Infinite Brass by Aaron Venture - My Review (Extreme Playability)
Watch Video on YouTube here
I hope you enjoy, and please share your thoughts on this Brass Sample Library! 
Sincerely,
Mike
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I forgot to tag our fellow member who created this amazing library, @AaronVenture, thank you for the great work you do to provide flexible and playable instruments for us composers!
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Thanks for the review, Mike!
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It was a pleasure Aaron, I forgot to mention one “downside”. You risk having way too much fun just sitting and playing parts live due to the crazy good playability live with all these brass instruments! 
Just kidding, this is the very aspect that makes your instruments stand out, and be the new frontier (I hope) for sample libraries!
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That’s the idea: play more, click less. 
It’s been a long time in the making and there’ll be plenty more. Woodwinds update with the new spaces is next, then Strings.
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Ah, I just sent you an email about that, now I know that an update on Woodwinds is in the works. Do please get back to me when it’s due for release.
And the strings, wow, you have a tough nut to crack on that one, but I am sure you will create something amazing yet again.
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Hi Mike and Aaron -
Nice work, Aaron! I’m currently an owner of the SM and AM libraries, but there are many things you seem to have nailed. From Mike’s walkthrough it seems like your attacks on the horns are well done. Hard thing to get right. I really wish there were an evaluation license available - I’m doing an animated series right now where nothing but modeled instruments have the agility to make all the moves, and one doesn’t really know until it’s in use if something will respond as desired - and I’d like to hear how a dry signal would work with the convolution reverbs and placement I use, and how the mutes sound. (I rely heavily on the muted bass trombone from SM because it’s the only one that has the desired top-end bite and the ability to actually be funny!) Any plans to make the mutes adjustable dynamically for wag effects? Please continue with your amazing work - modeled instruments are the future for expressive performance driven by the user!
Mike, regarding changing mutes on all instruments in a section - if it’s possible to assign the mute selection to a CC, then you would just make sure they are all in record and move a single controller.
Best,
Richard
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Hello Richard,
I do have both SM and AM myself (not the new AM brass though). The agility you speak of is exactly what I feel most “standard” orchestral libraries lack. Aaron has an in depth video walkthrough where he shows for example runs and trills which sound absolutely amazing!
Oh, good idea about assigning the mutes switch to CC on the entire instrument grouping in Kontakt.
Btw, I have to say that the Euphonium was a really nice surprise. I never “lacked” it before, but now that I have one, I feel that it will find its way into my compositions now and then!
Also, when playing fast rhythms and repetitions (Star Wars style), it can take some practice to get it right, and perhaps some adjustments afterwards on velocity values. But I far prefer this over the old key switch method. The attack variation is beyond anything I’ve tried before.
I’m evaluating the AM Brass currently. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment on them at the moment but I will say that fast staccato passages and murtitongued moves are very important to me. As is speed of use - get it in there, quick tweak and done is what I gravitate towards. My current instruments of choice allow me to play things in in realtime very expressively with minimal editing for many things, which is what wins for me.
I’m glad there ae many demos up, but getting it under my fingers (and pushed by my breath controller!) is the best way for me to know. I can’t think of a single instrument that had demos that answered my burning questions, because (and there is nothing wrong with this at all ) they show things off to their advantage. Every library is made to be used a certain way, and the question often is not “can it sound good”, but “can it sound good in a the way I need to use it”. I use the SM Strings too, and I love them, but one never would have known what they were really capable of by listening to the demos - same for the majority of company- and user-made YouTube videos of modeled instruments. And I’m struck by the fact that many demos for this kind of instruments are classical pieces - when what I really want to hear is things that sound like they were done on the Fox stage. (The Altiverb IR for that is part of my template.)
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Great points Richard, and I completely resonate with the “instruments that work for me” spirit you speak of. I mean, I know every composer has his/her preferred workflow, and thus gravitate towards certain libraries.
What is important to me, in all libraries, is giving the user (me) as much control and flexibility as possible. So that I can set up the instrument as I want it to respond, including the sound character etc.
If the industry can some how move away completely from those dreaded (imo) key switches, I would be much happier. Remembering them on all different libraries I call up into any new composition is a nightmare, accidentally hitting a key switch is another frustration.
If you have an iPad, get Lemur and Composer Tools Pro. It will always remember your key switches and they will always be visible to you, recallable when the instrument track is in record, labeled and color coded, along with faders for any controller you use for each instrument. It’s really great.
