MusicalSampling Atelier Series Sasaki Trumpet

Musicalsampling Atelier Series Sasaki Trumpet

Atelier Series Sasaki Trumpet is a legato trumpet library performed by session musician and educator, Mikio (Miki) Sasaki.

Recorded at Orb Studios in Austin, Texas – the goal was to create a responsive/snappy instrument full of energy, vibe and utility. One decision we made to help facilitate this goal was to record all of the material in a dry studio space. This way you have the option to really customize the sound before hitting it with your favorite reverb.

Part of the character of a trumpet performance is attributed to the style and quality of vibrato. We asked Miki to perform vibrato that could suit a variety of energetic contexts appropriately for each setup. We also recorded the legato in an “impulsive” fashion to capture transitions that are more contextually-relevant; suited for energetic lines with real movement.

Wind instruments (certainly brass) tend to share changes in intonation depending on dynamics, range and difficulty of a passage. We’ve provided two variations of each patch to give composers the option to include performances with their natural, internal tuning intact. 

Lastly, we also recorded a wonderfully-emotive flugelhorn with an entirely different legato performance style and vibrato; suited for emotional and cinematic contexts. A real beaut’.

The “Natural” patch variations are great for solos that don’t share the same register as the accompaniment. The “Tuned” variation works well when doubling a melody line with other instruments in the same register. Definitely explore both options!

While we like the adjustable reverb chosen for this library, we would suggest turning it off and putting the trumpet through your favorite reverb plugin to give it a sense of presence/space that suits your track. For most of the demo tracks (save for the flugel), a small ambient room verb was mixed at around 30%. It really does come alive doing this.

To add extra realism and spice to your trumpet tracks, try riding the pitch wheel slightly upwards quickly during more “difficult” passages to imitate sharp pitch corrections. 

What is the atelier series?

Oftentimes during the research and experimental phase of development, we’ll create instruments that don’t necessarily belong to a bigger, themed release. Instead of attempting to shoehorn them into a future release or trying to construct a comprehensive product around it, we decided to create the Atelier Series so that other composers can enjoy our explorations in sample development as well.