horn section practice - soulful house

[kensuguro]

Made a barebones arrangement of a soulful house to practice hornsection stabs and harmony. Didn't really do too many sfz crescendos this time. Also been a while since I've written a melody with a challenging chord progression so that was good practice as well. This time was smoothly switching between two key centers.

ep - pianoteq
horns - samplemodeling trumpet, tenor trombone, alto sax with ewi wind controller
bass - just some lowpassed saw with a sin octave lower, but it's more of a fingerbass line
melody - played in with a crappy sounding lowpass saw, supposed to be male voice

was a bit of a challenge getting back in to playing basslines over moving key centers. I remember I used to do it with a little more grace. But it's also probably because I'm putting into more effort in writing memorable bass lines than before. It's hard writing a bass line with conviction when the key center moves around, while it's also a waste of a meaty progression if I just stay on the main key center of the section. So in many cases I end up with phrases that can't cross the chord bound or the even if I do, the phrase sounds wishy washy and lacks a compelling statement. (and setting up a groove base at the same time)

Horns either stick closely with the chord at the moment, or does the usual dorian minor stuff at the section's main key center. Most effort was in getting tonging right to get that snappy stab. Ended up good in many places, but there's still some smear in some areas. I think the EWI windcontroller (or maybe windcontrollers in general) have a hard time detecting fast tonging since many notes are actually double or triple triggered and that messes up kontakt's attack/release samples. The notes don't overlap, but the samplemodeling script can't decide whether to use a legato or a new note.

My favorite part is the B section towards the end, when trumpet is in unison with the melody. The samplemodeling trumpet is by default sort of sluggish in portamento in legato phrases, with a bit of flutter during note transitions that gives is that blasting, relaxed sound of latin horns. (i'm thinking arturo sandoval) Partially why the bass groove takes on a samba flavor there, maybe just a pinch.