Century Brass Bundle by 8Dio Review
8Dio offers multiple excellent and inspiring libraries. In our review of the Century Brass Bundle, we are looking at the brass section of a film or classical orchestra.
In the recent years, we have been become the custom to big sounding, dramatic, in your face superhuman brass. Tension from massively used brass instruments carries various movies. We did review Century Strings Bundle by 8Dio which is all about one the best instruments to communicate emotions and moods in contemporary writing. Now we get bigger and pull out the brass – Century Brass Bundle by 8Dio.
The sound is of the included instruments in 8Dio’s Century Brass is cinematic and fits very well with Century Strings Bundle by 8Dio and other libraries. I assume we see there other upcoming libraries in this space. 8Dio did send a review copy with no strings attached.
Instead of going for the bundle you could be acquired the Ensemble and Solo library separately, with the package you benefit from a significant expenses reduction.
Century Brass Bundle includes:
- Ensemble Brass
- 2 Horns, 6 Horns, 12 Horns, 3 Trombones, 2 Trumpets, 4 Trumpets
- Solo Brass
- 1 Bass Trombone, 1 Cimbasso, 1 Flugel, 1 Horn, 1 Trumpet, 1 Trombone, 1 Tuba
Installation
After purchase, you get codes to download the library through the 8Dio installer tool. After a batch re-save in Kontakt, you are ready to use this library. A full retail version of Kontakt 5.6 or later is required
Sound
8Dio spend more than three years on developing and recording their new brass library. The result is an emotional and realistic brass collection. With the release of Century Brass 8Dio has joined the top end brass library market. In this range of selected leading brass instrument libraries, it is hard to position one single library as being better as the other leading ones. Those leading ones are all in a comparable quality range.
Selecting only one brass library comes down to personal preferences. Most composers do have more than one brass library anyway. I do see this library from an overall sound and timbre part of as my top 3 brass libraries. If you are starting, this would be a great first brass library.
8Dio included a standard and different articulations covering Arcs, shorts, longs. There are just too many to list here. If you are interested in a detailed list, take a look here.
The brass library was recorded at 24 Bit – 96 kHz and is delivered in 48 kHz. It includes Mixed, Decca, Close and Wide Microphones. All can be mixed as needed.
As the century strings, the brass has been recording with center mic placement. This recording approach requires a bit more work for classical scores. For scoring, to Picture and for 98% of the audience listening to a song/score this is a unique approach. You can quickly push the instrument location back into the room on either side by using the include mics, and internal, stereo imagine tools (3rd party) or external reverb.
This collection of different solo and ensemble Brass can be used for all kind of different genres. Leading with cinematic composing, it also fits a large number of styles: blues, funk, hip-hop, indie, Latin, pop, rap, reggae, R&B, rock, soul, and urban. You get the idea it is very flexible in use. The included instruments are easy to play.
User interface & Usability
The UI is clean, presents the most necessary features and makes them accessible. The patches and included instruments are incredibly easy to play, which is one of the unique points about many 8Dio libraries.
Rating: Five out of five stars
Century Brass Bundle character and tone are of unique, excellent sounding quality. As Century Strings also Century Brass has joined the small and selected club of the leading library. You can create tension and other emotion from century brass to drive passion in a trailer, advertising, or your next score for a movie.
You can produce low-end power, use the instruments in a more supportive way or get them right in the face of the audience. Both the recording and scope of articulations is just excellent. Century Brass is one of my top 3 brass libraries. It is a fabulous sounding orchestral brass with helpful articulations and characteristics.
