Best bets for a "Horn Section" sound?

I stacked some from a Korg Triton several year back... Used an exciter and eq'd them to fit.
 
https://www.soundclick.com/html5/v3/player.cfm?type=single&songid=9171142&q=hi&newref=1
 
It's a quick 1 minute tune (filler for a project).

davehorch
What is "VX-64"?  I should have this, right?

It is a Cakewalk plug-in that has been around a long time, I think.  I'm sure it is in Splat, but I don't know about the other packages.

The suggestions for a pop horn section given earlier are probably the best bet.  I'm not sure that there a lot of choices for this among the included Cakewalk instruments.
 
I like Dimension Pro, as it is a remarkable synth instrument with a lot of content.  But using it as a ROMpler out of the box, for bread and butter sounds, based on the bundled content has never been its strong suit.  In my opinion that's because of a limited number of sample types and articulations for each instrument.
 
So here are a couple of other 3rd party options to consider.
 
I think that AIR Xpand!2 has a very good variety of brass and woodwind patches in various articulations and sections.  It's a great VST ROMpler to have available that contains many varied real instrument sounds.  Not programmable like Dimension, and doesn't have the synth/sampler functions, but is very broad in coverage of bread and butter sounds, and most of the sounds are playable.  Has macro controls for attack, decay, release, etc.  It is 4 part multi-timbral (compared to the 16 parts in TTS-1), but no General MIDI.  Great for sketching up a sequence, or using as background tracks.
 
This often goes on sale for $1, and was even free at one point last year.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be on sale right now.  Probably should watch the deals forum here for this to go sale again.
https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/virtual-instruments/air-xpand2  $49
 
I noticed that PluginBoutique is selling the Garritan Jazz & Big Band 3 for 50% off at $74, that seems to include a lot of brass and saxophones.  https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/1248-Jazz-Big-Band-3

jpetersen
The first secret is, each instrument takes a different note in the chord.

That really depends on what genre you're trying to capture.
 
Chicago was/is mostly unisons with occasional breakout chords on the longer notes.
 
James Brown was mostly triads 3, 5, 7 or 3, 7, 9.  Often inverted with the 3rd on top.
 
EW&F and BS&T used WAY more color tones, more like writing for big band.  Never use a root or 5th in those voicings.  Most of the horn chords are guide tones (3rd and 7th) and color tones (#9, b9, #11 & 13 e.g.)  And BS&T used a lot of half-step rubs in the middle of the chords.
 
ToP was less about the voicing and more about the rhythms and energy, but you must have bari sax on the bottom for that sound.
 
and so on.
 
It is also important to consider the register.  Chicago likes to put the trombone at the top of the range right with the trumpet instead of an octave lower. 
 

Kamikaze

cparmerlee

jpetersen
The first secret is, each instrument takes a different note in the chord.

That really depends on what genre you're trying to capture.
 
Chicago was/is mostly unisons with occasional breakout chords on the longer notes.
 
James Brown was mostly triads 3, 5, 7 or 3, 7, 9.  Often inverted with the 3rd on top.
 
EW&F and BS&T used WAY more color tones, more like writing for big band.  Never use a root or 5th in those voicings.  Most of the horn chords are guide tones (3rd and 7th) and color tones (#9, b9, #11 & 13 e.g.)  And BS&T used a lot of half-step rubs in the middle of the chords.
 
ToP was less about the voicing and more about the rhythms and energy, but you must have bari sax on the bottom for that sound.
 
and so on.
 
It is also important to consider the register.  Chicago likes to put the trombone at the top of the range right with the trumpet instead of an octave lower. 
 

If you ever get a chance to expand on this, that would be fantastic. I'd be interested.

If you have a particular band or song in mind, I'd be happy to give it a listen and make more specific comments.  There is a lot of variety to how horns are used, so it is better not to generalize too much.
 
Some of the funk stuff was heavy on voicings that internally have major 7ths, which can work like those half step rubs and may be a little more pleasing to the ear. (The half step stuff is intentionally grating, and best used for tension in the middle of a musical line, not at the beginning or end.)  The most common of these, I believe, (especially in funk and blues) is the 7(#9) chord.  You put the major 3rd in the low octave and the #9 (which is the minor third) in the octave above, and usually the 7th in between.  In a C7(#9), that gives you, e.g., bone on E, tenor or alto on Bb and trumpet on D#.  The bone and trumpet are a major 7th apart, giving this really strong tension.
 
A similar thing can happen on the 13 chord.  You put the low voice on the 7th, middle voice in the 3rd (in the higher octave) and the top voice on the 13th (which is the 6th an octave up.)  In a C13, you could have bone on Bb, sax on E, and trumpet on A, again putting the trumpet and bone a major 7th apart.  You normally want to use these strong voicings on longer notes.  If it is just a passing note, the audience won't really get the effect and the horn players probably won't really milk that tension.
 
These voicings aren't just for horns, of course.  You can hear a good example at the beginning of EW&F's "Yearning' Learnin'"  That tune is loaded with 7(#9) and 13 chords with open voicings.
 
Another thing to bear in mind is that if there is a strong root, then the listener hears the 5ths without anybody playing it because that 5th is a primary overtone of the root.  That's why guitar "power chords" are so strong, because they are nothing but root and 5th, and the overtones reinforce that interval.  So you can usually leave the 5th out of the horns if you are writing for a genre that is harmonically sophisticated (jazz, or some of the hipper pop stuff like Steely Dan).
 
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that, while the samples are important, if you want the thing to sound like a horn section, then you need to write the parts as a horn section would play them, and that varies a lot.  The more successful horn bands had some very distinctive writing styles for their horns.  You can't usually just write simple triads and call it a day (although that may work fine on stabs.)

A lot of good points in this thread (and a nice change from many of the thread topics lately).
 
This post is more focused on the sound sculpting aspects... The only thing that I would add to the above is that a lot of people focus on "stock sounds/presets" when referring to what is available; so even if a "stock sound" may not be ideal as is, it is still subject to any audio chain you want to run it through and how you place it in a mix. Dimension Pro and Rapture get a bad rap at times for the internal sounds; but they are decent, and internal processing can be added/modified in addition to other FX chains after them.
 
If not "front and center" there is a lot of tolerance to how FX are used. "Breath and Blow" techniques can add realism to even the most lackluster rompler, and audio can be run through z3ta+ (the original) as an audio FX (there are 2 of these, but only one can be inserted as an audio FX) to give access to "synth processing" like attack, etc. One (not included in SONAR) audio FX I have fallen in love with in the past few months is Melda's MCharacter since it gives access to harmonic information on monophonic material in a way that allows timbre to be sculpted to taste (from almost any input). There are numerous FX which can be applied similarly.
 
Bottom line is this... there is a lot more to be gained from learning "sound sculpting" with synths/FX than to seek a "stock preset" that suits your needs. Within reason, it is fairly quick and easy to manipulate something "pretty close" into "good enough" for a given situation.
 
I only mention the above because it is common for people to thumb their nose at the stock presets of a synth/rompler when the actual capabilities are significantly more than one would see on the surface. In reality, most "stock presets" won't fit well into a mix as is, since they are set to be played solo to impress potential customers (to wide, too loud, etc.).