A comprehensive jazz horn and saxophone virtual instrument featuring thirteen solo instruments and Smart Voicing technology for creating realistic ensemble harmonies. Includes deep sampling and flexible articulation controls for authentic performances.
Core Purpose and Instrumentation
Straight Ahead Jazz Horns provides a complete toolkit for producing realistic brass and saxophone performances across jazz, pop, funk, swing, and big band styles. It includes thirteen deeply sampled solo instruments: four trumpets, three tenor trombones plus a bass trombone, two alto and two tenor saxophones, and a baritone saxophone. The sample pool covers a wide range of articulations.
Each instrument features sustains, staccato, staccatissimo, quarters, falls, long falls, turns, legato, glissando, doits, and shakes. The recordings were captured with two distinct microphone positions, giving you flexibility in shaping the sound. This extensive articulation set allows for expressive solo lines and realistic section playing directly out of the box.
Smart Voicing for Ensemble Writing
The standout feature is Smart Voicing, which simplifies writing full ensemble harmonies. You play a chord with your left hand and a melody with your right hand. The engine automatically generates a complete voice-led harmony for each melody note, drawing from a database of thousands of possible voicings. These are displayed as real-time sheet music notation.
Multiple voicing styles are available, including triads, unisons, octaves, and jazzier close, drop, and open voicings. This works with ready-made ensemble multis like four trumpets or five saxes. You can control articulations through keyswitches, velocity, and MIDI CCs, and each solo instrument retains its full technique set. Additionally, you can send the generated MIDI to other plugins via Kontakt’s ‘Send MIDI to Outside World’ option.
Workflow and Customization
The instrument is designed for immediate playability, with super playable instruments and ready-made multi-ensembles that you can load and play right away. The Total Articulation Control Technology provides extensive tweaks for each articulation type, allowing you to adjust behavior to your specific needs. One-click FX includes analog EQ, compressor, delay, and reverb.
Smart Voicing is ideal for composers who aren’t jazz harmony experts. You can sketch a chord progression and melody, and the engine handles the voice leading. For those who prefer a traditional approach, you can still program individual MIDI tracks for each solo instrument. The new interface has been completely redesigned for clarity, making parameter access straightforward.
Practical Applications and Compatibility
This library is suited for a wide range of genres, including jazz, big band, swing, pop, R&B, and funk. It is equally effective for solo instrument demos, full ensemble mockups, and hybrid projects where you combine virtual horns with other instruments. The ability to export MIDI from Smart Voicing lets you refine harmonies in your DAW or trigger other plugins.
Straight Ahead Jazz Horns runs in the free Kontakt Player (version 5.5.2 or higher) or full Kontakt, making it accessible without additional software purchases. It requires a substantial amount of disk space and memory for full ensemble loads. The collaboration between Straight Ahead Samples and Impact Soundworks brings a revised interface and script while maintaining the authentic sample content.
Key features
- Thirteen solo instruments: four trumpets, trombones, and saxophones across all registers
- Over seventy-five thousand samples with twenty-four-bit recording quality
- Smart Voicing generates real-time ensemble harmonies from chords and melody
- Display of voicings as sheet music notation during performance
- Multiple articulation types including legato, glissando, falls, and shakes
- Two microphone positions for sound shaping flexibility
- Compatibility with the free Kontakt Player for immediate use
Best for
Ideal for composers and producers who need authentic jazz horn sections or solo instrument mockups. It excels for users who want to quickly create realistic big band arrangements without deep jazz theory knowledge, while also offering detailed articulation control for expressive solo work. Works across jazz, pop, funk, and R&B.