Musical Sampling Orb Horns and Bones

Orb Horns and Bones is the counterpart to our proof-of-concept brass library, Orb Trumpets.

We recorded the French horns and trombones in their traditional positions in the same space at Orb Studios in Austin, Texas. Aside from the obvious desire to complete the brass package (sans tuba), we wanted to see how this performance-oriented style of sampling would play out in full context.

Like the trumpets, all the samples were extracted from curated phrases and programmed to take full advantage of those performances. The resulting fluidity lends itself to energetic, melodic writing - all without any keyswitching. Just adjust the velocity; soft for quicker notes within a phrase and hard for longer “landing” notes. Modwheel for dynamics. That's it!

The horns and bones were also hand-tuned to taste, preserving important intonation biases that really reveal their utility when playing chords/lines in context within their respective sections and with their brass counterparts.

Patches

- Orb Horns
- Orb Bones
- Orb Horns (FFF Sus)
- Orb Bones (FFF Sus)
- No Filters versions of above

Features

- 4 French Horns, 2 Trombones
- Keyswitch-less “Adventure” programming
- Two velocity-sensitive attack types
- Entirely performance-sourced sampling
- Tighter studio recordings
- Hand-tuned to taste - no destructive tuning
- Adjustable reverb of custom hall impulse

The Orb Horns/Bones patches are great for most brass-writing needs with a dynamic range going from mezzo-piano to fortissimo. The FFF Sus patches include an additional sustain layer at the top of the dynamic range where the players blew with full abandon.

Velocities 1-97 activates quicker staccato attacks while 98-127 plays back a slightly heavier, marcato “bloom” – great for longer “landing” notes. Example: If you write a triplet going into a quarter-note, you'd use the soft velocity for the triplets, the hard velocity for the quarter-note while shaping the dynamics with the modwheel. The library is designed with this methodology in mind, resulting in more realistic phrasing.

The No Filters folder patches are for the rare few whose DAW setups may be a bit sensitive to certain Kontakt filters (CPU spikes n' such).

This library is recorded relatively dry but treats well to external reverb setups. Slap an early reflection plugin then pipe that puppy into your favorite hall verb!