Kick-Ass Brass!

AMG are delighted to offer the World’s leading virtual brass section - the next best option to the real thing!

This extremely easy-to-use instrument features an extended and improved version of our 5 star award-winning library now including Trumpet, Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Trombone & Muted Trumpet. Kick-Ass Brass! is 8 part multitimbral and designed for multitimbral arranging and live performance applications with built-in effects and low CPU load. Users love it’s simplicity and killer sounds!

Kick-Ass Brass! is supplied as a VST2 (Mac & PC), RTAS (Mac & PC) & Audio Unit (Mac) plug-in. Requires Mac OSX 10.3.9 or later. Standalone version is also available now for both Mac & PC if you don't wish to use a VST or AU host. Universal Binary supported for Intel Macs in AU, RTAS, VST and Standalone formats - if you require any updates mail us your license number for download links to update.

NOTE - if you order this product you will get an AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD of the LIBRARY. You will receive an e-mail with your serial number and details of how to download the plug-in.

Here's a selection of solo licks created exclusively using the virtual instrument. Higher quality audio versions will be put on-line soon along with more demos.
Download Demo (mp3)

For the fullest details please visit AMG-Software.com, here are some reviews for now though...

"...it is possible to create some excellent results...These new instruments sound just as good as the original material, with the muted trumpet being particularly atmospheric...AMG have done an equally good job with the graphical front-end, and have combined good looks with ease of use...the plug-in worked flawlessly...The built-in effects sound good...Kick-Ass Brass is still one of the most convincing ways to create modern brass sections...Overall, this library is aptly named - the samples themselves sound great and the front end is very slick." - Sound On Sound

"...a superb-sounding, self-contained brass section to any VST or AU-compatible sequencer...The appropriately brass-themed interface is stylish and clean...Carefully combining the variations can result in a strikingly realistic performance and with a touch of reverb the samples really come alive...if you’re in the market for top-notch modern brass sounds, they don’t come much sweeter than this. The user-friendliness of Kick-Ass Brass! scores highly for us and its sound is simply stellar – this virtual instrument fully justifies its name." 4 Mice. - MacUser

UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS FROM KICK-ASS BRASS! USERS

"Well, I've probably gushed enough by now - I think you know how I feel about it (Kick-Ass Brass!). I'm spreading the word out here in the Hollywood film community as fast as I can. Every single person who's heard this piece, down to the last one, has first ask who the hot session players were I got for the recording. Then after they pick their jaw up off the floor, then scratch their head as to why they've never heard of AMG before, they quickly get the web address from me, fearing I'll change my mind about giving away my secret weapon.
Why have they never heard of AMG? I can't quite figure that one out. I think maybe X, Inc. and Y, Inc. are distracting everyone out here with all the great filmscore-centric stuff they keep releasing. But neither of them has even come close to KAB for pop brass..." - Chris M, Hollywood, CA, USA
Click here to hear Chris' track - Click here to see the final ad with the track

"I used your KAB to great success on a high profile project for Pfizer/Listerine Agent Cool Blue." - Andrew I, New York, USA
- Click here to see the final movie

"WOW! What an aptly named product. :) Keep up the great work!!" - Todd Q, USA

"I've just been trying KAB out and I have to say it's fantastic. Your attention to detail is superb!!" - Neil J, Gt. Yarmouth, UK

"I've had a chance to work with KAB some and I can say now that I'm really glad I bought it. It's a great product with some REALLY great brass samples!" - Peter D-B, Sweden

"I really love this product." - Whyman B, England

"I am very satisfied with the product, the sound quality is excellent and as lively as a vsti can be." - Frits S, Belgium

"I'm very happy with your product, thank you!" - Leonhard W, Germany

"KAB is the Coool!!!" - Kentaro, Japan

"The sounds are amazing." - Ossie K, UK

"This program sounds amazing..." - Rab P, UK

"I’m writin' and rockin'. Lovin' my KAB so far!!" - Gary I, USA

"I am really, really pleased to finally have found what I have looked for, for a loooooong time: A really good sounding horn section in the form of a VST-instrument. Thank you!" - Fredrik P, Sweden

"I have it installed and it is GREAT!. Everything I'd hoped it would be and then some. " - Kevin R, USA

"Thank you sounding bloody marvellous already!! " - Mark H, UK

"So now I’m writin' and rockin'. Lovin' my KAB so far!!" - Gary I, USA

"The library really does kick ass. Thanks for your help." - Patrick R, USA

"I am really, really pleased to finally have found what I have looked for, for a loooooong time: A really good sounding horn section in the form of a VST-instrument. Thank you! ...Once again: Thank you for your splendid work with the KAB VST instrument." - Fredrik P, Sweden