Thanks. I actually tried Metagrid (similar to Lemur), realized I prefer tactile control over touch surfaces so gave it up. Also, I don’t want the key switches at all. Meaning, when I play in the low range of my 88-keys master keyboard, I don’t want them to accidentally trigger a key switch ever due to the fact I was on the wrong track or whatever. It happens a lot, I guess I am clumsy!
So, basically I want all my of my 88 glorious keys to always represent a note, and never anything else. If I am outside the instrument range, I simply want it to remain silent, and not do any key switch changes.
Key switches have always felt like a necessary evil to me, haha.
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I totally get that. The reason I like CTP is that keyswitches don’t have to be on keys. They can all be cc values á la UACC or they can be velocities on one key, or they can be remapped out of playable range. CTP doesn’t care. And though the tactile thing is great, since I use my breath controller for performance nuances, for the little moves I’m doing with the iPad it’s perfect. I don’t need for mic perspective faders to be physical - I just want to nudge things in place and be done with it. Or articulation switches, or engaging the “expressive vibrato” in SM Strings, or (my favorite) doing harp glisses with adjustable pedals. (So quick and useful! Though GeoShred also works for this.) And one interesting thing CTP can do is - if you want, you can tap the controller facet you want to use and suddenly the entire screen is just that fader.
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Nice! My mouse pointer has been hovering over the Buy button for a good while now, and its altitude got quite a but lower with the 1.4 update, and even lower now! 
@AaronVenture, I’m probably going to use my BBC2 and/or Touche for starters, but what about “evolved” keyboards and the like, like the upcoming Expressive E Osmose?
I suppose one can just map everything to MIDI CCs and then assign those as needed, but I’m thinking there may be more possibilities with MPE devices that are sensitive to percussive playing and whatnot, rather than just producing a few extra low frequency CC streams.
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First time hearing about this, I’ve been living under a rock, kind of, these past 9 months! I’ll have to look into it.
As is, Infinite was designed so that you can have a great experience with just a keyboard and a modwheel. You can use Kontakt’s internal Multiscript Transformer to use Aftertouch as well, link that to Vibrato Rate and Depth and have these right there. It’s a good experience as well but the Aftertouch on my keyboard really sucks, so I had to resort to other solutions.
This update also introduced vibrato improvements first seen in Woodwinds last summer, which make vibrato more independent so you can just dial it in, play your line with just the modwheel and then either draw in or perform vibrato individually if you so desire.
But if you have controls at your disposal, you can use it all. The more controllers you add, the better it gets. I use LEAP Motion which lets me do Dynamics, Vibrato Depth, Vibrato Rate, Flutter and Growl at once. And have a TouchOSC template to control other parameters when necessary (rarely, it’s usually turned off). I’ve had quite a few messages from other users to help them with their own setups and really, sky is your limit. But the ground level is still awesome.
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Awesome! It’s also crossed my mind to hack a basic scripting VST, so I can use it with Kontakt, synths and whatnot, and do whatever comes to mind when it comes to controllers. (I’m a senior dev with a bunch of weird old projects lying around. )
Anyway, maybe not too strange that you haven’t heard of the Osmose yet, as it won’t be released until winter, apparently. I just happened to run into it, and it appears to be just what I’ve always wanted from a keyboard - not something completely different, but traditional keys with additional expressive capabilities. Oh, and there’s a really nice synth engine in there as well! So, I’m awaiting an early-bird one from the first batch.
https://www.expressivee.com/discover-osmose
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Yes! I like the playability and sound of the library. We are looking for new brass and woodwind libraries for our MIDI lab. I just sent an email to @AaronVenture
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Infinite Woodwinds has an update coming soon as well according to Aaron, and I’m sure it will be equally amazing.
Btw, what is your MIDI lab?
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Hi @Mikael - At Middle Tennessee Department of Recording Industry, we have multiple recording studios and labs, but I focus on the MIDI lab (aka the Electronic Music lab). Courses taught in this lab cover topics such as sound synthesis, MIDI and digital audio. I would love to tell you about all our hardware/software. Here is a link with everything already listed: https://www.mtsu.edu/recording-industry/midi-lab.php
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Oh that is so cool! You work in a very nice place my friend! 
Btw, I actually have the same orange Waldorf wavetable synth, but haven’t hooked it up since I moved to this apartment. Basically got rid of my hardware synths and went all software 5 years ago. But haven’t sold that one yet, I was hoping for Omnisphere to add it to their hardware synth control list, but no luck yet.
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