Can Axe III do a horn sound?

bjjp2 said:
Have a gig coming up where it would be useful to be able to emulate a trumpet section. Anything in the magic box?
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Yes....you can use either the synth block or I like to use the bridge pickup and roll the tone down with a slide and a volume pedal. Very trumpet like. Using some filters you can very trumpet like. You can also get the Pat Metheny version of the Miles trumpet.
 
bjjp2 said:
Have a gig coming up where it would be useful to be able to emulate a trumpet section. Anything in the magic box?
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I would say the quick answer is no. It doesn’t make any synthesized instrument sounds like a piano keyboard would.

I’ve heard some “horn section” emulations with the synth block years ago on the Axe2 but definitely a stretch of the imagination in my opinion.
 
Pat Metheny‘s GR8 is as close as I ever get lol - not a trumpet!

I’m with Chris, I think you would really want something samples based so that you can get all of the cool stuff that comes with the trumpet.
 
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It is all about your chord voicing and phrasing. You have to kind of think synth attack first. And a slide works since horns do not have fixed intonation. Some inversions sounds better than others. But it might be easier to hire the horns lol.
 
I made you a horn preset. It's basically a synth into a tonematch vs. Kontakt's default "Trumpet". I just played a chromatic scale on both instruments and then smoothed it to get the right vibe.

After having played with it for a bit, I find that the question is not, "Can the Axe-Fx sound like a Trumpet?" but "Can I play the guitar so it sounds like a Trumpet player."

The first thing that's missing is breath. I added an expression pedal to control a filter. I still wasn't great at that part.

The second thing that's tough is silence. I added an expression pedal to squeeze the gate threshold so it could make it super choppy at times.

The hardest part is getting the articulations and vibrato "right", especially in a synth with some latency that tends to fight with your sense of swing. So you need to play in an anticipatory way too, and pay close attention to when to play legato vs more punctuated. I quickly had to ditch the pick too, not only for control, but to minimize pitchy burps. Sometimes the glitches and fret ripple work in your favor and cool things happen.

Anyway, it took me a bunch of takes to get close on this, and naturally I'm not happy with my playing. Of course it's also created with a 1-oscillator virtual analog synth, so.... ultimately it sounds like a SYNTH that's maybe evocative of a trumpet. Maybe one of you good guitar players can have some fun. YMMV! Clip and Preset below.

To turn this into a section, I'd probably add another synth voice or two and a little detune, or maybe a Chorus, or maybe set one voice an octave up or down. This gets wonky quickly, though.

PS: I know, it's a flugelhorn rather than a trumpet. So sue me.



http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=9809

Update - FM9 version is here here:
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/can-axe-iii-do-a-horn-sound.185929/page-5#post-2463580
 
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Admin M@ said:
I find that the question is not, "Can the Axe-Fx sound like a Trumpet?" but "Can I play the guitar so it sounds like a Trumpet player."
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This 1000x. I've done my time with guitar synths and sounding realistic requires playing what that instrument would play and how they would play it (trumpet, sax, flute, violin, whatever). It's also one of the reasons I stopped. It was a good learning experience for a while but eventually became a huge time suck.

Patch sounds great.
 
I’d try a fuzz with the bias all the way down, that can give a really reedy sax type sound, just like the BA Zippy fuzz, or the various ___ bone fuzz pedals.
 
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