vst instruments, вст инструменты

Spanning 7000 miles from the Yellow River Valley of Eastern China to the sun-kissed shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the Silk Road is the most prominent and distinguished trade route in the world, having linked the present-day countries of China, India, Iran, Iraq, and Syria for close to 1000 years. Originally established by the Chinese government as a means of trading goods with the Roman Empire, the Silk Road evolved over the centuries to become a symbol of cultural exchange that married the disparate art, music, and religious traditions of the many diverse communities along its path.

Sonic Implants Silk Road CD captures authentic melodic and percussion instruments native to the Middle Eastern leg of this illustrious trade route, performed by Middle Eastern musicians and utilizing methods and techniques innate to centuries of musical tradition. Featuring a vast array of multi-sampled stringed, wind, and percussion instruments, the CD also includes Percussion Loops and Melodic Improvisations, effective for creating your own music, and for gaining a better understanding of the musical sensibilities inherent to the region. 7 page documentation included.

Melodic Instruments:
3 Kawals
3 Nays
May
Zurna
Arabic Violin
Bouzuk
Kanuun
Oud
Persian Violin
Persian Sitar
Santur
Tar

Percussion Instruments:
Egyptian Dumbek
Clay Dumbek
Bass Dumbek
Low & Hi Tombek
Low & Hi Udu Drums
Sm, Med & Lrg Negata Drums
Copper Darbuka
14” Frame Drum
22” Frame Drum
Persian Daff
Bandir Frame Drum
Small & Large Bell

More Percussion:
Egyptian Riqq 1 & 2
Asian Zill
Indian Zill
Turkish Zill
Sufi Triangle
Ankle Bells
3 Copper Bowls
Small Tibetan Bowl
Large Tibetan Bowl
Moroccan Gargaba
Vessel Shakers
Shakers

Silk Road Middle Eastern Instruments is one of the newest sample libraries from the smaller but rapidly growing sample developer Sonic Implants, creators of such libraries as Drum Series 1 and Afro-Cuban Percussion. Named after the 7000-mile trading route of ancient Chinese civilization, the name of this library also reflects the diverse musical elements found along the route which encompasses countries that we now know today as China, India, Iran, Iraq, Persia & Syria. Thus, Silk Road Middle Eastern Instruments is a collection of sampled instruments from those regions and includes both melodic (woodwinds, strings) and percussive instruments (drums, bells and shakers) in a wide selection including instruments like the Kawal, May, Nay, Zurna (woodwinds), Bouzuk, Kanuun, Oud, Arabic Violin, Persian Violin, Persian Sitar, Tar, Santur (strings), Bandir, copper bowl, Tibetan Bowl, Dumbek, Darbuka, daff, Frame Drum, Garbada, Nagada, Tombek, Udu, bell shakers, skin shaker, Vessel shaker, Moroccan Gargaba, Riqq, Zill, Sufi Triangle and Ankle Bells (percussion). Silk Road features both single note sampled patches as well as loops and performances on these types of instruments.

Wind Instruments

There are four main Woodwind instruments that have been sampled for Silk Road, including three Kawals and three Nays, a May and Zurna. The Kawal is an open-ended bamboo flute used primarily in western Turkish and Balkan folk music with a chromatic two octave range, while the May is a double reed bamboo instrument with a diatonic range of one octave, features eight finger holes and sounds very similar to the Western clarinet (almost like a cross between the "breathyness" of a flute and a clarinet). The Nay (or Ney) has found its way into classical Arabic, Turkish and Persian music and it is a diatonic open-ended reed flute with six finger holes (and one thumb hole). Finally, the Zurna is a double reed wind instrument with eight finger holes and one thumb hole with a trumpet-style bell end allowing it to be played quite loud (commonly used in Middle Eastern culture for outdoor military gatherings and processions. The Kawal samples can be accessed in a main Kawals patch, with all three different types of legato Kawal samples to choose from in both looped and un-looped versions.