"I just want you to know - I think KAB is a wonderful piece of software...The best digitalized horns I’ver heard." - Tor-Arne M, Sweden

"I have it installed and it is GREAT!. Everything I'd hoped it would be and then some. " - Kevin R, USA

"This will be one of my favourite VSTi´s, and I use a lot of them. " - Michael F, Germany

"Your Kick Ass Brass VI sounds amazing.." - Laurent, Belgium

"Everything is just fine. I just wanted to say that your product is second to none, and is only overshadowed by the excellent service that you provide." - Willy A, Norway

"I just haven't had the time to tell you how fantastic the Kick Ass Brass VST sounds." - Claudio F, Germany

"I have come away from this experience convinced that you folks a) have a better sounding product than these other guys, and b) are not shy when it comes to supporting it, which puts you light years ahead of SXXXXXXXX, NX and others I have had to deal with." - Alex McL, USA

"I like KAB very much. Both the sounds and the interface support my musical style and workflow very well. The point is that I do not have to adjust myself - KAB knows how I want to work..." - Ari, Norway

"This VSTi really rocks, not only are the sounds excellent, but the GUI and functions of the VSTi are very well done. And it looks very cool also and does not use much cpu in my DAW. I wish you all the best with selling this product, and I will recommend it whenever I can. :-)" - Bob Y, Sweden

"I just completed my first sequence with the plug-in, and I have to say it sounds great. You're filling a serious void in the market. I have XXX's "FXXXX CXXX HXXX," and it's incredibly weak...KAB is ballsy! I love that..." - Merv W, USA

"I just received my copy of K.A.B. and I want to tell you how incredible this disc is. I wasn't sure who to write to...but we couldn't have hired a better brass section for as inexpensive as this disc was...! Absolutely incredible!" - Mark D, USA

"I'm really looking forward to that instrument as I'm very happy with the existing library. You've done a great job on this library and this is of course what I expect from the new product." - Thomas H, Germany

"Using samples on number of projects, excellent!" - Paul M, Australia

"I've been using Kick Ass Brass for about 6 months now and have grown to absolutely love it." - Jeff S, USA

"Sounds fantastic. Just wanted to say thanks for your excellent support." - Frank F, London

"I recently purchased the kick ass brass collection. It's great!!!!" - Michael, DeL, Holland

"...the Kick Ass Brass samples are the best that I have heard" - David C, USA

MacUser (UK) post the first review of Kick-Ass Brass! Despite having some bizarre technical issue that results in them only being able to achieve about 10% of typical performance it still gets a 4 star review! Full text at the foot of this page, here are a few choice quotes:

"...a superb-sounding, self-contained brass section to any VST or AU-compatible sequencer...The appropriately brass-themed interface is stylish and clean...Carefully combining the variations can result in a strikingly realistic performance and with a touch of reverb the samples really come alive...if you’re in the market for top-notch modern brass sounds, they don’t come much sweeter than this. The user-friendliness of Kick-Ass Brass! scores highly for us and its sound is simply stellar – this virtual instrument fully justifies its name." 4 Mice.

A COUPLE OF REVIEWS FROM JAPAN

"I loaded a MIDI song I made before with other brass sounds, replaced it with KAB! and it made me smile. It sounded much sharper and real. Most of the brass presets in synthesizers tend to sound too soft or too flat, so it is hard to get sharp and crisp sounds like KAB!. From rock to big band jazz, I recommend this to all genre music creators. " - Yutaka Fujioka, Sound Designer

"Very dense and big-boned sounds. Every sound has a presence. Even the upper register notes of trumpet don't sound weak. And it is bright enough to give a flashy accent as expected for the brass sounds in the mix. It may not be made for classical music, but this is what I call the pop brass sounds." - Hiroshi Takayama, Keyboard Magazine

PLUS THE SOUND ON SOUND REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL LIBRARY

Kick-Ass Brass! Library Review - ***** 5 Stars - Sound On Sound

"Layered together and with suitable harmonies, the resulting brass sections come over as solid and assertive, not limp and flabby as so many brass samples are when used in this context.... If you need a tight, professional brass section (but can't afford the brass!) and don't want to be restricted to using sampled phrases, Kick Ass Brass is an excellent way to achieve great-sounding results."

