Chris Hein Winds Compact Review
In this video, we will take a look at the wonderful orchestral sample library from Chris Hein, the Chris Hein Woodwinds collection. The Chris Hein orchestral woodwinds follow in the line of every wonderful collection from mister Hein, an industry veteran.
Focusing on recording the instruments in the most optimal and consistent way to make it the most realistic and versatile sample library out in the market, just like the Chris Hein Brass or String library, that we have also reviewed. This Chris Hein woodwinds review will fall under a similar format that we have approached the previous reviews of the sample libraries.
For some technical specifications, the Woodwinds Complete collection contains 13 different instruments with over 50GB of content, with an astonishing 132000 samples. Like with the other collections, you also get the brilliant true legato and true scale runs. And probably the most important aspect of these libraries, the 14 different articulations, which really bring the library to life.
Some other features include key-vibrato, which also comes as a customizable auto-vibrato, intelligent LFO that includes EQ, a micro-tuner and ensemble maker, special noise control and much much more.
The library plays both on Kontakt and the Kontakt-Player. The presets are also great starting points, with intricate setups, creating beautiful ensembles, that wonderfully fill the space with beautiful reverb and room control.
One of the greater things about these libraries is the ability to set articulation to any midi input you want, meaning you can control a bunch of articulation settings with a line of faders, knobs or even keys.
This allows for the most authentic sound from a sample library. You can access both recorder and synthetic legatos, for a wonderful range of expressiveness.
Chris Hein woodwinds complete is an astonishing set of samples, but the real power comes from the body and room controls you have, to shape the sound to find the setting you want to build.
Anything from an orchestra hall to a room, to a grand mansion, you get to choose how it sounds and it sounds great. Once you reach your way to the edit pages you will be met with a grand list of functions and settings, allowing you to achieve anything you would need.
First, you can control dynamics, which were recorded in 6 different layers, making them naturally playable without any assistant from any further modifications, just using the keyboard velocity.
All the samples are phase-aligned, making all the layers phase through seamlessly, which is a big hurdle in delivering such a product.
For greater control, you can combine both the keyboard velocity and an x-switch letting you change phases while even in the note, post when the velocity would be registered for more realism and dynamics.
But that is not where the realism stops, enabling not head, you can really bring out the realistic feel of playing an instrument, the imperfections of human handling the instrument.
All of these effects and features blending together bring out the realism of these sample libraries, making it a powerful, powerful tool. Chris Hein woodwinds have to be one of the only libraries powerful enough to actually replace an actual ensemble of orchestral players.
And it is definitely pricey, but the cost in the context of an orchestral ensemble, recording gear, audio treatment, recording setup and the extraordinarily long list of features really makes this sample library feel cheap and like an amazing bang for the buck, because it is. What Chris Hein has done and the way he has recorded the samples, really make it worth the price.
You will not find a better library of samples and features that shape the sound of woodwind, string or brass instruments. If you are an orchestral composer and want to really bring your work to the next level, this seems like the best place to start.
