The Sound Board

What's new in The French Horn & Tuba 3?

In addition to improved fortissimo in the upper range, French Horn & Tuba 3 includes several exciting features:

New Early Reflections algorithm.
The early reflections (ER) are those components of the emitted sound reaching the listener shortly after being reflected from the closest rear and lateral walls, floor and ceiling. They convey information about the spatial localizaton of the instrument, and greatly contribute to realism. In French Horn & Tuba 3, a sophisticated algorithm extracts the directional information of multi-microphone anechoic recordings to recover the overall timbre of the instrument along with its radiation pattern, assembling this information into a suitable ER impulse response, which adds a virtual space to the anechoic sound.

Virtual Soundstage.
This new feature allows precise positioning of the instruments in a virtual space located before the listener, using early reflections, pre-delay, convoluted panning and perceived distance algorithms. You can move your instrument back and forth, from side to side, or with a combination of the two, even in realtime, mimicking the natural movements of the player. You can modify the ratio direct/reflected sound, and even "displace" the back wall, for a variable depth effect.
This virtual soundstage will set you free of adding a further suitable acoustic environment, without incurring multiple-ambience issues. This can be carried out within the same Kontakt Player, which provides a high quality convolution reverb.

Real time Timbral Shaping.
This revolutionary new feature adds a virtually infinite timbral variety to sample-based instruments, by acting on the amplitude of individual harmonics, or groups of harmonics, even in real time. This is not a graphic equalizer; the controlling bars are not assigned to fixed frequencies, but to the first 10 harmonics of the played note. As a consequence, the affected frequencies vary with the pitch of the note. So, rising, for example, bar #1 will boost the fundamental frequency (first harmonic) of each note played, yielding a rounder sound. Rising bars #3, #4, #5 will increase the intensity of the corresponding harmonics for a more "nasal" sound, etc.

Expression Mapping.
User-drawn rescaling of the expression CC may give better control of the dynamics, particularly when tailored to suit your own input devices like breath or wind controllers.

"For Unison Ensemble" IR.
A specially devised Impulse Response, markedly reducing the phasing which may occur when several instruments are driven from the same MIDI track (i.e. in unison).

Unison Ensemble Multi.
Special consideration has been given to creation of realistic ensembles from solo instruments, whether driven from separate MIDI tracks, or when playing unison. An advanced "Ensemble Maker" has been developed, affecting timing, static and dynamic pitch evolution, phase, response to dynamics, pitchbend, velocity, portamento time, in such a way that even if driven from a single MIDI source, each instrument will sound slightly different, as if played by a different musician.
A ready-to-use Multi, including four specially devised French Horns, the Ensemble Maker, and an appropriate convolution reverb, suitable for unison playing straight out of the box, is included in the package.

_

Yep! already on my sample drive.

Ha! Simultaneous threads! I'll move my rant into your thread.

Though I've resolved not to buy new plug-ins this year, I buy all SM updates because I'm an addict, and I'll buy this one tonight.

Still, my every post about SM will include my curmudgeonly response to their insistence that I pay FULL price to RE-purchase their saxes in their proprietary SWAM player. I want the update but think it's ridiculous that existing users were never offered a truly reasonable update price, and if they would simply tell me it has to do with previous deals they made (maybe with Stephano Lucato?) I might be able to swallow it, but they never do, and I've asked about this brain bending policy of theirs a few times.

This is one of those "it's not the money it's the principle" dealios that just sticks in my craw...and from such a great company in so many other ways!!?!!

Here endeth the rant (for now).

I'm hoping to have time to d/l the update later this week. However, if it is anything like The Trumpet v3, I'm sure it is fantastic.

I loved The Trumpet from the beginning, but other than less phasing (which is great) what do you love about 3.0? Do you find the spatialization to be really helpful?

Lawrence wrote:I loved The Trumpet from the beginning, but other than less phasing (which is great) what do you love about 3.0? Do you find the spatialization to be really helpful?

v3 is basically a one stop shop. There is a fantastic algorithm that means the 3 Trumpet patch works really well without any jiggery pokery, the CC2 control curve means that if you want a less edgy instrument or smaller dynamic, or no top layer at all, you can just draw it in, the early reflections mean that the instrument is ready to go right from the start, and the distance knob works really well, so that unlike with multi microphone samples, where more definition means more close mic and the sound moves forward, you can get as much definition as you like, and still keep the sound in place. Much more realistic.

I also like the control over the various notes of the harmonic series, but this is a bit more geeky than most people would bother with.

I'll have to go back to the distance thingie because it didn't sound so great to me, but I trust your analysis so I'll give it another go. It was my great hope that it would work well. The harmonic thing, yeah, I passed.

jiggery pokery!

That's a good share of every day here.

.

My biggest complaint with the horn is how breathy and airy it sounds at lower dynamics and how out of place that sounds in an orchestral context when the instrument is supposed to be set back in the room. With other instruments mixed in it's less noticeable of course, but when you're doing a solo line with not much else going on, to my ears it jumps out anyway. The distance knob doesn't seem to do anything to eliminate that beyond what just turning the volume does. No difference in v3 with respect to that quality.

