@chriskard said:

Hello orchestranova,

The Brass Instruments I used for the Trailer are all from the Brass I/II collection. No Special Edition Instruments were used throughout the whole piece.

best

ChristianK

Hi Christian - thanks for your reply. I love your compositions!

Would you mind telling me the instrumentation for the brass in this track? I am unsure whether to purchase just Brass I or if I also need Brass II to get that sound? I have the Special Edition with the Epic Horns patches already you see...

Thanks!

@Dietz said:

I just sent a mail to CK. I hope he will find the time to chime in with first-hand information.

Kind regards,

Thanks for helping, Dietz!

Would it be possible for someone from the VSL team to PM me Christian's email address? I sent him a PM a while ago regarding some brass purchasing advice but he never replied.

Thanks in advance!

Hello orchestranova,

Can you please resend your questions to me? it looks like your pm got swallowed by some spamfilter or something.

I will be glad to answer it.

best

christian

@chriskard said:

Hello orchestranova,

Can you please resend your questions to me? it looks like your pm got swallowed by some spamfilter or something.

I will be glad to answer it.

best

christian

Hi Christian - thanks for your post! Oh sorry about that...I re-sent my question via Linkedin [:)]

And the answer is...

@Peter Alexander said:

And the answer is...

Hi Peter,

This was Christian's response regarding his use of VSL Brass..

"...Regarding how I get this Brass sound, I have to say it is a mixture between Brass I and Brass II. I never use the Horns from Brass I, because they are different in Vienna to the rest of the world. Not only construction wise but also in timbre. I always use the Triple Horn and Horn Ensemble from Brass II...but do use the Trombones from Brass I. I would recommend to get Brass II and in addition to the Single Instruments Tenor Trombone Full and Trombone Ensemble Standard. 

What I like from Dimension Brass is again the Horns and the Trombones. But they are not so different in tone compared to Brass I/II (it's more geared to writing separate lines for all 4 different players). I guess it's because of the players, room recording chain...well this still is a VSL product..."

Hope this helps!

I don't really understand that statement  "... I never use the horns from Brass 1 because they are different..."   Maybe I am not clear on which particular instruments are being spoken about in this post.  But anyway the 4 horn ensemble is perfect for splitting the 8-horn ensemble into two 4-horn sections.  In fact, that is the go-to setup for horns in large VSL orchestra, because of

1) the 8 horn ensemble sounds so good you always want to use it for general unison orchestral purposes, and

2) more often than not, divisi in horns is best done in two part rather than four, because of balancing with the other brass in a tutti.  4 part divisi is best used with very soft or soli passages because a single horn playing will be overbalanced by other single brass if you use all four players on different notes in anything louder. I derived this practice from my own real horn playing in orchestras - if you write all different notes for each horn against the other brass in an ff section, it will not be balanced unless two players play each note in unison in an 8 horn ensemble which of coruse is the reason that Mahler started using 8 horns.

So for these reasons, the ideal combination of instruments is to have the 8 horn ensemble for a unison line and split it into the two 4 horn ensembles, then for smaller divisi the Dimension horns or solo horns could be used. 

@William said:

I don't really understand that statement  "... I never use the horns from Brass 1 because they are different..."   Maybe I am not clear on which particular instruments are being spoken about in this post.

O.K., never mind ---  the Viennese horn is a "single" F horn.   The description on the VSL site is very good and discusses it in detail.    It is not that unusual a horn to find.  The rarity is in its orchestral useage.   There it is much more common to find the double horn.   I actually played a single f horn when I first started playing horn, then switched to the  double horn.  Many horn players would never want to play a single horn in orchestra, because they are a NIGHTMARE in the high range.   The partials are so close that you can literally slide chromatically between pitches in the high range and so the number of mistakes possible is increased exponentially.  It becomes almost like a natural valveless horn.  So normally a player switches to the B flat side in the upper mid range.  I always admired though the rumored players who were courageous enough to use a single.

Concerning the samples though, I already use all the horns supplied by VSL - Solo horn, Triple Horn, Dimension Horns, 4 horn ensemble and 8 horn ensemble. And the singe f horn  -  so-called "Viennese"  -  is still normal sounding solo horn, not something weird and offbeat as all this implies. The triple horn has a slighter darker timbre but it is not a huge difference. In fact, they can easily be used as 1st and 2nd horns in a single setup.

Also, this all assumes you are talking about solo horns. Since the brass 1 collection has the 4 horn ensemble, I thought that was what this was about.  So maybe this whole post doesn't apply.    [:O]