Vienna Symphonic Library SYNCHRON BRASS

Vienna Symphonic Library releases new collection featuring brass solo instruments and ensembles

VSL Synchron Brass 01

The Vienna Symphonic Library is pleased to announce the release of Synchron Brass, a brand-new brass library of eight solo instruments and nine ensembles in various section sizes, recorded in the large hall of Synchron Stage Vienna. Captivating performances by world-class artists were extensively sampled with a new level of dynamic expressivity and musicality, making Synchron Brass an-all encompassing and versatile toolkit for bold statements as well as for sculpting lyrical phrases with many layers of control, such as the new “Timbre Adjust” feature.

Synchron Brass includes these instruments and ensembles:

  • Trumpet 1 (Marc Osterer)
  • Trumpet 2 (Peter First)
  • Trumpet Ensemble (4 players)
  • Trumpet Ensemble (6 players)
  • Horn 1 (Péter Keseru)
  • Horn 2 (Viliam Vojcík)
  • Horn Ensemble (6 players)
  • Horn Ensemble (12 players)
  • Tenor Trombone (Matthias Reindl)
  • Bass Trombone (Bernhard Vierbach)
  • Cimbasso (Stefan Hirt)
  • Bass Tuba (Lukas Hanspeter)
  • Tenor trombone ensemble (4 players)
  • Trombone ensemble (9 players)
  • Low Brass Ensemble (4 bass trombones + bass tuba)
  • Low Brass Ensemble, unison and clusters (5 players + contrabass tuba)
  • Giant Tutti Brass (28 players: 6 trumpets, 12 horns, 9 tenor/bass trombones, 1 tuba)
  • VSL SynchronBrass MicSetup Ensembles

“Breathtaking.” “Nothing short of stunning.” “The best I’ve ever heard.” These are real-life reactions the Vienna team proudly received after clients from Hollywood and all over the world experienced the acclaimed brass sections in scoring sessions at Synchron Stage Vienna. It’s that special magic that happens when superb musicians are given the opportunity to interact with the acoustics of an outstanding room that emphasizes the bold characteristics of brass instruments, inspiring them to deliver stellar performances.

Creating Synchron Brass has been an exhilarating experience for Vienna’s production team as well as for the musicians. Sampling sessions are mentally and
physically challenging, but after 20 years of sampling and several years of recording film scores in Vienna, taking part in VSL’s sampling sessions is considered a badge of honor among many musicians, and everybody on the team has been thrilled to work with these top-notch players.

Lest we forget, there are real musicians behind Vienna’s libraries that make the sounds live and breathe. Every VSL musician possesses vast experience and
mastery of their instruments, but each has a different story. As examples, here are two who have lent their talents to numerous film score recordings at Synchron Stage Vienna, and also played solo instruments on Synchron Brass.

Solo Trumpet 1 was played by Marc Osterer who was born and raised in New York City. He attended Manhattan School of Music, played on Broadway shows, at Birdland, Jazz at the Lincoln Center, toured festivals from Coachella to Salzburg, and was the principal trumpet of the Mexico City Philharmonic for five
years before moving to Austria to play on worldwide tours with electro-swing act Parov Stelar and joining the Synchron Stage Orchestra.

Solo double horn player Péter Keseru hails from Kiskunfélegyháza, Hungary. After playing principal horns in symphony orchestras such as the Budapest Concert Orchestra, the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Budapest and the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz, Austria he has been principal horn with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and in recent years with the Synchron Stage Orchestra.

Developing a new generation of sampled brass ensembles and solo instruments involves much more than placing first-call musicians in a magnificent hall. The experiences and expectations of scoring stage clients as well as two decades of sampling know-how informed the way the performances were recorded, both in terms of creating the score as well as engineering and mic placement. With VSL’s mission in mind to develop virtual instruments that let users create coherent and compelling performances with ease, the editing team painstakingly balanced and matched all dynamic levels of the entire sample database for seamless transitions from one articulation to another, perfectly matching release samples, and smooth velocity crossfades.

VSL SynchronBrass GUI GiantTuttiBrass Mixer

As an alternative and addition to velocity crossfade, the Synchron Player offers a brand-new feature: Timbre Adjust, assigned to CC8 by default. Especially brass solo instruments are capable of creating subtle volume and timbre variations, and this new intelligent filter lets users apply dynamic changes while staying in one velocity layer. It can also be used to create variants of articulations that have only one velocity layer (such as sforzatissimo) or to prevent velocity crossfade artifacts that may occur with brass solo instruments.

Synchron Brass offers a wide variety of articulations and phrases, and features like Timbre Adjust, integrated time-stretching, and the Synchron Player’s
release sample technology increase its flexibility and expressive possibilities immensely, allowing users to easily manipulate samples in real-time to create
lively, emotional and captivating performances.

Synchron Brass represents Vienna’s next-generation instrument, assembling over 20 years of research, talent, and know-how to help music creators achieve the boldest, most majestic scores imaginable.

www.vsl.co.at