Piccolo Trumpet as a Virtual Instrument

[Reid Rosefelt]

I first became obsessed with the sound of the piccolo trumpet when I heard Georges Delerue's Grand Choral from his soundtrack for Truffaut's DAY FOR NIGHT (LA NUITE AMERICAINE). I have heard this piece hundreds of times, but when the piccolo trumpet melody come in at the middle it always turns me to mush.



McCartney used it famously on "Penny Lane," and of course it's been a stalwart for Vivaldi and baroque music, substituting for the old instruments.

As it is an octave above a trumpet, you might think that a trumpet player could just pick one up and be able hit higher notes. In fact, it is a very difficult instrument to master.



But in the right hands, it can do a lot more than Vivaldi.



I don't own a piccolo trumpet VI. There's one in Spitfire Studio Brass Pro, it's in the first expansion to Berlin Brass, and VSL has one for 40 or 100 euros depending on how many articulations you want. I'm sure there are others.

Anybody use one of these piccolo trumpet virtual instruments? Thoughts? Someday I may get the VSL one or see what it costs in the upcoming Orchestral Tools store. I have dongle avoidance for VSL, but they have really gone to town with the articulations on their PT.

I have a particular affection for all the instruments that are in the highest and lowest ranges of the orchestra, the ones that are often left out of basic orchestral libraries.

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[hawpri]

You may already be aware of this piccolo trumpet from the Bravura Scoring Brass library, but here's a link in case it hasn't already caught your attention. I don't know much about it, just that it's available a la carte.

Bravura Scoring Brass by Impact Soundworks (VST, AU, AAX)

Bravura Scoring Brass: a complete collection of orchestral brass ensembles, soloists, and aleatoric FX recorded with stunning depth in a scoring studio.

impactsoundworks.com

 

[Jay EM]

There's Picc Tpt in the old SAM Brass lib, EWQLSO and Sample Modeling 'The Trumpet'

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

You may already be aware of this piccolo trumpet from the Bravura Scoring Brass library, but here's a link in case it hasn't already caught your attention. I don't know much about it, just that it's available a la carte.

Bravura Scoring Brass by Impact Soundworks (VST, AU, AAX)

Bravura Scoring Brass: a complete collection of orchestral brass ensembles, soloists, and aleatoric FX recorded with stunning depth in a scoring studio.

impactsoundworks.com

Thanks for the tip. I already own the Orchestrator part of this library, and I believe ISW offers a discount if you buy the whole package. So I could get the whole Bravura library for the price of the extended VSL instrument. Definitely something to think about.

But I'm happy with CSB and I doubt I'd use Bravura. I'm just interested in getting a really beautiful PT and writing music to feature it. Nothing grand, just piano and PT, for example.

There are a lot of good options. I've always been curious about Sample Modeling.

 

[Rob]

the VSL piccolo trumpet is also very good imo

 

[Willowtree]

Thanks for the tip. I already own the Orchestrator part of this library, and I believe ISW offers a discount if you buy the whole package. So I could get the whole Bravura library for the price of the extended VSL instrument. Definitely something to think about.

But I'm happy with CSB and I doubt I'd use Bravura. I'm just interested in getting a really beautiful PT and writing music to feature it. Nothing grand, just piano and PT, for example.

There are a lot of good options. I've always been curious about Sample Modeling.

The Piccolo Trumpet in Bravura is decent enough if used in a busy piece, though I wouldn't use it for detailed solo work. I'd think of it less of a solo piccolo trumpet and more as a layering tool, or perhaps something used to double a trumpet section. It can also be used as the upper voice in a trumpet trio playing chords, which seems to be what that particular piccolo trumpet was designed for.

(EDIT: I do want to add I think bravura scoring brass is excellent at what it does, but it does not do extensive articulations or detailed performance)

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

I don't want to buy this today. I really appreciate all this advice and will keep exploring the options.

Another thing I'm thinking about is VSL SE Volume 2. There are a lot of other instruments in there that really interests me, like Contrabass Trombone, Contrabass Tuba, Basset Horn, Viennese Oboe, Viennese Horn, and the ensembles. (I already have Oboe d'amore and the Wagner Tuba) I'd be more interested in getting instruments I don't have rather than getting a second brass library.

Volume 1 is on sale now so maybe someday Volume 2 will be on sale.

VSL is good because I could return stuff I don't like. But I like all the VSL I have.

 

[David Cuny]

First heard one on Dan Fogelberg's "The Reach", lovely sound.

Someone already mentioned it's in SampleModeling's "The Trumpet" library. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but all the trumpets in that library are nice.

I'm hoping that AudioModeling includes one in their forthcoming brass library. But at this point, I'll be happy for them to get the library released... period.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

My recollection (vague at this point, and I can't check from the office) is that the one from SM is a misidentified Pocket Trumpet, which is in the same range as the regular Trumpet but has a different timbre and a slightly narrower range due to being a smaller instrument.

Apologies if this is not correct; they may simply have mapped the playing keys differently than expected. Or I may be confusing with another library where the Piccolo Trumpet terminology was not correct for what was on offer (maybe even VSL?).

I especially like to use Piccolo Trumpet for fanfare type stuff, where I usually have two trumpets in unison-rhythm at harmony intervals (not necessarily a full octave; sometimes even more), but want the timbre of the two to be distinctly different as well.

Don't underestimate the value of a Piccolo Trumpet in its lower octave. The timbre can be just right for how the line needs to sit with other parts, just as a Flugelhorn is sometimes used for a less in-your-face sound that cuts through but doesn't dominate.

