Session Horns Pro Free Download
Kathryn Garivay
Sometimes dynamite horns in top audio quality can make all the difference. SESSION HORNS is a tight and modern, multi-sampled ensemble of renowned session musicians, and includes a wide variety of creative mix and mastering presets to inspire your sound images.
Woodwind and brass are among the most dynamic and expressive acoustic instruments, and the interaction between the individual players of a horn section can be very complex both harmonically and rhythmically.
We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website, store your preferences, and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you. These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent.
Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.
Session Horns Pro is the last word in playable horns. Arrange 10 perfectly-sampled instruments into sections of up to six pieces.A 30 GB library delivers supreme depth and flexibility with added velocity layers and articulations. And intelligent auto-arranging gives you true-to-life horn arrangements no matter your skill level.Session Horns Pro gives you three saxophones, two trombones, three trumpets, tuba, and flugelhorn. 38 pre-arranged section presets for all popular styles get you started right.Or customize your horn section with up to six instruments split into four voices. You can also play each instrument solo with ultimate realism.
Whatever your DAW is, be it Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton, etc. the techniques I talk about will work in any of them - but you do need a basic level of competence. For instance, if you don't know what MIDI is then you really should learn about that first.
You don't need to be a horn player to add a horn section to your tracks. You can 'play' virtual instruments by writing MIDI notes inside your DAW, or by playing and recording the notes from a MIDI keyboard in real time. I favour a combination of both
Mike gives loads of detailed advice on the physical limitations of each horn type. For example, double and triple tonguing are pretty easy on the trumpet whereas, on the sax, you just can't play repeated notes fast.
Writing for virtual horns does not have the same physical limitations of course, you can do crazy things, but the limitations of the instrument you are emulating should still be respected to keep things realistic.
The topic of style and interpretation is far beyond the scope of this article so I don't cover it. A funk player will interpret a score very differently to a Ska band. I assume you already have a feel for your type of music.
Above you see a screenshot from Cubase MIDI editor showing two midi notes, the pitchbend lane, and the velocity lane. Note the shape of the pitchbend and that it starts ahead of the notes. This will create a 'stab' like a 'pow' - an articulation with attack and quick decay. Very cool!
Above you see another screenshot from Cubase MIDI editor again showing two midi notes, the pitchbend lane, and the velocity lane. Note the shape of the pitchbend and that it starts ahead of the notes. It is similar to the first example but it is inside the midi note. This will create a slow crescendo, a swell if you like, with slow attack the length of the note and no decay.
I recently tackled the funk brass classic 'Pick up the Pieces' by AWB. Here I mix Session Horns trumpets with single VST horns; Trombone, Tenor Sax. I'm sure you'll agree that it is a thicker sound. At the top end the SH trumpets have doits added which gives the overall expression. Adding single instruments thickens the sound and, especially with a few tweaks, humanizes the performance - the ear believes multiple musicians are playing and that nails it!
I've been covering more songs that need some kind of horn section. Think Lido Shuffle, Long Long Way From Home (foreigner), 25 or 6 to 4, Vehicle, Into the Mystic etc.
I normally hate the inherent cheesiness of covering horns on keys but it I've just been asked to a lot more lately. I think I draw the line at doing a sax solo or something like that. For example, Billy Joel's "You May Be Right", it's just as relevant to let some other legit instrument cover the solo as fake a sax on the keys. But if I can lay back and add some appropriate layers I like to do that.
One of my main problems is the Logic/Mainstage horns program. It's terrible. Doesn't sound too bad but for some reason it will have an enormous amount of midi hangs that require the midi-panic button, like no kidding all the time. I have no other VSTs that cause this problem so I don't think it's some other part of my rig. Depending on my rig, I can get horns with one of my other keys but I like to have a Mainstage Only version of everything I play.
So Hive Mind, help me: what VST's would be better than the Mainstage Horns for filling space.
that or the fact, that (at least in my world, and granted, NYC is a fickle, highly opinionated place), if you play horn parts on a keyboard you get (at the very least) the look of death from other band members, and (at the other extreme) asked to leave. as always YMMV.
Chris Hein Compact are fine, imo, for the kind of section stuff you want to do. The other one I know of personally is the e-instruments Session Horns (sold by Native Instruments). They both sound good but not in mono! (Again, imo of course - but to me it makes a big difference; I think "acoustic" horn samples need "air" for their sound to come alive, and that requires a wide soundspace).
Session Horns has a feature where if you play a chord, the software automatically splits it to different instruments based on the notes. CHH has more instruments, and you can load individual ones into their own Kontakt Player slot, or one ensemble of multiple instruments into a single slot, with key ranges assigned in the plugin.
I just checked out the demos on their page ( ). We all know what opinions are like, but mine is that the Chris Hein or Session Horns are better suited for dynamic rock/r&b horn section playing. Listen for yourselves if you care. AS's solo instruments are pretty nice though. Audio Modeling's SWAM horns are good for solo work as well.
Every year in my teaching the topic of how to practice effectively and maintain good chops for performances comes up with students. The tactic I suggest to horn students is to structure the playing day around an idea that you want to have three solid playing sessions in an ideal day.
Looking back on my Horn matters writings, I was thinking surely I must have written about this? Actually I have not, other than a few basics of the idea laid out in this article, buried far at the end of a long article, with my Orchestra 101 book also touching lightly on the topic, in relation to auditions, and also my warmup book.
I believe I end up talking to most every student about this at some point, and the talk has become better organized over years of teaching. The essential idea is that an ideal horn playing day is structured in three sessions. A session can be any of these
Before expanding on each type of playing session, there is one other critical thing to note. Warm up before each session! For me personally, as of now, I aim for 20 minutes of warmup as the beginning of the first session and 10-15 as the warmup portion of any following session. The goal is to warm up, play seriously, and then rest three times a day, with a warm-down at the end of each session being a good idea too. The playing times include,
Practice. Sessions should not be over an hour, and they should be spread out in the day. A two hour practice session is too much, especially if it is right before or after another session.
Related to the above, it is not a bad idea to plan in a day every week that is lighter, with only one hour of practice. There has to be time to recover. The occasional day off is also a good idea for your chops.
A final note to teachers out there, I must add that I find playing little by little all day teaching lessons to be a bit hard on the chops. My chops feel the best on days where my only playing is practice, rehearsals, or performances. Especially on days where you have performances, it may pay off to limit your playing when teaching lessons.
The VDC (Venture Development Center) Community Sessions@Horn are weekly meetups designed to promote growth and offer feedback in a comfortable environment. The VDC Community Sessions are student-run and are overseen by Vince Difelice, Faculty Director, Student Venture Support at Horn.
The sessions resume this summer on July 6 and will run every Wednesday night from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Zoom. The sessions are run by mentor, Mike Meola, who outlines specific topics to get conversations going, and brings in guest mentors who are knowledgeable in those subjects. Attendance is an open-house format.
VDC Community Sessions allow students with or without startups to come and speak with other students and mentors who are going through similar processes. They allow for collaboration, advice, team-building, problem-solving, and lots of fun.
Freshman students entering as Delaware Innovation Fellows (DIF) or World-Changers are invited to Ignite! An early move-in opportunity to strengthen new friendships. The opportunity occurs in late August.
Ignite! also lets students bond over food and team-building events so that they feel like a part of the Horn community before they have even gone to their first class. Establishing a group of like-minded individuals who can come together and help each other is an asset for both college and the world of entrepreneurship.
Students learn to pitch with little preparation time and with people that they have never worked with before. They will also get to experience group brainstorming sessions and learn to work on problems as part of a team.
7fc3f7cf58