There are 19 presets in the Kawals patch, 7 in the Mays patch, 22 in the Nays patch and 3 in the Zurna patch. Each features presets allowing you to switch between straight legato or semi-tone/whole-tone trills or retain the option of loading patches that will allow you to switch via crossfading between legato and the different types of trill samples.

Several of the Woowdwind programs that employ the use of the mod wheel do so in a way to allow you to trigger either two or three layer programs (mod double and mod triple, as they are called). These programs feature a top layer that is an octave above the lower layers in the double layer patches, while the triple layer patches are available in the Kawal patch allow you to switch between all three types of Kawal legato keymaps.

None of the Woodwind instruments here appear to have been sampled chromatically, with each of the legato programs featuring samples that have one sample mapped every 2 keys or so nor does it appear that there are more than one sampled velocity layer per note (the patches still respond to key velocity, although they do not have samples specifically recorded from the instrument at varying velocities). The looped and un-looped Kawal samples are mapped from C1 to E6 (the entire range of the keyboard), with C1 to C3 sharing the same sample (naturally, the instrument could not physically produce sounds that low, but they have been left in for use at your discretion). From C3 to C#5 (which seems to be the most playable range of the instrument) there are samples mapped for every two keys. The legato Nay and Zurna samples are also similar, again with sampled mapped for every two keys within the range of the instrument. In the case of the legato May samples, the samples are mapped from C1 to E3 sharing the same samples, with F3 to F4 divided up among six samples (a new sample is used every 2 to three keys or so). There are also both looped and un-looped versions to choose from with the legato samples, with the samples within the looped and un-looped versions lasting about four to seven seconds before the loop point or the end of the sample (the same goes for the trills, which are also offered in both looped and un-looped versions).

The improv patches sampled for all of the four Woodwind instruments here can actually serve as a dual purpose I found - should you need to use these as they are as riffs and so on they're great, but they also give you an idea of what the instrument should sound like when it is played live. Thus, you can use these snippets and improvs to help to refine your own performance with the melodic legato and trill samples in the other programs for each instrument. The Kawals perhaps have the most number of sampled improvs with seven in total, the Ney samples with five, the Zurna with three and the May with two. The improvs are mapped roughly across the range of a half octave to a full octave for each of the four instruments (as a result, each improv plays in the same pitch as the key it has been mapped to with a slightly faster or slower speed)

The four Woodwind patches comprise about 176 megabytes of the entire 442 megabyte library; a 61 megabyte Kawal patch, a 15 megabyte Mays patch, an 88 megabyte Nays patch and a 10 megabyte Zurnas patch. For the velocities that have been sampled they sound pretty good, effectively capturing the shrill, breathyness of the flutes in their legato versions as well as in some sharp staccato-ready samples.

String Instruments

The Strings section of Silk Road is made up of eight sampled instruments including the Arabic Violin, Bouzuk, Kanuun, Oud, Persian Sitar, Persian Violin, Santar and Tar.

The Arabic violin (or Kaman) is a modern day European violin that has replaced the traditional Arabic folk fiddle (the kamanjah). The way the sound differs is manipulated through techniques of performance and tone production, which are unlike the European methods. The Kanunn is a trapezoidal-shaped zither with 24 to 27 courses of silk-wound or nylon strings, with most courses tripled with the string behind tuned in unison with some of the lower strings doubled in unison (the musician plays the instrument with two plectrums on each index finger and the left hand is used to lower or raise levers at the end of each course for changes in microtonal tuning on each string. The Bouzuk is a long necked fretted string instrument played with a plectrum, strung with two metal courses tuned to a double C4 and triple G3 with 24 moveable frets to be used for tuning in microtonal performances. An ancestor of the European Lute, the Oud is a short-necked stringed instrument with a body shaped like a halved pear with five strings made of nylon and metal-wound silk strings. More information is provided in detail in the Silk Road documentation on the uses and history of the instruments, so I won't go into detail on the specific physical attributes of each instrument here.

