A new series of virtual instruments, based on SamplemodelingTM technology... |
The Trombone |
Like the trumpet, the trombone is one of the most versatile, dynamic, flexible and expressive musical instruments. It covers an incredibly wide range of sounds and moods.
Whether a classical sacred work, a military march or a powerful fanfare, a pop song or a huge orchestral arrangement - the trombone is an indispensable instrument in a vast majority of musical styles.
However, it’s extremely difficult to emulate, even more than the trumpet, due to the presence of the slide - a true challenge for developers of virtual instruments.
That’s why we chose it next. |
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Instrument technology |
The Trombone family expands Samplemodeling™ technologies beyond the original limits. An entirely new class of Harmonic Alignment has been developed, allowing continuous transition across virtually infinite dynamics, at the same time perfectly preserving the peculiar, “spiky” waveform of this instrument. Multi-microphone anechoic recording, coupled to a specially devised “early reflections” impulse response, allowed to reproduce the full, rich timbre of the instrument including its radiation pattern, adding at same time a virtual space to the anechoic sound.
The base material of the instruments (two Tenor, one Valve and one Bass Trombone) consists of 714 MB of samples, chromatically performed by a professional trombone player over a very wide dynamic range. All samples are unlooped, and have a minimum duration of 8 sec. As “The Trumpet”, the Trombone engine is structured according to an adaptive model, based on the performance “fingerprints” of the real instrument. The purpose of the model is to minimize the differences between the real phrases and those played by the virtual instrument.
Proprietary modal resonance IRs, innovative techniques for sample modulation, and advanced AI midi processing are used for real time construction of all articulations and morphing across dynamics, vibrato, legato, portamento, trills, vibrato-like endings, shakes and so forth.
Pseudo-random detuning, based on real performance-derived trends, is another outstanding new feature of The Trombone, adding further realism.
A completely new chapter concerns the slide. The real trombone is one of the few wind instruments that can produce a true glissando up to six semitones. Though very difficult to obtain with a sample-based instrument, the effect of the slide has been perfectly reproduced in our virtual trombone by a novel application of the “Harmonic Alignment” technology. Ultra-realistic slide effects can be obtained by proper use of the pitchbend, but are also automatically activated by overlapped legato. As in the real instrument, a continuous glissando effect will be obtained if the portamento interval is within +/- 3 semitones. |
Virtual Instruments? No additional software needed? |
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The Trombone is supplied with the NI Kontakt Player 4, the read-only version of Native Instruments flagship sampler. It involves many new features and bugfixes, including 64 bit, extended memory and multicore support, DFD optimisation, better compliance with some OS and hosts, aftertouch support etc. The Player is included as a separate installer, and no additional software is required to play the instrument. Stand-alone mode, as well as plugin formats VST, DXi, RTAS and AU are supported.
The instruments can be also loaded and played in the full version of Kontakt. Please note, however, that they cannot be opened or modified, and no access to the samples, impulse responses or instrument programming is provided. |
Velocity remapping |
| It is well known that midi keyboards have different and uneven velocity response, and this may heavily influence the performance of a virtual instrument. To obviate this problem, the instrument includes automatic detection of any velocity inhomogeneities or non-linearity inherent in the keyboard, and provides automatic remapping to any desired curve. |
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GUI Knobs / Controllers Remapping |
| All the controllers needed for proper functioning of the instrument are mapped to virtual knobs in three GUI panels, which can be activated by a drop down menu. The function of each controller is indicated by the associated label. The virtual knobs permit to monitor the incoming midi data, but can also be used to directly control the instrument. This allows users of keyboards without physical MIDI controllers or knobs, to explore the expressive capabilities of The Trombone. Additionally, all the controllers can be remapped to any existing MIDI CC. |
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Performance Keyswitches |
| An outstanding feature, allowing to create real time articulations which are too difficult to perform with the usual interplay of expression pedal, pitchbend and modwheel. Sforzato, crescendo, slide effects, vibrato-like endings and different types of release, can be obtained by hitting one or more keyswitches. The intensity of the effect, and its duration, are under player’s control. Please note that these are not just sampled articulations, but they are sample-modeled, indeed. This means that each time each of them will sound slightly different. No machine-gun nor mechanical repetitions here. |
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Split Portamento, Falls & Doits |
| A real trombone may play different types of legato/portamento, with or without the slide. The sound is different, since a different harmonic resonance is excited. This is nicely reproduced by our adaptive model. One may choose to perform a continuous portamento over two octaves by simply overlapping two notes, to split it manually playing intermediate legato notes, or to split it automatically, exploiting the natural harmonic resonances of the instrument, by a keyswitch. One can also choose to perform chromatically-split portamento or realistic falls and doits. |
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Mutes and wah-wah |
| The trombone – like other brass instruments – uses a wide range of mutes which are similar to those of the trumpet; the most common are Harmon (with or without stem), Straight, Cup and Bucket. All these mutes are available for use with our trombones. We used sophisticated technologies to capture the “fingerprints” of each mute, which were ultimately coded into a suitable impulse response. The latter can be instantly loaded from a drop down menu of the graphical interface, or via MIDI. Additionally, a realistic wah-wah effect can be obtained by a virtually moving plunger mute. The wah-wah can be also used in combination with any other mute. |
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Breath & Windcontroller mode |
| Playing The Trombone with either a keyboard plus breath controller, or directly with a windcontroller (Yamaha or Akai) is very easy. Breath & Windcontroller modes automatically set proper CC settings, enable triggering of note-on and off by the expression data flow, optimize the bite–to-pitch response for the individual WC, etc. |
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Transpose |
All samples in The Trombones are mapped according to standard MIDI note numbers. This is very convenient when using a sequencer. On the other hand, keyboard users might run into trouble when playing for example the Bass Trombone which is mapped from A#-1 and A#3, so that the KS are mapped from C-2 to C-1.
