Angry Brass Pro – Ensembles is a loud (ff-fff) brass overlay library, recorded in the same space as Oceania, featuring very lean yet energetic instruments with the capability to vary note lengths fluently from a tongued staccato to a longer marcato. It features three separate sections: three trumpets, three bass trombones, and four horns. Stay tuned for the dedicated, forthcoming Angry Brass Pro – Soloists release, which will take an even deeper dive into performance and playability. Angry Brass Pro – Ensembles also serves as a fantastic loud layer for Caspian, offering more detail with the round robins and fast performance focus.

The recordings were done with a Cross-Instrument Session approach, which is where all of the separate sections are playing on the same session, vibing off each other’s performances and dividing the time to maximize resting. This approach creates more internal dynamic balance, more energy from resting (while not disrupting session momentum), and generally a more collaborative “band” environment during sessions.

The approaches used on this library originate from previous Performance Samples releases (such as Oceania and even the legacy Angry Brass) as well as new variations on those library’s approaches. Most importantly, they further set the groundwork for continual, progressing approaches and creative exploration in future Performance Samples libraries.

The performances were recorded and grafted from multiple lengths to front-load the energy in the attacks and better match to the amplitude and timbral characteristics of the accented, fast-tongued releases. The library’s playability continues the concept of “delayed-but-predictable” in its timing (just like Oceania) – patches which are moderately (while not unusably) delayed to allow for flexible release programming and other things, while also being very consistent and built for uniformity. The library’s delay matches Oceania’s delay of around 80 ms, allowing a cohesive brass compliment to the choir – insofar as the same room, same timing, and same ‘thematic writing’ note-length flexibility. Angry Brass Pro – Ensembles marks a step beyond the original Angry Brass freebie, similar in the way of an ultra-simple feature set – but with a more refined process. The library will function as an affordable standalone solution, in tandem with the forthcoming Angry Brass Pro – Soloists release, and finally as as a layer to any other dedicated brass libraries you may have (including Caspian).

Both the ensembles and soloists in Angry Brass Pro are 100% new recordings (nothing is re-used from the Angry Brass freebie) .

Three individual sections: 4 french horns, 3 trumpets, and 3 bass trombones

Loud (ff-fff) dynamic, with EQ modeling on CC1/modwheel

Attacks and releases derived from performance phrases Attack samples with up to 5 RR Release samples which react to note length Fast tonguing releases with up to 5 RR Marcato releases with 1 RR

Recorded in a hall* with close and decca mic positions

48kHz / 24bit

NCW-compressed, ~570 MB total

Built for Kontakt 5.8.1 and above – full, retail version of Kontakt required

Download via Continuata

* the same hall as Oceania and Angry Brass