Woodwind · Source 11

Saxophone.

Written as MIDI. Played as a sax — soprano to baritone.

One saxophone, four chairs. Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone are presets of it, not separate instruments. Write the part, pick the chair, render.

§ 01 · Hear it

Hear it.

The same 34 notes on three chairs. Step through them while it plays: the line stays, the register and the bite move with the horn.

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. Each take is the saxophone’s render as it came back: nothing played, sampled or edited.

11SxSaxophoneD♭3–A♭5
1 of 3 · Saxophone
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One part, 3 chairs — step between them while it plays.

§ 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 saxophone 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
11SxSaxophoneD♭3–A♭5
Woodwind · Saxophone
In
MIDI — the piano roll on a dø1 track, or a .mid at /tools/sources
Out
A saxophone take · dry, close-mic · 24-bit / 48 kHz
Range
Saxophone D♭3–A♭5 · Soprano sax A♭3–E6 · Baritone sax D♭2–A4
Presets
Soprano · Alto · Tenor · Baritone
Time
20 to 60 seconds a render
Price
$12 a month with Pro · free in the browser with an account

Four chairs, one page.

The chairs share a reed and a conical bore; what changes is the size of the horn and where a written line lands in its voice. Soprano sits an octave above tenor, baritone an octave below alto. The same MIDI rendered on each comes back in a different part of the instrument.

Almost everything expressive about a sax happens in the mouth: the pitch bends into a note, the tone goes from subtone to bark across a crescendo. Dynamic layers cannot follow that. Here a crescendo written in velocity changes the tone continuously, and a scoop into a long note is a scoop.

Questions.

Which saxophone is this?

All four. Pick the chair when you render. The chair labelled "Saxophone" in the player is the default.

Can I write a sax section?

Yes. Render each chair as its own part and mix the stems. The Sing, Sing, Sing demo on /sources is five rendered saxes summed.

Does it follow articulation?

Note length and velocity carry it. Short, hard notes come back tongued and bright; long, soft ones subtone.

More sources.

Related.