EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Hi Sean,

On 3-Jan-06, at 9:35 AM, Sean McCoy wrote:

> I'm interested in getting any feedback y'all have on some of the more
>  recent sample library offerings. I'm particularly interested in the
>  crop of jazz and big band stuff that came out last year, including
>  Garritan's Big Band library, First Call Horns and the update to Kick
>  a** Brass. Also the ancient/ethnic offerings RA from East West, and
>  Origins, the brand new one from Ilio (which may be too new for anyone
>  to have yet).

Most of these I do not have although I do own RA.  I find RA to be an 
excellent sounding library.  10% of it is the entire Rare Instruments 
library that EastWest put out in Giga format a few years back.  The 
rest is completely new.  There is not as much variety as a library like 
Ethno World 3 but they have done a great job in capturing many 
articulations in RA.  They have concentrated onmaking the instruments 
more complete than being more comprehensive.  One thing to note though 
that there aren't tons of percussion type instruments as one might 
expect in such a library (although they do have a few).  I believe that 
their philosophy was that they included a bunch of ethnic percussion 
already in StormDrum so they didn't want to duplicate some instruments 
from there.  If the fact that it is a Kontakt-based library with a 
Kompakt player doesn't bother you, it is well worth it to own in my 
opinion if you need high quality ethnic sounds. I also like how these 
were sampled too.  They were recorded at Ocean Way Sound using a custom 
API console with a bunch of vintage mics.  They used a phase-accurate 8 
mic setup and a lot of attention was paid to detail here.  The newly 
recorded instruments (ie the ones that aren't in Rare Instr.) sound 
great and have a warmth and largeness to them that you can't find in 
the older instruments.  They are recorded dry so they can be reverbed 
to put them in their own space.  I am really happy with this library 
but it is on the pricey side (although still worth it IMHO).

I'm really waiting and on the fence about big band brass libraries, 
just continuing to use what I currently have in the meantime.  I really 
think that NAMM will have some announcements.  I'm pretty sure that 
Fable Sounds (to be distributed by Sonic Implants I think) will have a 
release date announcement about the broadway library that they 
announced last year.  From what I've read on their website, you can 
purchase individual instruments when they are eventually released 
(although it will be more expensive in the long run if you buy the 
entire thing eventually).  My take on GBB is that it is good for the 
price but I just think that their will be something missing in the 
sound quality.  The demos have not done it for me personally, much like 
GPO demos did not do it for me.  It just seems to have a thin sound to 
me and lacking some warmth.  I haven't really heard much of the First 
Call Horns to make any real opinion on the demos.  Kick A** Brass uses 
its own player and I'm a bit concerned about that and the ability to 
edit the sounds.  At least with the Kontakt-based players, I can edit 
the way I want to.  I had heard about some tuning problems in the first 
version (Giga) and so I'm unsure if they have fixed that or not.  It 
does sound good but it has not made me feel like buying it yet.  
Perhaps I find the price too expensive, I don't know.

I'm not saying that these horn libs are not good - I don't have any 
real experience with them.  These are just my opinions from listening 
to demos as well as reading up on them.  I am *always* on the lookout 
for a killer brass library but there hasn't been anything that has 
dropped my jaw yet.  While Quantum Leap Brass was good for its time 
(and I have the new programming in Colossus too), it is long in the 
tooth and not as complete as it needs to be for better realism.  I'm 
beginning to consider sampling some players myself.  If I had a better 
room to record in, I would have done it a long time ago.  I've 
currently got a custom sampling project (non-commercial) on the go but, 
once it is complete, I may move on to my own brass.

HTH (and sorry for being a bit long),
Fernstudio