Like the Woodwind instrument patches covered earlier, the String Instrument patches are presented in a similar fashion and are sampled consistently with the same type of articulations available throughout all eight of the string instruments. For instance, each feature both long and short release envelope programs to accommodate both fast and slow playing and programs that have samples with brighter strikes for a sharper and brighter timbre. The mod wheel will control either one of two things, depending on the program that you load up. In certain programs vibrato can be controlled via the mod wheel, where in others the mod wheel is used to crossfade between two layers, with one shifted up by a semi-tone with its pitch adjusted accordingly.

The patches that have two velocity layers are the "Bright strike" patches (there are two of them per instrument patch), where triggering a velocity of above 90 will trigger a louder, forte "bright" sample. The rest of the instruments are sampled chromatically for the most part over the natural range of each instrument, with one sampled velocity layer. Extended sample ranges have been mapped into each patch, to accommodate the use of the entire keyboard and to allow for sounds that wouldn't necessarily be possible by the instruments in the real world (great effect samples). The sustained samples are on average about 3 seconds in length - some, like the Arabic violin feature sustains that are about 1 second in length and are looped (others that do not lend themselves well to looping such as the Santur are not looped).

Most of the instruments also feature a set of improv samples which are again useful for use either as riffs in sections or in their entirety or as a learning tool for understanding what the instrument sounds like when played live so that you may mimic it in your performance with the samples. The only instruments that do not feature improv samples are the Oud and the Tar. The Arabic Violin, Bouzuk and Kanuun have three different improv samples, while the Persian Sitar, Persian Violin and Santur have two. Each different improv sample is mapped over the range of one octave as they are with some of the woodwind instruments, with varying pitch and speed depending on what note is triggered.

There are a total of 72 megabytes of string samples in Silk Road, split up amongst the eight patches, the largest of which being the Arabic Violin at 12 megabytes in size (the smallest is the Oud at only 4.6 megabytes).

Percussion

There is a quite a selection of percussive material on Silk Road, ranging from loops to single hits. The single hit samples are comprised of Copper Bowls, small and large Tibetan Bowls, 14" and 22" frame drums, a Persian Daff, Bandir, Egyptian Dumbek, Clay Dumbek, Udus, small, medium and large Nagadas, copper Darbuka, small and large shakers and bells, Egyptian Riqq's, Asian and Indian Zills, and Sufi triangles. The percussion hits are divided up into four separate patches, one for bowls, one for frame drums, one for hand drums and one for shakers and bells.

The single hit samples again feature one sampled velocity per note, but for each type of drum, bell, bowl or shaker there are multiple sampled articulations that are presented in a "kit" form. You can also load up special programs that feature everything except a release envelope, should you require that. Not all of the percussion hits are single hits in the four percussion patches; sprinkled about are several little percussive riffs and embellishments that can be used to add to either the existing loops or your own performance with the single hit samples. The percussion hits sound quite good, but the critical element that I found to be limiting to creating truly dynamic performances that is missing is the lack of sampled velocities per note. I only wish there were more, maybe even two or three instead of just one.

Loops are provided for essentially all of the percussion instruments that are featured as single hits. They range in tempo from 88 BPM to 140 BPM depending on the type of instrument and the style of playing with some patches (such as the Persian Daff) featuring up to 16 different loops (mapped in 1/3 octave intervals). They are also presented in a variety of time signatures, including 3/4, 4/4 and 12/8. You can trigger these from within your sampler, or as I found, you can also dump them out through your sample editor and into your favorite loop-based music creation program for arranging, combining and tempo shifting.

The single hit patches total about 113 megabytes in size (from 17 to 40 megs a piece) while the percussion loops total about 80 megabytes in size (17 patches, ranging in size from about 4 megs to 7 megs in size each).

