Augmented BRASS

Name: Augmented BRASS
Price: 99 USD
Author: Arturia

by Arturia · Instrument · Hybrid sampled / synth brass

Not rated yet

Augmented BRASS pairs sampled brass, from trumpet and horn to cimbasso and tuba, with Arturia's synth engines in a two-layer hybrid instrument.

The Morph control blends chamber, orchestral and processed brass into virtual analog, granular, harmonic and wavetable sounds, with 300+ presets and MPE.

Best for: Acoustic Instruments, Sound Design, Keys & Synths. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic, Electronic & EDM, Pop.

Keywords: brass, hybrid, sample-based, cinematic, MPE support, preset-driven, simple, granular, virtual analog, wavetable, macro controls, arpeggiator, beginner-friendly, ensemble, experimental, film & game audio, modern, pads, risers & hits, sound design, strings, subtractive, textures.

What it does

Augmented BRASS is part of Arturia's Augmented series. Arturia says it "delivers a rich variety of expressive, unique, and powerful brass sounds for modern production and composition."

Instruments: trumpet, horn, trombone, bass trombone, contrabass trombone, cimbasso and tuba.
Sources: chamber brass, orchestral ensembles and experimental processed textures.
Synth engines: virtual analog (TAE), granular, harmonic, wavetable and simpler engines, blended by the Morph control.
Controls: 7 macros, 2 LFOs, a 16-step arpeggiator and MPE support.
Effects and presets: 2 FX slots per layer from 16 effects, and 300+ presets.

Source: Arturia product page

When to use it

Augmented BRASS is the pick for quick, playable brass stabs, swells and hybrid brass-synth layers without keyswitch programming. It is less realistic than the orchestral brass of EastWest Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition and Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra Core, and leans less into synthesis than Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3.

Best for: brass swells and stabs, trailer hits, and brass-synth hybrid pads.
Genres: cinematic, electronic and pop.
Look elsewhere if: you want realistic orchestral brass or want to load your own samples.
Standout: morphing between recorded brass sections and synth layers from one macro.

What producers say

Reviewers found it easy to use and good value, with a few workflow limits.

CDM (2023) Peter Kirn wrote that "Arturia really has nailed this one" and praised the Augmented architecture.
WeRaveYou (2023) said few "affordable brass plugins on the market" come close.
KVR user (2023) rated it 5/5, finding the presets "very usable and mostly unique."
Gripe: CDM wished "you could load your own samples" and found modulation assignment meant extra tab-switching.

Where to buy

Tutorials and reviews

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