add right now. Except that it has been a most enjoyable 10 minutes.

__

Kontakt 7 on Windows 11 here. To be more precise, the loading of the patch is quick for me as well. But Kontakt is unresponsive for about a minute before the patch starts loading. I'll check with Kontakt 6.

Edit: it's the same in Kontakt 6 for me. Kontakt is unresponsive for about a minute, then the instrument loads quickly. I will report to Streamtech Audio.

I look forward to hearing your impressions of Legacy Horn Piet. Without having tested it extensively, I really like it so far.

I think it sounds very good. I own the original Majestic Horn (and the Solo Operatic, quite the bargains both.)

I tried a quick approximation of the phrase in the Legacy demo using the SM Horn with a little Blackhole for distance. For my purposes, I think I'm covered, though for the price I might cave and buy the Legacy. Here's my 5 minute SM demo:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/emsrxsvf ... x94v0&dl=0

On the whole, very impressive library. Great timbre, good sound, generous set of articulations. And for the most part well programmed.
I also think the available mic perspectives are very, very useful. Certainly for the type of stuff I plan to do with this horn. (The Surround, for example, with some Spot added, places the instrument immediately, and completely believably, in my kind of small chamber-like environment. Without having to rely on any other software. And you can send all the mics to different outputs for further non-Kontakt treatment as well, if you like.
(Unlike Spitfire’s Studio Brass, the mic’s of this library actually make musical and sonic sense, nor are its samples spatially constrained by too much early reflections the way they unfortunately are in Studio Brass.)

Performance-wise there’s two things that keep distracting me a bit (I must add though that haven’t explored the entire library yet; so far, I’ve only spent time with the Longs & Shorts articulations):

(1) the legato samples can be a bit too loud at times (an additional parameter to control the level of these samples would be a great improvement). I also notice, sometimes, that the level and/or dynamic of some legato samples doesn’t quite match with the level/dynamic of the two notes which it connects. If, for example, you play a slow legato from F#3 to D3 — or F#4 to D4, depending on whether you follow the Roland or the Yamaha standard — with the modwheel somewhere between 50 and 60, you’ll hear that the legato sample is noticeably louder than the two connected notes. And this occurs in other places too.
(2) the timeframe within which two consecutive notes are considered as ‘played legato’ — even when their midi-data doesn’t overlap — is too large, I find. This becomes a problem if you want to have some very short ‘breathing spaces’ in an otherwise legato-played phrase, because you have to make those spaces quite a bit longer than is musically desirable.

But both those things can be easily fixed (or given a fader or dial on the GUI with which to control them), I suppose. I hope the developer gets around to doing that sometime.

If I’m allowed to single out two more little things: I do wish the staccatissimos had a bit more ‘pop’ and ‘snap’ — they’re a bit too woolly and ‘diffuse’ for my taste (as, alas, they are in almost all brass libraries of the past two decades) — and I also would prefer the staccatos to only last as long as I press the key — this bothers me in many Spitfire and Orchestral Tools libraries as well: short or medium-short articulations that keep on sounding after you’ve released the key (I just don’t understand the reasoning behind this decision) — but again: just little things that I happen to prefer done differently.

There’s so much good material here that paying only €59 for it feels almost embarrassing. Even twice that amount would still be reasonable for what you get, I find. (And if you can deduct VAT it’s even €10 less than €59.)

So, in closing: very-high-quality library that, I’m sure, will get even-higher-quality when the updates are released.

_

Here's a little example of the horn to illustrate some of the above. (The first part is the melody that Larry played in his example, the second part is a quick little nothing with a strings bed in the background.)

As much as I enjoy the Sample Modeling instruments, it's only their Trumpet which I really like. That, to me, is the instrument where everything fell near perfectly into place. The SM Horn however always sounded a bit tinny to me and also has a sort of buzz going on of which I quickly tire. Compare its sound & timbre with that of the Legacy Horn and I don't think it needs further explaining.

What the first part of the audio example also shows, and this is something which I forgot to mention in the previous post, is that in longer sustains you hear an occasional whiff of tremolo. It's quite weak, but strong enough to be noticed and, alas, also strong enough, in specific circumstances, to ruin a note. The very last note of the first part of the example, for instance, exhibits the faint trem quite clearly and also shows that when it is part of the looping section of a sample, it can become a problem. In certain contexts, it also makes notes sound as if played without confidence and conviction.
This too is not a major issue of course, but I've encountered it, in varying degrees of troublesomeness, enough during the past two days to mention it.

The second part of the example illustrates that the legato is definitely in need of an update. Some transitions just sound all wrong.

But then there's that beautiful tone. And the lark's on the wing and the snail is on the thorn again.

__

Damn Piet, does sound gorgeous.

Intro price until June 27, then it's €99.

Sounds very nice, Piet. I would note that their demo offers a dry version-that’s what I posted for comparison in my quick demo.

Well, Linos and Piet’s ‘walkthrough ‘ say it all.

