Quantum Leap Brass NEW MP3 demo

[Nick Phoenix]

I put together a demo using stuff that I have written over the past year. All the brass is from Quantum Leap Brass. You can download the mp3 at .com QLBUNI (\"QLBUNI\")
You must download the mp3, the real audio demos are old.

[This message has been edited by Nick Phoenix (edited 07-14-2001).]

[Francis Belardino]

Nick.

Could you pass on some info about Prosamples/QLB/Orchestral?

Also, would I combine or convert the AKAI
to gig?

I bought the CD but its not out yet. Just wanted to get a taste of your product untill
I have the founds to dive head first http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Thnaks

------------------
Francis Belardino
Sound Designer
Audio Visions, LTD.
Wilmington, DE.
www.audiovisionsonline.com

[clueless]

Where do I get the MP3 file. When I click on the demo buttons, my machine crashes.

Clueless

[Nick Phoenix]

works best with Internet Explorer or Netscape. Look up QL Brass and click on the MP3 demo button.

Francis B.
The prosamples orchestral version contains some nice sustains with quick attacks that can be used for most applications. 3 trumpets, solo trumpet, 4 french horns, 3 bones, tuba and a stacatto brass section. But, you\'ll want more...

[Francis Belardino]

I am sure I will! Are the samples on Prosamples the same from master CD, just
not all, right?

Also, would I combine or convert to gig?
(Akai files)

Thanks Nick.

PS. Rare Inst. sometime this month. Too awesome to put off!

------------------
Francis Belardino
Sound Designer
Audio Visions, LTD.
Wilmington, DE.
www.audiovisionsonline.com

[clueless]

This is crazy but I see no MP3 button at the QL Brass site at . There are two demo buttons (no other label). When I activate either one a file of a few kb is downloaded. This is what is in the file:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 00:12:11 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.12
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 51

rtsp://www..com/cd_audio_demos/584.ra


What am I doing wrong?

clueless

[apessino]

It appears that the new mp3 file is available from the QLB \"Unity\" product page _only_, I also downloaded the wrong one by mistake initially.

Try going to:
QLBUNI (\"QLBUNI\")

or just enter \"Quantum Leap\" in a search and then go to the Unity version.

As it happens, the file is AMAZING!

Nick, there is some of the best sequencing ever heard in there.. also some very interesting music, I must say. I\'d love to hear some of those pieces in their entirety, particularly those with an \"Elfman-esque\" flavoring. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

I\'ve had the QLB for quite some time now, but darn it if I can get it to sound as great as you do. There is not a trace of mud in your work, in several places the orchestra sounds just perfect. Very impressive!

I\'d be curious to hear how you work, and what equipment/tools you use to get such great definition and \"air\" in the orchestral mix. Anything you are willing to share? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

Either way, thanks for the demo, it was most interesting to listen to.

Cheers,

A-

--------
Andrea G. Pessino (not female, just Italian)
Blizzard Entertainment

apessino@blizzard.com

[clueless]

What variety!! Great job. I have QL Brass ... but obviously, I\'m missing the truckload of talent that was behind these scores.

I also noticed that the other instrument libraries were not lacking in quality either.

I have an appointment in the morning at the studio for final work on several CDs of a CD series I am involved with. The studio people were amazed at the sound quality of Gigastudio (I must have the only one in Knoxville). If I would have had tracks like this, you would have had to peel them off the ceiling.

Very convincing work Nick.

clueless

[KingIdiot]

Hey Nick, glad I finally got to the MP3

I dloaded the first MP3 last week when yo posted this and it wasn\'t the right one.

Anyhow, It sounds great. It does focus on the strong points I feel that th library has going (and is worth getting for). Plus it shows you got skilllz http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

That was the Monkeybone clip (2nd cue) wasn\'t it? I\'m pretty sure I remember that one from the theater trailer.

Please share some of our mixing/MIDI tips if you can. I\'ve always said that developers (especially MIDI composing ones) should share their initial thoughts and tips and tricks for how one should compose/focus/mix with the library.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[MikeGraybill]

SOLD!!! Outstanding! I\'ve eyed QL for months now, but wasn\'t sure if it could do some of the dark nasty stuff I wanted the brass to do... Damn! I\'m buying it next week. Thanks, Nick. Very Impressive work.

-Mike-

[bg]

Nick, your compositions and orchestrations are excellent. One question: Are the vocals at 4:43-5:12 from a sample CD?

Bart Garratt

[Marc Floessel]

I might be wrong but I would suppose that the vocals are from Roland\'s VP-Z Variphrase Sound Libraries for the VP-9000. Unfortunately this means that they only become useful with VP-gear.

[Nick Phoenix]

Thanks for the compliments!

Here are some mixing tips for the brass library.

