Looking for a (good) saxophone VSTi

[slashvanyoung]

... any recommendations?

I don't really care if it's synth- or sample-based, tenor and/or alt, as long as it sounds somewhat realistic/good.

Thanks in advance.

 

[HandsOfDespair]

Honestly, all sax vsti sound miles away from a real sax. The most realistic I've heard were from Cakewalk Dimension Pro and Saxlab.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Thanks for the tips!

Yeah, such a "fluent" and dynamic instrument like a sax seems hard to model.

I'll look into your suggestions, Dimension Pro seems intriguing.

 

[TheDriller]

a few years ago, when i was playing Saxophone myself, a friend of mine wrote a tune he wanted some sax on,
he sent me a demo version with Saxlab playing the melody so i could learm it,

we then went to another acquaintances studio to record my own parts,
at the time i had only been playing for about 1 year so i wasn't particularly good,
but by Christ did my amateur performance blow the Saxlab vsti out of the water!

there was absolutely no comparison, the tone and feel of a 1 year amateur sounded leagues beyond the tone and feel of the vsti.

just a little perspective

 

[slashvanyoung]

Yeah, I just took a listen at the Saxlab homepage and granted, I wasn't particularly overwhelmed.

Note to self: Don't dump sax playing girls, they might come in handy after all.

 

[John_C]

my dad (a saxophone player for 40+ years) always says that the saxophone sounds like some sort of hideous foghorn if you play it straight. With the exception of modern soprano saxs. The only way to make a sax sound good is to put plenty of expression in. No vsti is gonna do that, even if it's real samples it's just gonna sound like a damn foghorn

 

[jarenare]

And Mr. Sax T?

 

[abt]

Garritan Jazz & Big Band http://www.garritan.com/products_jabb.html

 

[Nectar-and-Fuel]

Get First Call Horns... it runs on the Kontakt engine, has a ton of instruments and articulations, and sounds great. Saxlab is a fun toy but I only use it to blend with First Call for a fatter sound.

 

[Nectar-and-Fuel]

Or you can just send me some sheet music and I'll play the part

 

[slashvanyoung]

Thanks for the recommendations so far guys! I'll wade through all the clips and then make my decision.

This is supposed to spice up my new rock bands sound, so I've also been on the lookout for good e-piano (Rhodes, Wurlitzer...) and e-organ (Hammond) sounds. So things are piling up on the budget.

@ Nectar-and-Fuel: I might even come back to that offer!

Edit: Upon looking up First Call Horns, I noticed their Mojo: Horn Section and damn, that sounds nice. $500 nice unfortunately.

The Garritan JABB sounds quite convincing too. They have a sax solo on there that I could hardly tell it wasn't "real".