Apple MainStage 3 Instruments - MainStage 3 Instruments

Create a generic brass sound
Brass instruments are notoriously difficult to recreate with electronic instruments. Samplers do
a reasonable job in the right hands, and with the right sample library, but they lack the organic
warmth of a real brass player. This is a simple and generic brass setting that can be played as a
solo instrument or as a brass section.
1 Load the #default (or your vanilla) setting file.
2 Set Object 1’s type to Blow.
3 Activate Object 2, and set its type to Noise.
4 Adjust the Strength of Object 1 to around 0.90.
5 Set Object 1 VeloSens to around 0.30.
6 Drag the Material Pad ball to a position that is diagonally between the “I” of Inner Loss, and the “l”
of the word Steel, while playing middle C. The sound should be quite brassy.
7 Play the E above middle C and you’ll hear a weird “mandolin meets a telephone ring” kind
of sound.
8 Drag the Resolution slider to the left or right while playing middle C and a few notes down an
octave or so. You’ll discover that a range of sounds that cover everything from sitars to flutes is
possible, just through manipulation of this parameter.
9 Click the Keyscale button and—while playing up and down the keyboard—independently adjust
the Resolution slider, plus the Resolution Low and High Keyscale sliders until the range of the
keyboard you wish to play (an octave or so around middle C, for example) doesn’t suffer from
those mandolin/phone artifacts. Make sure your sound retains the “brassy” quality.
10 Move Pickup A’s position to around 77%.
11 Turn on the Waveshaper and select Scream as your preferred type. Adjust the Input Scale and
Variation parameters to taste.
12 Turn on the Filter. Select HiPass mode, and adjust the Cutoff, Resonance, and other filter
parameters to taste. (As a suggestion, set Cutoff at 0.30 and Resonance at 0.41).
13 Choose Save Setting As from the Settings pop-up menu and save the setting with a new name.
There are countless directions this sound could be taken in—as a muted trumpet, French horns,
and even sitars or flutes.
Make further changes to your brass sound
Do any of the following:
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Use the Waveshaper to radically alter your sound.
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Use the Delay to emulate a space for your instrument.
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Use the Body EQ to cut the lows and boost the Mids and His.
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Drag the Material Pad ball toward the Nylon corner to see how this affects the nature of
the sound.
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Choose Blow as Object 2’s type, and then experiment with the Object 1 and 2 positions. This can
also result in different brass sounds.
Chapter 13 Sculpture 297