saxophone without vibrato

Hi, I’m trying to create a saxophone track where some notes have vibrato and some don’t. I’ve tried note expression but it won’t take away the vibrato effect, which seems hardwired into all the sax sounds. Has anyone managed to achieve this or anything similar?

If you’re using a synthesized sax sound, you need to edit it in the synth. The vibrato is most likely controlled by LFO modulation.

If you’re using a sampled sax sound, you need to find a patch without vibrato. It’s impossible to remove vibrato from recorded audio (which a sample essentially is). However, some sample libraries use a vibrato-free sample and then add it by applying LFO modulation. If this is the case, you can remove it the same way as with a synthesized sound.

The exact method depends on which synth or sample player you use.

Buy Sample Modeling Sax. Sorted.

DG

I’m using Halion Sonic

In which case you need to follow the advice given by Svenne. Or just buy Sample Modeling Sax. :wink:

DG

you could try Variaudio and use the slider (can’t recall the exact name) to flatten the pitch.

That would be very cool. VariAudio is supposed to work best with vocals, and I have learned it won’t even recognize a human whistling sound (mine, at least), but depending on the range maybe the sax is enough “vocal-like” to work.

RevoicePro 2.5 is built to do tuning changes on non-voice monophonic sources, that might work for you. They have a free, fully functional 14 day trial if you want to find out.

I guess after flattening out the vibrato, there will probably be some associated tremolo that needs flattened too? Compressor best tool?

Cool!

I’m using the ‘Bright Alto Sax NoteExp’ preset. I clicked the edit button in Halion Sonic, next to the load button, and searched around for a while, but I can’t find an LFO. I’ve tried turning on and off the various controllers, but cannot lose either the oscillating frequency or volume which kicks in on each note after about 1 second.

Does anyone have any more tips?

You’re correct that patch doesn’t seem to contain any LFO parameter. The modulation is there even when the quick controls are bypassed. This leads me to believe that the modulation is embedded as a non-userprogrammable parameter. If you raise the modulation wheel, you can clearly hear a secondary modulation kick in aswell.

If this is, indeed, the case, there’s not much you can do (apart from using another patch). You could try the “VariAudio” option, but I wouldn’t hold my breath in regard to the results. Maybe Melodyne would work aswell.

However, if you are really serious about your sounds (and can afford it) there are excellent Kontakt libraries out there. You could do far worse than checking out NI’s Session Horns or Session Horns Pro:

Both work with the free Kontakt 5 Player, so you don’t need to factor in the price of Kontakt 5 itself.

I’m sure you’ll get a million other options from other members aswell. Good luck.