I posted this on ViControl, but figured I should share here as well. Here's some extracts Here's some quick extracts from a piece I've been working on.

Completely dry:



With processing:



Comparission of SM Virtual Soundstage and EAReverb for placement:

OK, I had a little play with the distance and pan features.

It sounds very good to my ears.

Since I have limited brass options (Cinebrass, Logic and Kontakt Full - a couple other misc freebies) should the SM brass be on my "get next" list? I've heard nothing but great things from people I know that have it. I think I shall move this one up - get the full brass section as soon as budget allows.

kpc wrote:...should the SM brass be on my "get next" list?

It really depends on your reason for buying it. Where SM excels is solos with nuance and expression. Where it is more difficult is for loud ensemble type playing (think 8 horn patches) whilst certainly it can do some of this, it won't work well for that thick, synth-like ensemble Brass pad sound. However, you already have Cinebrass for this.

Having said that, you must be prepared to "perform", even if not in real time, all your solos with SM. It won't do any of it for you. Whilst my little Horn solos is nothing particularly impressive, it was Take 1 and the only take I did, all played in real time, so SM can be quite a time saver for some things.

DELETE

Jack Weaver wrote:jiggery pokery!

That's a good share of every day here.

jiggery-pokery = deceitful or dishonest behaviour???

Udo wrote:

Jack Weaver wrote:jiggery pokery!

That's a good share of every day here.

jiggery-pokery = deceitful or dishonest behaviour???

If you're living in the 19th Century....! These days it usually means messing around that is either nonsense or a waste of time. Obviously some Americans think differently, but as they sometimes have trouble with the English language, we shouldn't take too much notice of that.

Daryl wrote:

Udo wrote:

Jack Weaver wrote:jiggery pokery!

That's a good share of every day here.

jiggery-pokery = deceitful or dishonest behaviour???

If you're living in the 19th Century....! These days it usually means messing around that is either nonsense or a waste of time. Obviously some Americans think differently, but as they sometimes have trouble with the English language, we shouldn't take too much notice of that.

You're calling English a language? Looking at spelling vs pronunciation, I'd call it a speech-impediment. For a while I thought the USAers were pragmatic by simplifying the spelling, but I now think it was a reflection on the education system.

kpc wrote:Since I have limited brass options (Cinebrass, Logic and Kontakt Full - a couple other misc freebies) should the SM brass be on my "get next" list?

What Daryl said is my experience too: SM is unparalleled for solo lines. Continuing with the SW themes:

https://helix.urandom.ca/public/tsb-sm-horn-line.mp3

Again, one take, just played in with a breath controller. No MIDI tweaking. (I was tempted to do a second take to fix a bit of the breath warbling but I wanted to be able to say it was one take. )

I find with SM, when I do bother to tweak notes and CC curves, it's to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it. In contrast with other libraries I usually find myself fighting just to prevent them from sounding like they were performed by someone with cerebral palsy.

tack, having heard my demo are you still feeling that the distance knob does nothing?

tack wrote:

kpc wrote:Since I have limited brass options (Cinebrass, Logic and Kontakt Full - a couple other misc freebies) should the SM brass be on my "get next" list?

What Daryl said is my experience too: SM is unparalleled for solo lines. Continuing with the SW themes:

https://helix.urandom.ca/public/tsb-sm-horn-line.mp3

Again, one take, just played in with a breath controller. No MIDI tweaking. (I was tempted to do a second take to fix a bit of the breath warbling but I wanted to be able to say it was one take. )

I find with SM, when I do bother to tweak notes and CC curves, it's to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it. In contrast with other libraries I usually find myself fighting just to prevent them from sounding like they were performed by someone with cerebral palsy.

Sounds very nice. Thanks for the input. So, with that one take, are use just using a breath controller Or a combo (mod wheel, expression pedal, breath... What ever you have to control these things)?

This isn't needed for my current project, but I am looking at getting some SM into my template soon.

Cheers

Daryl et al,

Well, the times I've been in London I always enjoyed speaking English.
Not all that much need for it over here.
Besides, outside of London I can't tell what they're saying anyway.

.

Ain't got no speling
Ain't got no grammer
But who do ya call
When youse need a hammer?

Btw, Daryl- Sure I hear it, but it's fairly subtle to me. Much like yourself.

Daryl wrote:tack, having heard my demo are you still feeling that the distance knob does nothing?

I didn't say it did nothing, I just said I couldn't hear a difference with respect to the breathy sound at the lower dynamics, which finds its way through my reverb, compared to a straight volume adjustment.

It does definitely have a small effect on the buzzy/scratchy close-up sounds and also a not-so-small effect in terms of how shrill the higher dynamics get.

kpc wrote:So, with that one take, are use just using a breath controller Or a combo (mod wheel, expression pedal, breath... What ever you have to control these things)?

That's just breath controller. I use the mod wheel for vibrato but generally french horn doesn't use vibrato much. I use aftertouch for growl but also not something I use much in orchestral stuff.