Studio Dimension Brass I

Name: Studio Dimension Brass I
Price: 503 USD
Author: Vienna Symphonic Library

by Vienna Symphonic Library · Instrument · Sampled brass ensembles with individual players

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Studio Dimension Brass I by Vienna Symphonic Library

Four brass ensembles (4 trumpets, 4 French horns, 4 tenor trombones, and low brass with tuba, bass trombone and two tenor trombones) with every player on an individual mic.

Humanize presets set how tight or loose the ensemble plays, for €449 (about $510).

Best for: Acoustic Instruments. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic, Jazz, Acoustic & Classical.

Keywords: brass, ensemble, loose, sample-based, tight, polish.

What it does

Studio Dimension Brass I is Vienna Symphonic Library's brass ensemble library in which every player of each section was recorded and miked on their own. You can play a section as a whole or reach each of the 16 players, which VSL says covers anything from "an unpleasant school band performance" to a polished professional section.

Four sections: 4 trumpets, 4 French horns, 4 tenor trombones, and low brass with tuba, bass trombone and 2 tenor trombones.
Individual voices: 16 separately miked players, so chords and divisi can be voiced as real players, not stacked section samples.
Patch types: single players, All Players patches and two-player desk patches for different section sizes.
Humanize presets: a fader sets how tight or loose the ensemble plays, in real time.
Mixing: dry recordings with reverb in the Synchron Player and production-ready mixer presets.
Hardware control: NKS support for Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol and Maschine.

The library has 96,236 samples. It runs in the Vienna Synchron Player. It is also sold in the Studio Dimension Brass Bundle with Dimension Brass II. The page mentions no demo.

Source: Vienna Symphonic Library product page

When to use it

Studio Dimension Brass I is the better pick for brass chords, chorales and divisi writing, because each note of a chord can come from its own player. Compared with BBC Symphony Orchestra Core and Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition, which give you brass sections recorded in a hall, it trades ready-made room sound for control over every voice, and it needs reverb to sound like a concert hall. Next to VSL's own Studio Brass, VI-Control users found it more flexible for ensemble writing but weaker for exposed solo lines. It covers open brass only: SOS noted no mutes, glissandi or big-band articulations.

Best for: realistic brass voicings, divisi passages and section writing where you want to set the number of players.
Genres: film and TV scoring and classical.
Look elsewhere if: you need lyrical solo brass (VSL's Studio Brass or Synchron Brass), muted brass (Studio Dimension Brass II), or a hall sound with no mixing work (Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition).
Tip: use the tutti patches only for unison lines and switch to the single players for divisi, as VI-Control users suggest.

What producers say

Reviewers rate it highly for divisi and ensemble realism; the main reservations are the dry sound and weaker solo use.

Sound On Sound (Dave Stewart, 2011, reviewing the original Vienna Instruments release) highly recommended it to professionals and praised "the most playable and responsive VSL legatos yet", but noted no mutes, glissandi or big-band articulations and that it needs reverb.
VI-Control thread (2024) users preferred it over Studio Brass for flexible divisi writing with its player and desk patches, but said it is "not the strength of the library" for solos.
Criticisms: one user heard the other trumpets bleeding quietly into a single-player patch, and some missed voicing options from the older Vienna Instruments player.

Where to buy

PluginFox: $503
Vienna Symphonic Library: $509.84 (Listed at €449; converted at €1 = $1.1355 (ECB rate, 29 Sep 2026))

Tutorials and reviews

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