Kamikaze
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/top-brass-part-1
 
This is a good read

Great link!  The song list alone is fantastic, let alone the teaching.

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.

I bought Magix's Independence because of the quality of the brass section.
It's nothing short than amazing.
Another secret to do great brass parts is to spread the single instruments on different tracks and then detune each voice of a few cents, even better if you make it different for every note.
Even the best brass player is a few cents off all the time, that makes the sound bigger. Same technique applies to string sections!

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.)

Lots of great suggestions here, to which I would add one thing: do NOT quantize the individual instruments. As someone pointed out, detuning the individual voices a few cents + or - helps with the realism, and the same is true with the timing. Having the distinct instruments start & finish just a few ticks either side of the beat (and from each other) really increases the realism of the sound.
 
Good luck! And let us know how it turns out.
 

cparmerlee
If you have a particular band or song in mind, I'd be happy to give it a listen and make more specific comments. 

Nothing in mind really. I also likes horns and wind, and was messing around with voicings for brass at the weekend. It's interesting to hear how different bands in funk and soul approached it, and forms part of their sound.
 
I've some knowledge of shell voicing, drop two, rootless and have been dropping the root and fifth, normally just one or the other. I've been keeping it simple, to three part harmony. I used to have a 90 year old Baritone and enjoyed it's texture in the second octave. But trying out Trombone in the upper octave and trumpet isn't something I thought happened in the funkier sections.
 
Outside of funk and soul, I like Mingus's horn work, that's on fire. I've searched for info on how Gil Evans Big Band sounds like Gil and not other Big Bands, and I can either find stuff too advanced, or short articles that just highlight his use of french horn and tuba, but there is clearly more to his voicing than this.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Kamikaze
I used to have a 90 year old Baritone and enjoyed it's texture in the second octave. But trying out Trombone in the upper octave and trumpet isn't something I thought happened in the funkier sections.

 
This is straying a bit from the original request, which was how to get an authentic "horn sound".  Baritone and euphonium are rarely used, and greatly under-appreciated, IMHO.  I actually have 2 double-belled euphoniums, one from around 1900 that I had completely rebuilt.  It plays great.  Stan Kenton experimented with a lot of unusual colors, including mellophone and bass clarinet.  If you like that mix of horn colors, check our Darcy James Argue's Secret Society.  That's some of the hippest stuff happening today.  BS&T did several pieces using tuba that were delicious.
 
I have always liked the combination of flute and trumpet in a harmon mute -- playing unison or maybe the melody in flute and the trumpet a 6th below.
 

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.).

Another SOS Article
 
https://www.soundonsound....libraries-buyers-guide
 
I use Zero-G Phantom Horns - some useful licks and the multi samples work pretty well.

Like some people have said, I've had great success with treating them all separately. Non quantized, often from different libraries or VSTs. I only treat the horns as a section during mixing when I'll use verb to put them in the same place.