Musical Sampling Midnight Tenor Sax & Midnight Alto Sax

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars

The saxophone — in its various forms — is a hugely expressive instrument, and that expressive nature can be difficult to capture in a sample‑based format that’s playable via a MIDI keyboard. However, Musical Sampling do appear to have given this challenge some considerable thought. Their Midnight Tenor Sax and Midnight Alto Sax libraries bring some careful design elements that allow you to add performance character but without getting bogged down in an excessive array of articulation or keyswitch options in order to achieve it. So, just how ‘saxy’ can a virtual sax get?

Both instruments are built into the same UI/engine and, while the more recent Alto Sax includes a couple of additional performance options, they operate in similar ways. Installed as 2GB and 2.5GB libraries via the Pulse downloader, both require the full version of Kontakt 8 (the free Kontakt Player is not supported). The sampling provides plenty of round‑robins and a range of performance articulations. For the Tenor Sax, these include slurred and tongued legato, glissando legato, short or long scooped note attacks, glissando attacks, short or long bend‑down note releases and gliss‑fall style releases. Alto Sax adds taper attack and a bend ornament to this list. These articulations are triggered either via MIDI note velocity or via the red/orange coloured keyswitches located just below the playable range of each instrument. With velocity providing some articulation selection elements, playing dynamics are controlled via the mod wheel (CC1).

The UI provides the option to blend close and far mic positions and to adjust the level of the built‑in reverb and delay as required. These effects are very usable but, of course, if you want more control, then you can easily add your own choices via your DAW. Tenor Sax provides a single Kontakt preset — just load and play — but Alto Sax offers a choice of four — Master, Hyped, Dreams and Nostalgia — with the last three offering different styles of sound right out of the box. Nostalgia is suitably lo‑fi and sounds like it is straight from the pre‑’60s era.

In use, the samples sound really very good indeed. However, what’s just as impressive is that the combination of MIDI velocity and articulation keyswitches are easy to master. With just a little practice, for smooth, lazy legato runs, these well‑chosen options let you produce a remarkable sense of ‘human’ into the performance, although faster lines may take a little more practice to execute the required keyswitch options. The end result is that, even when played solo in a fairly exposed musical context, you can add enough detail to produce both expressive and believable performances.

In a marketplace full of mega‑sample libraries that do everything, there is still a place for niche, compact products that do one thing, but do it very well. In Midnight Tenor Sax and Midnight Alto Sax, Musical Sampling have done exactly that.

In a marketplace full of mega‑sample libraries that do everything, there is still a place for niche, compact products that do one thing, but do it very well. In Midnight Tenor Sax and Midnight Alto Sax, Musical Sampling have done exactly that. These libraries are very good indeed. And, in answer to the earlier question, yes, virtual sax can get very saxy.