In the sampled section, Arturia has included chamber and orchestra instruments with various articulations, synthesized brass, degraded/processed options (including “Betamax” and “VHS” and other tape, analog, and digital lofi stuff), and artistic/experimental selections (labeled “additional”). Layer 1 (synth + sampler), layer 2 (synth + sampler) and filters. There are deep chained wavetables here with position, FM, phase distortion, and wavefolding.Įach layer also has a corresponding filter, including not just vanilla multimode but also SEM, comb, formant, and more. Simpler: Looped, pitched, or one-shot sounds with various samples to choose from (Drone, Field, Foley, Impact, Noise, Pad, and SFX).Harmonic: Additive synth with FM, window, 2 filters with morphing, partial adjustment.Granular: Simple granular synth with density, size, envelope shape.Analog: 3-oscillator synth with noise, FM.Each layer has one sample and one synth slot. The engine offerings are now identical (and expanded) across brass, voice, string, and piano tools in the Augmented range. The main display and macro controls and… well, a lot of free space filled with pictures of deconstructed brass.Įngines. Inside that interface, you have a complete range of prerecorded materials, plus the full complement of processing and effects tools. That makes Augmented BRASS just as satisfying to use building up from the default template as it is navigating the copious patch library. You’ve got two layers of two engines each (four engines total) with one filter per layer, modulation, arpeggiator, effects slots (two per layer, two master effects), and macros. But hit “Advanced,” and what you get is an interface beautifully designed around workflow. If you just want to find some inspiration and tweak it a bit, the standard UI gives you morphing, motion, and effect knobs. That also means performance is up to par with the rest of the Arturia library, and you get a brass and synthesized brass tool in your arsenal that is as comfortable for synth lovers as it is for sample library-wonk composers. These offerings have the same polished UI as Arturia’s soft synths – and will be immediately familiar to anyone using other Arturia plug-ins. Not so with the Augmented line from Arturia. You wind up either stuck in a sample engine like Kontakt or other odd interfaces, to the extent that I’m sure a lot of folks just dial up presets. But while there are many great-sounding libraries out there, they can become more unwieldy once you start to edit. Those sound design tricks have been in vogue for some time in scores and compositions, and have found their way into various libraries and plug-ins from Output, Native Instruments, and partners. The basic formula here is familiar: merge samples of solo and varying sizes of ensembles, synthesized sounds, and processed combinations. Here’s a quick patch I dialed up from scratch in a few minutes, which shows how much you can layer in a single program, combined with effects, for something as synth-y as it is acoustic: But to me, it’s really having the combination of layered samples and synths that’s appealing, and more in the from-scratch sound design category than pulling up factory patches. Note: I hear the criticism in comments about not having modeled sounds here, or the samples being vanilla. You want some brass sounds from scores, it can be that.) Or is it actually a multi-engine synth with some sampled and granular layers for effect, masquerading as a “brass” instrument? ( Absolutely, that, too – enough so you might go to this rather than another synth, at least when you want something brass-ish or with added orchestral impact.) Is Augmented BRASS even a brass library, in the orchestral/chamber sense? ( Yes. It’s like a hybrid brass plug-in even for people who don’t like brass plug-ins – more like the brass tool for synth lovers. Arturia has rounded out its Augmented line with Augmented BRASS.
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