Karoryfer Samples has released War Tuba, a free tuba sound library in SFZ format with a custom user interface for Plogue sforzando.
The sampled instrument was played by the tuba player from Hańba!, a successful folk-punk band signed by Karoryfer Lecolds. Described by the library authors as a “raw and impolite tuba”, War Tuba delivers the raw and 100% clean tuba sounds that you can further process to your liking.
IMPORTANT: Because of the UI background and the cover image on the Karoryfer Samples’ SoundCloud page, we initially thought that War Tuba was a sound library of a real Japanese war tuba (a pre-radar airplane locator from the WWI era). This, as crazy it would have been, is not the case, though. War Tuba is just a plain old “regular” Bb tuba sample library. :)
The sampling process appears to have been very thorough as there are 1,443 individual WAV samples provided with differing velocities and articulations (staccato, staccatissimo and sustained), all with up to four round robin samples. This is the first time the company has created an instrument with over 1,000 samples.
In order to simulate a human playing the instrument, they have included a legato feature to tie the notes together in occasions when that type of sound is desired. This is achieved through the main panel controls in Plogue sforzando which also include different mic selections (condenser and dynamic), humanized vibrato manipulation, and control of the sustain dynamics via the mod wheel. The creators have also included a feature to simulate two and three tuba ensembles.
Listening to the audio demo of the instrument playing “The Entertainer”, I think that the War Tuba has a human feel to it and is resonant in the higher frequencies sounding a bit rougher than a classical tuba. The overall sound is very evocative as few of us are familiar with its timbre. Although you will need to install Plogue sforzando on your machine to use the customized user interface, War Tuba is also compatible with any sampler that can load WAV files and/or SFZ patches.
War Tuba is available for free download via Karoryfer Samples (104 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 1,443 audio samples in 16-bit WAV format, 77 instrument patches in SFZ format).
