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Getting to know horn articulations

1 If we were to think of the word ‘articulation’ as a literal translation of ‘playing style’, probably the most common brass articulation you’d be likely to come across is simply Sustain. This sounds exactly like what it is: a sampled sustained note, which is looped so that the sustain will continue for as long as you hold down the key.

4 Here’s the same part as before, but this time I’ve switched the articulation on the longer notes to Expressive Short. This has the effect of creating a swell during the course of the note, lending a bit more life to the part than just simple sustained notes.

2 Some articulations have a special notation symbol to indicate how a note or part should be played when reading a score. There’s no real symbol for the sustain articulation, as it’s equivalent to just playing normally – legato notes played evenly. Here’s an example of a part programmed with the Sustain articulation in Logic Pro X’s Studio Horns.

5 Staccato is a general musical term meaning short, clipped notes, especially suited for fast runs of short notes on the instrument. On a horn, this is achieved by rapid stopping of the airflow into the mouthpiece breaking up the notes. The symbol for staccato is shown here – a small dot above the note’s head.

3 When a real player plays a horn, there are variations they can apply to sustained notes. For example, after the initial attack, the volume dips as the note sustains, then rises again, swelling down and up. Logic handles these with an articulation called Expressive – this could also be known in other sample libraries as ‘swell’ or ‘crescendo’.

6 This phrase has been programmed with the Staccato articulation selected. The notes cut off short, regardless of the length of the note in the piano roll, as can be seen here – the notes as programmed are all different durations, but they all sound the same length.