Generally speaking, I tend to add a little 8-14 k to most of the brass and cut the mids a bit. I use the solo trombone stacatto alot and usually boost the lows a bit, cut the mids (1k) and crank the highs! I have also had good luck mixing the 3 bones stacatto with 3 bones sforzando, solo trombone stacatto and 3 trumpets legato all together into a romping Elfman ooompaaa patch. The 3 trumpets sustain or legato patches work suprisingly well for fast ornamental lines, like you might hear in a John Williams piece. The filter mod wheel thing works pretty well and of course a little extra swelling is always nice. Mixing the 4 french horns sus with the tuba, fattens up the not so robust sounding horns and makes them nice. Mixing the 4 french horn sus with the long stopmutes gives you a very present hunting horn kind of a sound. The solo stacatto trumpet is my favorite patch, because it can be played convincingly very fast. I also use the bass trombone crescendos and the french horn rips alot to build and smooth transitions. Sometimes sforzandos can resolve in cool suprising places. experiment. The tuba fattens things up, but sometimes I skip it, if the piece has big low strings. I don\'t have any panning rules, but I always pan similar frequencies away from eachother, unless I am trying to hide crappy samples. I try to spread the brass around and do the same with the strings. I usually kind of emulate recordings that I like.

Brass NEEDS good reverb. I personally am a terrible reverb programmer. So, I saved up for the Sony DRE-S777 sampling reverb. Best piece of gear anyone has ever made , I think.

The choir is me and 2 girls I know singing the same parts 10 times over (passable but not great).

Most of this music is from trailers, thats mostly what I do.

[apessino]

Fantastic tips, Nick, thank you very much! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

A-

--------
Andrea G. Pessino (not female, just Italian)
Blizzard Entertainment

apessino@blizzard.com

[MikeGraybill]

Very good ideas, yes. I especially liked the concept of separating similiar frequencies for promotion of attention, and containing others (be they bad samples or just parts of an overwhelming engine for example). Nick, your suggestions ought to be included maybe in the QL manual, I think. Not only are they just good ideas, but there are suggestions for compensating for quirks of samples that you know very well. Maybe a new trend? A library creator\'s tips for good results section? Might be useful...

-Mike-

[Nick Phoenix]

Mike,
Good idea. The problem is that I didn\'t realize alot of these things until the library was already out for 6 months. I have alot of other suggestions. I guess I should start a website.

[KingIdiot]

A website would be great Nick.

I took some time last month to start doing some sample editing with QLB sounds. I wanted a bit more control, expression wise and wanted a really overblown sound on the Bones. so I went into the sfz patches of both the solo trombones and the 3 bones, and recorded single notes into a wave editer, then created somelops of just the FFF part of the samples (multiple crosfades into a long loop for less of a cyclic sound). Created a new instrument with jsut those samples, and set the volume to be Mod whell controlable. It now soudns pretty good layered on top of the 3 bones long sustain. Not perfect, but it helps for those really loud sections.

I\'m trying to figure a way out to do that with the French horns but I\'m getting alot of phasing. I\'m gonna try creting a \"mock ressonance\" with the Stop sounds with some pitch/formant shifting and other junk. Mixing the Stops with Sustains on their own sounds great,...but they sound like stops...I want that big resonating sound without the real nasal sound throughout. Maybe expression/mod control of the stops with a filter over the sustains....hmmmm....I believe QLB is close with with a little fiddling it could get even closer

Another trick of course is layering samples in from other libraries. I\'ve actually got good results with AO, in fact I get a HUGE brass sound when I do that. Especially with Stacattos \'cuz teh Stacattos in QLB are really good, the AO ones behind them jst beef them up....sort of like the ehavy Metal Approach to guitars...just double it....or triple it..its gonna sound big! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif...of course it might sound sloppy...but it\'ll still sound big http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

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Really...I am an Idiot

[mahlon]

Has the mp3 been removed from the site? I see the button but it takes me to a downed page.

Thanks,
Mahlon

[Nick Phoenix]

It should be up again on Monday.

[Dis]

It\'s Monday and the site is still down.

[Dis]

It\'s a pity, I\'d like to hear that file. :-)Haven\'t you got some mirror site with it?

[Jamesmcwilliams]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dis:
It\'s a pity, I\'d like to hear that file. :-)Haven\'t you got some mirror site with it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeh, i have the same problem...shame, i really want to hear a good demo before shelling out for it.



------------------
www.scorecentral.net/jamesmcwilliams (\"http://www.scorecentral.net/jamesmcwilliams\")

[Nick Phoenix]

The demo is up again. East West\'s site had some problems over the weekend.

[SOD213]

The demo is up again. East West\'s site had some problems over the weekend.
------------------------------------------

Awesome! I was looking for some good brass for some Danny Elfman type stuff. (My mom\'s a fan, I\'m hoping to be able to make something that could sound like his, and then say.. hey mom, I made that on my computer!) I guess I\'ll put QLB on my wishlist now. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[dnortana]

Nick,
Loved the demo, and thanks for the tips.

A question about your mixing. As you pan the instruments around, what do you normally do with the \'stereo width\' of each instrument. Do you leave the full stereo width on each instrument and just let the pan take care of placement? Or do you also trim the width?

Regards,
Trond.

[Nick Phoenix]

I don\'t mess with the width. I just let the pan control alter the stereo balance. I rarely pan hard left or right, because I like to leave some of the stereo effect intact. Reverb blurs all of this anyway.