SOLO BRASS UNTAMED

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Breathing life and a tiny bit of chaos into your brass

A brass sample library for Kontakt including Trumpet, Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba and Flugelhorn, which follows in the same successful footsteps as Solo Strings Untamed.

The lungs of the library are the Improvisations. These are performed notes with real human energy and movement. It’s like someone taking your composition and breathing life and emotion into it.

With lots of other interesting long and short articulations to play with. Some more unexpected and unusual than others and all performed with the same human feeling.

Solo Brass Untamed is right at home with alternative scores and is also ideal for layering over bigger symphonic arrangements to add some magic and soul. It’s inspired by eclectic and rule-bending composers like Bernard Hermann, Danny Elfman and Colin Stetson.

Highlights

5 solo brass instruments
Over 1600 improvised notes
4 mic positions
‘Storms’ articualtion
Kontakt FULL 5.6.8 or higher

2022
VIRTUAL
INSTRUMENT
AWARDS

BEST BRASS LIBRARY

WALKTHROUGH

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MUSIC DEMOS

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Reviews

“I’m a huge fan of all those Westwood libraries. They really can make a big difference in your mockups.”

Martin Heidenreich Music
YouTube

“Absolutely wonderful sounds, one of the most human sounding libraries I ever heard.”

Stefano Rossi
YouTube

“Sounds amazing. As always with Westwood, great recording quality, great sampling, and super attractive price!”

Emmanuel Rousseau
VI Control

“This is really beautiful! So easy to play and to adjust, absolute pleasure of an excellent sounding Brass library!”

Thomas Kallweit
VI Control

James Hamilton

Trumpet, Flugelhorn

What are Improvisations?

The Improvisations aren’t melodic phrases or pre-written music. They are individual notes performed with intention, human energy and natural movement inside them. Never static, always alive.

Every single semitone across the recorded range of the instruments have 3 distinct dynamic layers triggered via keyboard velocity. There’s 4 different variations of each layer too, giving 12 completely unique performances for every note and a total across the 5 instruments of over 1600 improvisations.

Calm

Quiet, soft and gently flowing. Unnerving and fragile at times, but with beautiful and subtle changes in timbre.

Lively

Spirited and passionate playing with swells in dynamics and vibrato. A naturally emotive sound that works equally well with both poignant and uplifting music.

Wild

Loud and very energetic. Furious, chaotic and definitely where the name ‘Untamed’ comes from. Use sparingly to add accents to your music, or use liberally for an intense and vigorous sonic experience.

STORMS

Using the Improvisations as the foundation, the Storms articulation fades from a single fragile performance to a tirade of raging players. A unique sonic experience and one that can’t be replicated.

Distinctive sounds

In addition to the Improvisations and Storms, there are dozens of other articulations. Some more unconventional than others.

There are super-soft and breathy notes, drones, bends, random surges, flutter tonguing and a good handful of dynamic shorts.

An inspiring and expressive array of techniques that each on their own sound beautiful, or combined together will provide you with some extraordinary characters and moods.

"This will bring new sounds and some real human emotions to your music you never imagined possible from a brass sample library."

Rob Hill

Founder, Westwood

Behind the recording

Recorded at The Nave, one England’s finest recording studios; a converted church with the most beautiful sounding live room. Engineer Tom Orrell used a set of classic microphones and vintage outboard to tailor the perfect sound for the brass.

For the spot position, a single Brauner VMA Valve mic and RE20 mic does a great job of providing a very detailed, dry and hyped sound. Neumann KM184s capture a close stereo perspective; lively but still intimate. For the room position, we used a pair of AKG C414s, creating a more typical tree-style position and will give you a well balanced and open sound. Lastly, high up in the gallery were a pair of omnidirectional Oktava MK-12s. The secret weapon among engineers for their excellent detail, these will give you the full natural studio sound and allow you to hear the beautiful decay of The Nave. 

