The Crow Hill Company 'MARSHAL BRASS': An Unprecedented Ensemble, Capturing Gravity and Emotion At Its Core
In response to popular demand, music-making community tools creator The Crow Hill Company is proud to present MARSHAL BRASS—an all-new brass library featuring a never-before-assembled ensemble for a sampling project. This collection embodies a rich, moving, reflective, and plaintive character in the great British tradition—not the lofty, noble sound of majestic horns or the regal connotation of the trumpet, but something more honest, raw, and deeply resonant with the human spirit—without relying on a violin, cello, or piano.
In the pursuit of creating a brass library that captures the rarely explored themes of courage, valor, and loss in the face of heroism—something honest and deeply resonant—The Crow Hill Company arrived at MARSHAL BRASS, a beautifully rich ensemble featuring a flugelhorn and three euphoniums. Performed by Mark Addison, Peter Moore, Tom Berry, and Simon Johnson, this unique combination was expertly recorded at Assumption Studios, a recording, filming, and green screen facility in northern Glasgow, Scotland.
By bringing these instruments together, MARSHAL BRASS achieves the warmth and depth often associated with French horns and trumpets, yet with a more elusive, less conventional character. The euphonium—often called a tenor tuba—has a more fragile intonation than the French horn, which, when played as an ensemble, results in a uniquely rich and deeply moving sound. Meanwhile, the flugelhorn evokes less of the bold huntsman and more of the hunted—a wistful, unmistakable tone that remains familiar without being distracting.
Cue composer Christian Henson, co-founder of The Crow Hill Company, whose background in television and film scoring makes the musical mechanics of MARSHAL BRASS especially meaningful to him. He explains: "Euphoniums don't have the regal quality of horns because of their tuning idiosyncrasies, which make every note unique—something that lends itself beautifully to sampling."
Serious sampling, of course, is what led to the repeated requests that ultimately inspired MARSHAL BRASS. Many of The Crow Hill Company's 'AAA-list' composer friends were searching for a brass library that could evoke profound emotional and reflective states—memories both fond and fateful.
"This is a library that has been requested by a group of highly successful professionals," confirms Christian Henson. He continues: "Since this is a flavor of brass that we believe has never been sampled before, we wanted to create what, for us, feels like a truly mature library. The idea is, if you already have all your orchestral libraries and want to add this heroic element to your existing template, we're giving you the depth of sampling and range of articulations you'd expect." Instead of incorporating Gestures—an innovative concept where an orchestra interprets the user's composition in real-time to transform it into expressive music and art—The Crow Hill Company chose to focus on a carefully curated selection of note shapes, articulations, and lengths. These include: CRESCENDO, DIMINUENDO, HAIRPIN (SHORT & LONG) – A colloquial term for a dynamic swell up and down. Since these don't loop, staggering them can create stunning pealing effects; and SFORZANDO – Not traditionally idiomatic for these instruments, but for those seeking a loud, bright, and brassy sound, it's there.
This library follows a slightly different hierarchical structure compared to The Crow Hill Company's previous offerings. At a basic level, presets function as plug-in settings that contain articulations—various playing styles that users can switch between using color-coded key switches. Regardless of the articulation in use, adjustments made on the front panel—such as microphone balance (CLOSE, WIDE, and AMBIENT) and reverb amount (CHAMBER)—will remain consistent.
Articulations are divided into three main categories, which also serve as the basis for preset organization:
LONGS – Sustained, looping notes that can be played as solo lines or chords, controlled via the modulation wheel or a fader assigned to MIDI CC1.
SHAPES – Includes the previously mentioned dynamic articulations like CRESCENDO, DIMINUENDO, and HAIRPIN.
SHORTS – Shorter notes and plucks, primarily controlled by velocity, which determines both loudness and timbre.
Price
£99.00 GBP
(This is a time-limited introductory promo price until March 7, 2025, rising thereafter to £129.00 GBP)
* As an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-format-compatible sample-based virtual instrument plug-in comprising 12 GB of uncompressed material (compressed losslessly to 6 GB) that loads directly into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) directly from The Crow Hill Company here: https://thecrowhillcompany.com/marshal-brass/.
** MARSHAL BRASS installation and activation requires installation of The Crow Hill App — an easy-to-use app designed by the best in the business to provide seamless download, installation, integration, calibration, and organisation of The Crow Hill Company tools — available for free from here: https://thecrowhillcompany.com/crow-hill-app/
Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, The Crow Hill Company is a small team obsessed with all things audio, existing to make tools that support the music-making community. From free plug-ins and resources all the way through to premium professional-grade libraries, its aim is to build and nurture an inclusive community of sound enthusiasts, music-makers, and VST (Virtual Studio Technology) advocates alike, all the while abiding by its motto: Make Music, Your Music
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