Big Fish Audio | Computer Music | MOJO: Horn Section Product Review
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MOJO: Horn Section | Computer Music

Rating: 9/10 Back to MOJO: Horn Section product details

Brass instruments are notoriously difficult to synthesise, as anyone who remembers the honking monstrosities that tried to pass themselves off as horns in the early days of digital synths will be all too aware. Vir2's new Mojo Horn Section ROMpler solves this problem using 24-bit stereo samples of a wide variety of typical brass sounds (saxaphones, trumpets, trombone and flugelhorn), and even throws in a clarinet for good measure. Mojo is a Kontakt Player instrument (running standalone or as a VST, AU, RTAS or DXi plug-in) and requires a considerable 16GB of free hard drive space for the full installation, showing just how extensive this sample library is.

In use, we found Mojo to be instantly impressive. Triggering the sounds with a controller keyboard produced very useable results, with the software calling up different samples according to note velocity, modulation and pitchbend information. Delving deeper into the settings, there are dozens of adjustable variables, such as note articulation stereo mix, tempo-synced crescendos, legato and trills, meaning that Mojo can create a huge variety of realistic sounds. To add to your options, you'll also find a basic integrated effects suite, which includes EQ, compression and reverb, among others.

Whether you're programming within your sequencer or playing live, Mojo sounds incredibly realistic. Many of the functions are controlled by MIDI CCs, but as a neat way of making things easier when using a keyboard. Mojo also dedicates a series of notes outside the instuments' pitch range to controlling a variety of its features.

A single instance of Kontakt Player can be set up as a Multi Rack with any combination of instruments from Mojo, meaning your virtual horn section can be as big or small as you like. The Kontakt player engine means that stability is never in question, and CPU and RAM load are also dealt with very efficiently. Minimum system requirements are a modest 1.4HGz processor. 1GB of RAM and Windows XP SP2 or Vista 32-bit (OS X 10.4 G5 processor and 1GB RAM on Mac). Although it's expensive, there's no doubting that Mojo is one of the best horn instruments available. If you're in the market for brass sounds, you simply must check it out.

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