Real horns vs synth horns!?!?!

[thomsax]

After not been playing an regular basis for more than a year I was asked to join a 6-piece band. I said yes and started to play again. It's going to be Rock and Blues music. At the first rehearsal we played two new songs (new to me). "Sledgehammer" and "Ooh - I like it". I got the horn parts (just two saxes) to both songs. I had heard both songs but never played them before. I just heard some "horns" ....... Sledgehammer is a flat synth song even if the info says that Waynne Jackson (trumpet player, Stax, The Mar-Keys, Memphis Horns .....) and Mark Rivera (flute and saxes, Billy Joel ...) played on the recording. On live performances on YT clips I have not found a clip with real horns. We played "Slegdehammer" in concert Eb. The other song ,"Ooh I like It", is more punchy a fun to play. A song we played in concert C. According to the charts the tenorsax part I played should play a "bari" lick like : low A - low B- B3 - A2(3) - B3. Back home I transposed it to baritone (A) and played : E1 - F#1 - F#3 - E2 - F#2. It was better. So it's going to be tenor and bari instead of two tenors. Sounds better. But my baritone is just to low Bb and with a low A extension I will miss the low B. A horn is horn. A synth is a synth. And I was justgoing to play what was written, don't listen so much just play as it is written. Not easy.

The songs.
Real horns on the original "Sledgehammer" recording.

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Real horns?

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[mizmar]

I had the pleasure of seeing your countryman, Jens Comén, in a small performance last night.

 

[Pete Thomas]

The Creeps - I couldn't tell. Sounded like synth but it was quite common to mix real horns in with synth horns. Bit of a waste of money in some cases - if you have real horns you want them to sound real.

I sometimes mixed synth in with real to make them sound "bigger" It can work but so can keeping them real.

I also remember one session where the producer triple tracked the horns. It sounded much less like real horns than the one take - but maybe that was what he wanted.

 

[Jules]

I couldn't tell - it was quite common to mix real horns in with synth horns.

Isn't it fairly standard practice to disguise synth parts by using a real instrument for the top line? I know its a known tricky with string sections- cello and violas via the keyboard and a real violin stuck on top. It does a pretty good job of tricking the human ear into thinking the whole thing is 'real'

 

[Pete Thomas]

Isn't it fairly standard practice to disguise synth parts by using a real instrument for the top line? I know its a known tricky with string sections- cello and violas via the keyboard and a real violin stuck on top. It does a pretty good job of tricking the human ear into thinking the whole thing is 'real'

Yes indeed, I've done it with strings and can work very well.

 

[John Setchell]

After not been playing an regular basis for more than a year I was asked to join a 6-piece band. I said yes and started to play again. It's going to be Rock and Blues music. At the first rehearsal we played two new songs (new to me). "Sledgehammer" and "Ooh - I like it". I got the horn parts (just two saxes) to both songs. I had heard both songs but never played them before. I just heard some "horns" ....... Sledgehammer is a flat synth song even if the info says that Waynne Jackson (trumpet player, Stax, The Mar-Keys, Memphis Horns .....) and Mark Rivera (flute and saxes, Billy Joel ...) played on the recording. On live performances on YT clips I have not found a clip with real horns. We played "Slegdehammer" in concert Eb. The other song ,"Ooh I like It", is more punchy a fun to play. A song we played in concert C. According to the charts the tenorsax part I played should play a "bari" lick like : low A - low B- B3 - A2(3) - B3. Back home I transposed it to baritone (A) and played : E1 - F#1 - F#3 - E2 - F#2. It was better. So it's going to be tenor and bari instead of two tenors. Sounds better. But my baritone is just to low Bb and with a low A extension I will miss the low B. A horn is horn. A synth is a synth. And I was justgoing to play what was written, don't listen so much just play as it is written. Not easy.

The songs.
Real horns on the original "Sledgehammer" recording.

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View: https://youtu.be/KkiqTmwEQ-U


Real horns?

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View: https://youtu.be/1UWEkFVOmGI

Sledgehammer is one of the best Pop songs. - Close behind Addicted To Love.
Not really my Thing but excellent of its genre.

Synths: Somehow you can just FEEL what they are. The choice of notes isn’t natural to say a bass or wind instrument (and that includes Hammond pedal board)