IMPORTANT: You can download the User Manual and Library Guide here now to get full details of the library. These will be kept up to date and always be available to download in the future. The demos currently available were created using the previous native versions of Kick-Ass Brass! New demos created exclusively using the plug-in will be posted very soon.

Check out the authenticity of Kick-Ass Brass! from these brief solo demos and two full mixes, all performed live!

DEMOS

(Demo 1) (Demo 2)

MANUAL

Download Manual

LIBRARY GUIDE

Download Library Guide

It's better to register Kick-Ass Brass! via the Options screen (click AMG Logo) however here's the direct link to the Registration Page if necessary.

Full text of the MacUser Review:

"AMG’s Kick-Ass Brass! started life as a widely acclaimed sample CD of modern brass sounds. Now the same library has been expanded and housed in a virtual instrument, bringing a superb-sounding, self-contained brass section to any VST or AU-compatible sequencer. At the time of writing, only the VST version was finished – and it’s that which we review here – but the developer has confirmed that an Audio Unit version is imminent.

Kick-Ass Brass! features a total of six instruments: the original CD’s trumpet, trombone, alto and tenor saxophone, newly augmented by baritone sax and muted trumpet. The appropriately brass-themed interface is stylish and clean, with the main data window surrounded by a handful of additional controls: balance, volume, pan, vibrato rate, glide and EQ. These, and many other aspects of the plug-in, are MIDI controllable.

Kick-Ass Brass! is both multi-timbral and multi-output, whereby four stereo pairs will appear as mixer channels in the host software. Up to eight instruments or variations can be loaded in one instance, so either a complete four-piece horn section or the various playing styles of, say, an Alto Sax can be contained in one plug-in. Each slot can also be assigned a separate MIDI channel to better control playback.

At the head of the plug-in, you select either Instrument or Multi patches to load one of the supplied presets. Alternatively, clicking the small L (for Load) button in each slot opens a cascading list of available instruments. Changing programs generally takes a second or two – depending on complexity – but it’s nothing interminable.

The instruments load pre-mapped to your MIDI keyboard and cover the instrument’s natural range, so you can’t fake a tuba, for instance, by dropping a trombone down a couple of octaves. However, instruments can be transposed +/-12 semitones to imbue them with a slightly different timbre.

To the right of each instrument’s name is a variation slot, where the different playing styles can be selected. Kick-Ass Brass! contains such variations as Ends, Expression, Hard, Mixed Stabs, Rips + Falls, Slides, Soft, Swells, Trills and Vibrato, lending each instrument wonderful flexibility. Carefully combining the variations can result in a strikingly realistic performance and with a touch of reverb the samples really come alive. You can also save instrument and section settings, so you can easily create unique setups.

On the subject of effects, Kick-Ass Brass! does come with a number of onboard stereo 64-bit FX modules, including reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, Leslie speaker and phaser. In general they’re fine, although we did notice grainy artefacts when using the flanger and phaser presets. You’re more likely to use third-party effects, anyway, especially as the Kick-Ass Brass! presets cannot be edited.

The drawbacks with Kick-Ass Brass! are few, but should be noted. Primarily, it’s very demanding. Playing a four-piece brass section Multi patch on its own in Live 5, running on a dual 1Ghz G4 with 1.75Gb RAM, the CPU meter could touch 70 per cent. Adding some Kick-Ass Brass! reverb, the meter went beyond 90 per cent. There will inevitably be much audio bouncing and track freezing when using Kick-Ass Brass!, unless you’ve got a 2.7Ghz dual G5 stuffed to the gills with speedy RAM.

Also, it’s a shame that there’s no orchestral brass – no French horns, tubas or more esoteric trumpets – as their addition would make Kick-Ass Brass! The ultimate horn section. Still, we can’t fault the content as is. We did raise a slight eyebrow at the price, though, anticipating something closer to today’s plug-in pricing sweet spot of £149-£179. £200 just sounds that much more expensive.

However, if you’re in the market for top-notch modern brass sounds, they don’t come much sweeter than this. The user-friendliness of Kick-Ass Brass! scores highly for us and its sound is simply stellar – this virtual instrument fully justifies its name."

NB: Regarding the reviewers comments on performance, we subsequently found out that the plugin was being run unnecessarily at 96khz. Since the library samples are all at 44.1khz this puts extra strain on the CPU without delivering significantly better sound quality. At 44.1khz sample rate, the performance of the plugin is significantly better when playing the layered multis as the reviewer was, because they trigger multiple patches simultaneously.