How to get this AMAZING staccato Cinematic Studio Brass

#1

Hi guys, I need help on getting this amazing staccato brass with CSB.

https://youtu.be/yDuDSUwx5sE?t=41

My staccato sound muddy and I don’t know why…

Here my example from the trumpets, horns and trombones.

You can see in the waveform too, the attack is slow

The first sixteenth note sounds muddy, the other no, the same for all the brass.

I have set on staccato (articulations) -> repetition, I also tried staccato (art.) -> Staccatissimo etc etc

I have tried all the possible combinations (in my mind xD), but I can’t get this sound :open_mouth:

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#2

Use Eq, compression and reverb. Maybe even a little bit of saturation.

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#3

I’m not familiar with CSB, but some libraries use a combination of note velocity and mod/expression to select articulations. Also, there’s usually some filtering on controls, so you need mod, expression etc to be at the desired values a bit before the note.

Also, is there a delay control somewhere? Intelligent scripting needs some look-ahead for seamless results, and forcing the latency down (if there is an option for that) may cause artifacts.

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#4

Thank you for the video, but they didn’t use EQ, compression, they only use reverb from the studio where they recorded the sample. However this tutorial is amazing.

@olofson ok I’ll give a look on, I don’t think there’s a delay control

#5

They maybe didn’t use anything in their video, but as a long time Kontakt libraries user I tell you honestly that you should mix your orchestral instruments by using audio plugins, because straight out of the box sound is not really good sometimes, anyway you should keep in mind you are working with samples but not real orcheastra, and even if you worked with real orchestra all instruments are different and tracking process can be different because they use different mics. So in our case you should adjust and improve your virtual library sound by adding audio processing on orchestral instruments to cut bad frequencies and add some punch and brightness to your instruments.

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#6

That sounds like some annoying scripting thing. Clearly the first note being played is not a staccatisimo sample. I’ve seen libraries that will script to always start a phrase with a sustain note or something.

In general, scripting sucks at handling repeated notes.

My solution is to create two different instances of the same instrument on two different midi channels and alternate notes between the two instances. I do this all the time…although I’m still never satisfied with my brass articulations, if I’m asking brass to really dance in an agile way.

Indeed, I just bought Samplemodeling’s trumpet to try to improve my brass realism. But my issue is not repeated notes, but fast trumpet runs. I love asking my trumpets to play quick, shouting lines, but sample libraries aren’t great at it.

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#7

Now that I think about it, I wonder if you are using a key switching patch? If so, maybe the solution is to use a dedicated staccato patch. This would take scripting out of the equation.

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#8

Oh! On that note, some libraries do weird things if the key switch notes are too close to the actual notes, and libraries also differ a bit in how they handle the duration/end of key switch notes. If key switching is used here, it might be worth a try experimenting a bit with the timing.

#9

I just found out that I do the same with notes for the brass, shorten them and move them to the left… but I am not familiar with the plugins he is using… I would use just a tiny bit of compression or saturation, Ed and a tine bit of reverb

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#10

First use an EQ, cut out the mud around 300/400hz and add a bit of a high shelf for shimmer.

Then add a transient designer. Pull the sustain down and add a bit of attack. A little goes a long way but just do it by ear.

An optional extra would be to add compression. Compress how you’d usually compress but make sure your attack is pretty slow… I’d suggest around 0.35/0.45 so that your letting transients through but also beefing the signal a little.

Hope this helps.

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#11

I’ll this one.

However there’s not split patch, so I have to use KW :frowning: