[MartynRich]

I am currently recording a jazz instrumental and want to make the horn section sound as authentic as possible. I have a couple of good plugins but if anyone could point to some good online advice or tutorials on how to make MIDI horns sound great, I would be eternally grateful.

I am on a really tight deadline because this is for a synchronisation pitch. Thanks!

[Boydie]

Hi Martyn

I had a track that I wanted an authentic "soul" brass section and the virtual instruments I have are absolutely awful for this type of brass  Sad

After MUCH research I narrowed down my choices to NI Session Horns and Chris Hein Horns Compact

To my ears the Chris Hein Horns are absolutey AWESOME! and even though they are more expensive than Session Horns (£145 as opposed to £99) the sound and options are just incredible

Session Horns did have a nice feature where it would automatically split chords across the different horns

However, as with all automatic processes it is not 100% so doing it manually is probably the way to go

The other keys to authentic horns (IMHO) are…

Make sure your MIDI notes are not perfectly lined up – it is the subtle timing differences that give that authentic “feel”

During held notes/chords spend some time adding volume automation to provide “swells”, crescendos, subtle variations on each instrument etc.

If you have access to “articulations” make sure you throw some in – eg rips, falls etc.

You could also experiment with micro tuning adjustments, which may help to “thicken” the sound and add to the realism

I would also be very wary of adding too many horns (depending on the style you are working on) – in soul, funk etc. the horn section is usually quite small

You might be “fooling” yourself into thinking that adding more instruments is improving the sound – it might just be the volume increase making it sound "better"

You may be better off spending your time tweaking the sounds

Here are a few tracks where I have put this in to practice:

Nice Guys
https://soundcloud.com/boydiemusic/nice-guys-1

Mr Bad News
https://soundcloud.com/boydiemusic/mr-bad-news?in=boydiemusic/sets/boydie-original-songs

I also recorded some "sax" on a track for NEIL C using my guitar synth that had a little more of a jazzy feel:

Sleeping With Strangers
https://soundcloud.com/neilconnor-2/sleeping-with-starngers-demo-master-26-may-2014


As with most things "production wise" it is attention to lots of little details that add up to make the biggest difference

I hope this helps

What “horns” instrument are you using?

[MartynRich]

Im using DSK saxophones, which give nice attack options for that swelling sound. I bought some other horns but for the life of me cannot find the receipt to tell you the brand name. They come plugged in to the EXS24 sampler. Useless I know.

Lots of good tips there though Boydie, thanks.

[Neil C]

I went for the session horns but to be honest I cant make them sound anywhere near as good as they demo as i haven't invested in learning the tool or doing the detail that Boydie describes
:-(
Neil 

[adamfarr]

I had a few crashes with DSK - but only I think because I was using multiple instances simultaneously on different tracks (is there a better way of doing this?!)

I did get some very smooth sounds this way. On the other hand I think the addition of a trumpet is pretty much essential for a soul style horn section (but perhaps not jazz).