We collected this really wide range of perspectives for you to mix exactly the sound you need. Everything was recorded through through Neve and API preamps, an AMEK Rembrandt desk and captured using world-class Apogee AD16X analogue to digital convertors.

SOUNDS & SIGNALS

What's included?

Articulations

Trumpet

Improvisations A
Improvisations B
Improvisations C
Improvisations D
Storms
Long
Long – Harmon Mute
Alternative Fingering
Soft Air
Soft Air – Harmon Mute
Surges
Surges – Bucket Mute
Unmeasured Tonguing
Unmeasured Tonguing – Harmon Mute
Half Valve
No Tuning Pipe
Short
Short – Harmon Mute
Short – Cup Mute

Euphonium

Improvisations A
Improvisations B
Improvisations C
Improvisations D
Storms
Long
Vibrato – Slow
Vibrato – Fast
Flutter – Mute
Surges – Soft
Surges – Loud
Short
Short – Mute
Smudges
Pops

Trombone

Improvisations A
Improvisations B
Improvisations C
Improvisations D
Storms
Long
Long – Bucket Mute
Flutter Tonguing
Soft Air
Soft Air – Bucket Mute
Surges
Surges – Harmon Mute
Unmeasured Tonguing – Mute
Bends
Bends – Cup Mute
Drones
Multiphonics
Long Falls
Short Falls
Short
Short – Straight Mute
Short – Bucket Mute

Tuba

Improvisations A
Improvisations B
Improvisations C
Improvisations D
Storms
Long
Flutter Tonguing
Flutter Tonguing – Mute
Surges  – Soft
Surges – Loud
Vibrato – Slow
Vibrato – Fast
Multiphonics
Soft Air
Short
Short – Straight Mute
Pops

Flugelhorn

Improvisations A
Improvisations B
Improvisations C
Improvisations D
Storms

Signals

Spot

A mono position that’s super dry, super hyped and super detailed.

Close

This stereo pair is intimate but lively, allowing the sound to breathe just enough.

Room

A typical tree-style position, plenty of real room ambience and nicely balanced.

Gallery

High up and widely spaced to get the full natural reverb tail of the studio.

Multis

There are 30 Multis created from multiple instruments loaded into one Kontakt instance. Grouped into 5 categories they’ve been created for immediate gratification and perfect for quickly getting your ideas down. There’ll also show you some combinations and sounds you won’t have thought of and spark off an idea.

Improvs

Different versions of the Improvisations and Storms.

Classics

Conventional combinations for a classic sound.

Shorts

Combinations of short sounds.

Textures

Interesting textures and pads using the softer articulations.

Experimental

Hyped and unreal. We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Tom I'Anson

Trombone

TECH SPECS

Good to know

System Requirements

Kontakt FULL
Mac OS 10.9 or higher
Windows 10 or higher
All major DAWs supported
19 GB download size
Downloads using the free Pulse app

Kontakt

This instrument is compatible with the full version of Kontakt PLAYER 5.6.8 and above.

It will not work with the free Kontakt Player.

Watermarking

Every copy of Solo Brass Untamed is automatically watermarked for each customer with unique identifying information which we use to track piracy.

Any questions?

I'm trying to create a mock-up of Symphony No.9 in E Minor From the New World, will this library be suitable?

Dvorak’s most famous and most beautiful masterpiece, may be best in the hands of a more traditional style brass library. Solo Brass Untamed does have some classical sounds, but is primarily aimed at people looking for something a bit more unconventional.

Will this work in the free version of Kontakt?

You need the full version of Kontakt 5.6.8 or above. It will NOT work in the free Player version of Kontakt.

Please make sure you have the correct version before purchasing. If you need help, we have a fully-loaded guide to Kontakt which you can read here.

Can I use this in commercial releases?

Yes! What you can’t do is repackage the individual samples or re-release them as another sample library, but you can absolutely use them to make the next score to a film about how to murder a king to take the throne yourself.

James Stretton

Euphonium, Tuba