Even if using a seven-octave keyboard, transposing the midi flow two octaves down is the only way to make this instrument playable. This is what the Transpose knob does, namely transposing keys and keyswitches at the same time, without the need to bother with keyboard programming. |
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System requirements |
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The Trombone provides unprecedented realism and expressiveness. However, it’s a demanding software in terms of CPU load. The present version for Kontakt 4 was developed and thoroughly tested on a PC with IntelCore2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66 GHz, 3GB RAM, Windows XP, 2 SATA drives, and a 24 bit audio card with low latency (<7 msec) ASIO drivers. Under these conditions, the CPU load is approximately 7-12 %, and up to five different trombones could concurrently run as Cubase VST plugins. On the Mac, similar excellent results have been obtained with Mac Pro Quad Core 3 GHz, 8GB RAM, Mac OS 10.5.2.
Please note: we supply our instruments along with the Kontakt 4.2 Player to maintain the compatibility with some earlier operating systems. The instruments are, however, fully compatible with Kontakt 5 (both the full and free Player version).
Less powerful systems may also prove satisfactory, but may require larger buffer sizes
A master keyboard with some configurable MIDI controllers, pitchwheel, modwheel, and an expression pedal (or breath controller) is required for real time playing. Virtually any type of windcontroller can also be used to play this instrument.
If real time playing is not contemplated (you will miss a great fun though) using a sequencer may obviate the need for several physical midi controllers, while maintaining full control of the instrument's expressiveness. The Trombone have been thoroughly tested on most common sequencers, like Cubase, Logic and Sonar |
What does The trombone package include? |
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The Trombone package includes several instruments belonging to the same family, namely:
Two Tenor Trombones characterized by slightly different timbre, timing, vibrato & portamento behaviour, suitable for ensemble playing,
A Valve Trombone,
A Bass Trombone, based on completely independent samples.
The playing range corresponds to that of a top professional player, which is E1 – F4 (Tenor & Valve), and Bb-1 – Bb3 (Bass), respectively. |
How much will I pay? Any discount? Any bundle? |
The retail price of The Trombone package, including all four instruments, is EUR 149 (+ VAT, if applicable). Bundles and special offers may be available on the buy page. |
Online activation? |
Yes. Immediately after installation of the software, you need to activate it via Internet, using the Service Center utility supplied with the Kontakt software. Without activation the instrument(s) will appear on a black background and will not work. The activation process is very easy, though, and is carried out in a few seconds. |
Are any demos available of these Trombones? |
Yes, check out the “demos” link on top of the page. |
Are these new products available for downloading, now? |
Yes. Please click on the “buy” link on top of the page. |
Credits and acknowledgements |
The Trombone is the result of a many-year research carried out by Giorgio Tommasini and Peter Siedlaczek, who also performed all the recordings. The K4 script was written by Nils Liberg, and Giorgio Tommasini.
Special thanks to:
Guenter Bollman (Tenor Trombone) and Manfred Honetschlaeger (Bass Trombone) for their skill, patience and professionalism, Dan Radlauer, Roberto Soggetti and Jason Graves for their wonderful demos, and Shramm (Vadim Nekrasov) for his valuable help and cooperation. |
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