Brass · Source 26

French horn.

Written as MIDI. Played as a horn.

Write the line in your piano roll and get a horn back on the track — covered and distant at a whisper, cutting when pushed.

§ 01 · Hear it

Hear it.

Listen for the two faces. The soft notes are veiled, the loud ones brassy, and the line moves between them the way a player does: by how hard it is played.

The part is the melody of After You’ve Gone — 34 notes at 138 bpm, the one the chooser on /sources plays on every instrument. This is the french horn’s render as it came back: nothing played, sampled or edited.

26FhFrench hornB1–F5
Take 1 · French horn
0:00

The chooser’s melody — 34 notes at 138 bpm — rendered as french horn. Nothing played, sampled or edited.

§ 02 · In your DAW

MIDI in. Audio out.

Write the part in the piano roll you already use — Logic Pro, Ableton Live, FL Studio, REAPER, Cubase and Studio One — with dø1 on the track, or upload a .mid at /tools/sources. Notes, timing and velocity are read as written.

What comes back is a french horn take: dry, close-mic, 24-bit / 48 kHz, on the track it came from. Usually 20 to 60 seconds. Render again and you get a different take.

Rendering in the browser is free with an account — 120 credits a month, 10 per 30-second render. The plugin is part of Pro, $12 a month: 2,000 credits, dø1 (AU and VST3) and Dø Desktop, which installs it.

Get the DAW plugin AU & VST3 · installs with Dø Desktop
26FhFrench hornB1–F5
Brass · French horn
In
MIDI — the piano roll on a dø1 track, or a .mid at /tools/sources
Out
A french horn take · dry, close-mic · 24-bit / 48 kHz
Range
B1–F5
Time
20 to 60 seconds a render
Price
$12 a month with Pro · free in the browser with an account

Covered and open.

A horn player’s right hand sits in the bell, and how far it closes the bell moves the tone from covered — dark, the classic distant horn — to open and brassy. Dynamics do the rest: soft horn is one of the warmest sounds in the orchestra, forte horn one of the most cutting.

B1–F5 is nearly four octaves and the horn does not sound the same across them. The pedal register is broad, the middle is where horn writing lives, the top is bright and exposed. Write a line high and it sounds like effort.

Questions.

Is it the orchestral horn?

Yes — the French horn as written in scores and film cues. One instrument, across its range.

Can I build a horn section?

Render each part separately and mix the stems. Divisi written as separate parts renders as separate players, not one player doubled.

Does it follow my dynamics?

Velocity drives the tone, not only the level: soft notes come back covered, loud notes open.

More sources.

Related.