Maxime Luft seems to have a neck for these kind of libs, although his violin didn’t do it for me. This horn will join my SSD and will live a happy life there.

Linos wrote: ↑Jun 11, 2024 7:51 am Kontakt 7 on Windows 11 here. To be more precise, the loading of the patch is quick for me as well. But Kontakt is unresponsive for about a minute before the patch starts loading. I'll check with Kontakt 6.

Edit: it's the same in Kontakt 6 for me. Kontakt is unresponsive for about a minute, then the instrument loads quickly. I will report to Streamtech Audio.

I look forward to hearing your impressions of Legacy Horn Piet. Without having tested it extensively, I really like it so far.

99% of thw time that is Windows Defender oder similar scanning the process. I always exclude Kontakt and VE Pro from scanning. And in 32 years of using computers I haven't had a single virus or similar because of doing this. Admittedly, I only started deliberately doing it in 2004 But still...

Tobias Escher wrote: ↑Jun 13, 2024 6:37 am

Linos wrote: ↑Jun 11, 2024 7:51 am Kontakt 7 on Windows 11 here. To be more precise, the loading of the patch is quick for me as well. But Kontakt is unresponsive for about a minute before the patch starts loading. I'll check with Kontakt 6.

Edit: it's the same in Kontakt 6 for me. Kontakt is unresponsive for about a minute, then the instrument loads quickly. I will report to Streamtech Audio.

I look forward to hearing your impressions of Legacy Horn Piet. Without having tested it extensively, I really like it so far.

99% of thw time that is Windows Defender oder similar scanning the process. I always exclude Kontakt and VE Pro from scanning. And in 32 years of using computers I haven't had a single virus or similar because of doing this. Admittedly, I only started deliberately doing it in 2004 But still...

Good idea. Thank you Tobias! I'll try if it loads directly when excluded from the scan.

Being a little bit more of an SM Horn fan than Piet (although interestingly I've heard him get great results from it) I thought I'd do a quick apples to apples version of the demo snippet posted for the Legacy Horn. I do agree the Legacy is superior, but the SM is very flexible and isn't all that buzzy at lower expression levels.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2qanpp3h ... 0wfoh&dl=0

Hello guys, thanks for your kind words!

As the v1.2 update just went live for everyone in the Pulse Downloader, I wanted to tell a bit more about it:

Changes in version 1.2 include:

Fixed: Many legato notes were previously too loud and a bit bumpy.
Fixed: In tempo-sync mode, some low notes would not play.
Fixed: In tempo-sync mode, the range extension would not work properly.


As some users reported, Legacy Horn had a few 'bumpy' legato samples here and there. So we went through literally all of them to make sure we get the most fluid legato possible:

Most of legato samples were adjusted in their volumes to make sure it's all cohesive and to remove some occasional bumpiness. Also, this update includes a new subtle filter envelope that helps making the legatos even more fluid & a new 'flexible' volume envelope from Kontakt that allows for more naturally sounding legatos.

So yeah, any additional feedback from you is of course welcome! And if you have some questions, I'd be happy to respond.
Our 1st anniversary sale is still going on until July 31 - and you can save up to 50% at https://streamtechmusic.com


All the best,
Maxime

Thanks, Maxime!

__

MaximeLuft wrote: ↑Jul 29, 2024 4:22 am Most of legato samples were adjusted in their volumes to make sure it's all cohesive and to remove some occasional bumpiness. Also, this update includes a new subtle filter envelope that helps making the legatos even more fluid & a new 'flexible' volume envelope from Kontakt that allows for more naturally sounding legatos.

Excellent!

This is the first sample library I've bought in almost two years. I'm a sucker for the French horn, and I'm almost always disappointed -- there seems to be some elusive quality about it that lays waste to well-intentioned developers.

But I just bought Legacy Horn (v1.2) and it was immediately satisfying. The legatos sound great, and the tone is wonderful.

Though, as with most horn libraries I have, I'm not sure I could reproduce this. Even if I could program around the shotgunning by triggering RR reset in strategic places, I don't think the staccatissmo samples can achieve that same mellow sound at the softest dynamics. That's a minor concern though, everything else sounds lovely.

MaximeLuft wrote: ↑Jul 29, 2024 4:22 am So yeah, any additional feedback from you is of course welcome! And if you have some questions, I'd be happy to respond.

A couple tiny issues observed in my initial playing around:

1. G#3 and A3 (notes 56-57) in the trills major patch is much slower than the other notes. Possibly this a physical limitation of the horn itself, but it stands out because it unlike any other note in the patch.
2. X3 - Triple Long and X3 - Triple Short both ignore CC1. This isn't a big deal, since these patches aren't actually recorded at multiple dynamics and one can use CC11 to achieve the same effect as CC1, but from a consistency perspective (with the X4 and X5 patches) I guess it's a minor bug.

Congrats on the release, Maxime. I hope it does well commercially.

I think the library sounds like a French Horn, almost as if you were seated in the horn section. I am tempted, but I am trying hard to keep my poor library in its current state.