The programming seems consistent throughout all of the patches, especially in regards to the Woodwinds and String samples. In almost all cases, each preset within the patch makes use of the mod wheel, either to control aspects of the sample such as tremolo, vibrato or to crossfade between legato and trill samples. With the String instruments, the mod wheel is mainly used to control the amount of vibrato and to crossfade between different types of layers. For instance, certain programs feature two layers with one layer shifted up by a semi-tone with its pitch adjusted accordingly. Thus, you can trigger separate samples while playing the same key in succession. As I mentioned before, the percussive hits are pre-mapped into their own kits so it's quite easy to load them up and simply sequence with them without much effort in the areas of re-mapping the samples to fit your playing habits. At least, not for me, as it all seemed very intuitive to work with. In the Giga version of Silk Road the extent that controllers are used to allow you to manipulate the samples is limited to the mod wheel to control vibrato and cross-fading between instruments. I thought that it would have been great, especially with some of the legato or trill samples with the strings and winds to be able to use key switching to switch between articulations, as I sometimes like to assign my mod wheel to control expression real-time.

The sound quality throughout the library is really quite good (the samples are also dry), although because of the lack of sampled velocities I found that the samples, especially the legato melodic woodwind, strings and the single hit percussive samples tended to sound a bit static and more like samples instead of an expressive re-creation of a Middle Eastern ethnic instrument at times. They are all still quite workable, and are by no means samples that you would want to throw away based on the lack of velocity layers alone. For effect, music texture or combined with existing ethnic and non-ethnic samples they can still hold their own and they're a lot better than what you'd probably find in most ROMplers or other budget libraries that claim to offer richly detailed ethnic instrument samples from the Middle East. It would have also been great to see a few more sampled articulations - possibly note bends where physically possible with the instrument, more trills and little embellishments. Even if hey were included in a separate patch where they could be inserted into a performance after they had been sequenced (or on the fly if done through keyswitching). I think that this would really help to improve on a sense of realism while playing the instruments, especially in regards to the wind instruments and almost all of the stringed instruments.

The documentation for Silk Road is located on the CD in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format and prints out at nine pages. While being basic and to-the-point, it serves as a helpful guide when it comes to determining what is what in the library, including comments on what the patch is capable of and the controller options that it has available. It also details the time signatures and BPM's of the percussion loops, which is quite helpful. A brief section explaining the instruments, their history and what they are capable is also included.

As I mentioned, the Strings, percussion or Woodwinds on Silk Road feature do not feature more than one sampled velocity per note (except in the "bright" programs in the strings which feature two) and in the instances where the melodic instruments have been sampled, they are not done so chromatically in the woodwinds - although the strings seem to be sampled chromatically for the most part, with the exception of two or three notes here and there that share the same sample. However, the samples remain playable and usable (especially in situations where you are pressed for sample memory), although I found that there are certain instances where I would have liked to have been able to access a much wider dynamic range out of all of the instruments while playing them. Ideally these samples are great for those who are loading them up in either the Soundfont or Kurzweil versions into sample platforms with limited memory capabilities. Although because of the lack of velocity layers, chromatically sampled notes and more advanced control over a wider variety of articulations (key switching etc), it does not take full advantage of what can been done with hard-disc streaming samplers with the GigaStudio version of the library (as reviewed). As a result, it leaves some possible reservations for those who are seeking richly detailed ethnic multi-sampled instruments. The percussion samples, the improvs and loops are quite possibly the highlight of the library. Certainly, a large selection of usable sample material is available on Silk Road, but more in the way of sampled articulations, velocities and built in control and manipulation of such aspects would help Silk Road place among the A-list of ethnic sample libraries. As a final note, the lack of sampled velocities is not true-to-form for Sonic Implants. Silk Road has been recorded by an outside producer (not by Sonic Implants) and thus, even Sonic Implants agrees that more velocity layers would be an excellent addition to the library. Jennifer Hruska of Sonic Implants explains "We agree that they should have done much more in the way of velocity samples and articulations, something we always do a ton of in our other Sonic Implants products."