 

[JohnG]

the old EWQLSO library piccolo trumpet sounded pretty good

 

[Willowtree]

the old EWQLSO library piccolo trumpet sounded pretty good

Ooh, it did indeed, forgot about that one. Now you're making me nostalgic. I'm too young to be nostalgic. Gah!

 

[ReelToLogic]

You may already be aware of this piccolo trumpet from the Bravura Scoring Brass library, but here's a link in case it hasn't already caught your attention. I don't know much about it, just that it's available a la carte.

Bravura Scoring Brass by Impact Soundworks (VST, AU, AAX)

Bravura Scoring Brass: a complete collection of orchestral brass ensembles, soloists, and aleatoric FX recorded with stunning depth in a scoring studio.

impactsoundworks.com

+1 for this. I think the solo trumpets in Bravura are really good, and this comes from someone who studied trumpet for many years. I'm puzzled why they didn't include a double-tongue articulation with the solo trumpet while doing so with the ensemble, but if you don't need that it's a very strong option.

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

the old EWQLSO library piccolo trumpet sounded pretty good

Thank you, John. When I have time, I will do a month of Composer Cloud and try it out.

 

[wst3]

you got me to thinking - never good - and I went digging. I have, and still use, a Piccolo Trumpet imported from the Prosonus GigaStudio Orchestral Collection. It shows its age in terms of features, but it sounds pretty darned good. I also had, and should have never let go of, an Akai format Dan Dean solo brass library that included a pretty cool Piccolo Trumpet.

Big Fish Audio has released what sounds like the original Prosonus instruments in Kontakt format HERE.

And UVI has appears to have repackaged them as a Workstation library HERE. They were explicit about the source of the samples not too long ago, they make no mention of it now.

In both cases the demos are not terribly complete or convincing, but demos are always a gamble.

No sign of the Dan Dean libraries - they were, for a time, being sold at SamplerZone, but they are marked as sold out.

From a first pass listen I may "splurge" on the Big Fish version. Or I may stick with my GS imports and look for something a little more modern. First I need to look for a reason to use it<G>!

 

[wing]

Reviving an old thread because I recently developed an obsession with the sound of piccolo trumpet, and am disappointed how little love it seems to get by all the library developers out there. It's so goshdurn pretty.

Out of all these options, and budget, I opted for the VSL, which for me was around $50 from BestService. It sounds great, I'm really pleased with it. But as someone who is only familiar and quite frankly spoiled by the modern VSL Synchron player, I was shocked to discover the absolutely cryptic UI that is Vienna Instruments Pro for which the Piccolo Trumpet is only available in:


I have figured a bit out by poking around, but that Matrix hurts my brain. Ah yes, my favorite articulations such as poSh, sNv, sVli, pfp9 – obviously!

I am planning to build some expression maps in Dorico to use this, which is already typically daunting enough as it is. Wish me luck lol.

And on that note, more Piccolo Trumpets! MOAR!

 

[InsomniaEmperor]

Reviving an old thread because I recently developed an obsession with the sound of piccolo trumpet, and am disappointed how little love it seems to get by all the library developers out there. It's so goshdurn pretty.

Out of all these options, and budget, I opted for the VSL, which for me was around $50 from BestService. It sounds great, I'm really pleased with it. But as someone who is only familiar and quite frankly spoiled by the modern VSL Synchron player, I was shocked to discover the absolutely cryptic UI that is Vienna Instruments Pro for which the Piccolo Trumpet is only available in:


I have figured a bit out by poking around, but that Matrix hurts my brain. Ah yes, my favorite articulations such as poSh, sNv, sVli, pfp9 – obviously!

I am planning to build some expression maps in Dorico to use this, which is already typically daunting enough as it is. Wish me luck lol.

And on that note, more Piccolo Trumpets! MOAR!

You don't have to use the matrix presets. I find it frankly confusing. I just drag and drop articulations I need from the PATCH tab to create my own matrix.

 

[wing]

You don't have to use the matrix presets. I find it frankly confusing. I just drag and drop articulations I need from the PATCH tab to create my own matrix.

Yeah, I figured that out either way – it is going to have to be the path for proper expression maps in Dorico because the presets don't really offer the right configuration of keyswitches I would need to have everything in one sensible map. I'm just mostly laughing at opening that plugin and seeing it for the first time – definitely not nearly as immediately user friendly as modern UIs including their own Synchron. I would hope in the future they would port the other "unique" brass instruments to the Synchron player.

 

[IdealSequenceG]

Orchestral Tools Berlin Brass Additional Instruments - Piccolo Trumpet Test

 

[I like music]

Infinite brass has one. I've never used it, but in my head you'd use this trumpet for fairly nimble lines? I reckon IB might do quite well in terms of the kind of music you'd write for a piccolo trumpet, but I'm guessing at what you'd write with a picc trumpet.

 

[wing]

Infinite brass has one. I've never used it, but in my head you'd use this trumpet for fairly nimble lines? I reckon IB might do quite well in terms of the kind of music you'd write for a piccolo trumpet, but I'm guessing at what you'd write with a picc trumpet.

also sometimes called the "bach trumpet," it works nicely for baroque repertoire as an alternative to oboe as well as trumpet melodies which are hard to reach on a standard trumpet in Bb. I quite like it because it has a bright and lyrical agility, but with a soft, warm roundness that is a little mellower and less powerful than I normally associate with trumpet. I'd be interested in trying it in a modern film score context and non-baroque music, perhaps doubling with oboe or clarinets to bring out their melodies with a different color.

Some highlights which I've been enjoying: