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World
Winds
ABOUT THIS LIBRARY
World Winds is
a sample CD-ROM derived from the extensive ethnic wind collection
of acclaimed UK composer and multi-instrumentalist Dirk Campbell.
Dirk’s personal samples are supplemented by performances from
Juan Mateo on Andean panpipes and shakuhachi master Clive Bell.
There are thirty instruments in all, each sampled in mono.
INSTRUMENTS BY TYPE
FLUTES and WHISTLES
Bansuri (India), Irish penny whistle, Irish low whistle, Turkish
and Persian Ney, Kaval (south-east Europe), African flute, Suling
slendro and Suling pelog (Java), Japanese Shakuhachi, Andean Panpipes,
Fujara (Slovakian contrabass whistle).
BAGPIPES
Gaida bagpipes (Greece/Bulgaria, 3 types), Irish Uilleann pipes
(3 types), Scots Highland pipes, medieval Praetorius bagpipes, Cretan
Askomandura, Arabian Mezoued, Turkish Tulum, Czech Dudy.
REED PIPES
Duduk (Armenia/Persia), Indian Shenai, Turkish Zourna, Egyptian
Zummara.
HORNS
Nafir (Moroccan trumpet) and African Kudu horn.
USING THE LIBRARY
The library’s strength lies in its articulations; as well as
straight notes, there are up and down bends, various types of grace
notes and authentic phrases and performances. These can easily be
combined to give a very realistic delivery which sounds just like
a real player.
PROGRAMMING PLAN
The real life ranges of the instruments rarely exceed two octaves.
To reflect this, we have divided the standard 60-note, five-octave
MIDI keyboard into three zones: LOW (one octave), MIDDLE (two octaves)
and HIGH (two octaves).
Each instrument appears in “Menu” form for quick auditioning.
In the “Menu” programs, performances, phrases and drones
are always mapped to the LOW zone; straight notes, short notes and
bends default to the MIDDLE zone, with grace notes positioned in
the HIGH zone. Using two hands, a keyboard player can quickly alternate
between, say, straight and grace notes. Alternatively, the tune
could be played one-handed into a sequencer using just the MIDDLE
zone and grace notes substituted by transposing the selected straight
notes up two octaves (+24 semitones).
To cover all desired combinations, the different playing styles
are presented in modular fashion so that you can, for example, play
grace notes in the MIDDLE zone and bends in the HIGH zone.
LOW zone programs are indicated by the suffix “-” MIDDLE
zone programs have no suffix. HIGH zone programs are indicated by
the suffix “+”
Velocity-switched programs (marked “V”) between straight/grace
notes, straight/bends and straight/short notes are also provided,
with the Akai velocity switch point set to 91.
Occasionally, when an instrument’s range (or total number of
performances) is too great to fit inside its designated keyboard
zone, the mapping continues up into the zone above and any remaining
space in that zone is left empty. In such cases, you can still use
the velocity-switched programs to access different performance styles
in live performance, or assign the programs to different MIDI channels
to simultaneously access the different styles via a sequencer.
TUNING
All samples have been individually tuned to concert pitch (A=440),
so you can combine them with keyboards and other equal-tempered
instruments without fear of tuning clashes.
For those seeking authenticity, “raw” programs (whose
contents correspond to the “MENU” programs) are supplied
for most volumes. “Raw” programs restore the samples to
their original “native” tuning and demonstrate the instruments’
actual scales and ranges. You may find these programs instructive
if you intend to write parts for a real life ethnic wind player!
LOOPS
All sustained notes are looped, with the exception of shakuhachi
and panpipes, which were not performed in a style conducive to looping.
If you want to hear the samples without loops, you can disable the
loops globally inside a program. Here’s how to go about it
on an Akai S-series sampler:
1. Hit the “EDIT PROG” button and select the desired program
with the “DATA” dial.
2. Press the “KGRP” (Key group) button (F2).
3. Press the “SMPL” (Sample) button (F6).
4. Press the “SMP2” (Sample 2) button (F4).
5. Use the cursor to highlight the “ED” (Edit) parameter.
6. Use the “DATA” dial to change “ONE” to “ALL”.
7. Use the cursor to highlight the “playback” parameter.
8. Use the “DATA” dial to change “AS SAMPL”
to “NO LOOPS”.
What could be simpler?
PADS & EFFECTS
The instruments on World Winds are largely monophonic, which
means that in real life they can play only one note at a time. The
corrected tuning of these samples allows them to be played chordally,
but bear in mind that bagpipe chords defy the laws of nature and
may cause audience riots.
If you want to play chords, please try the “pad” programs,
which transform the mono samples into glorious stereo and smooth
their ethnic idiosyncrasies into textures suitable for keyboard
pads. Most “pad” programs utilise the Akai S3000’s
internal effects, so when you load a pad program, please also load
the “F.X.” file (found at the bottom of the sample list
with an “X” suffix) from that volume. Unfortunately, the
Akai S3000’s built-in effects are not compatible with the Akai
S3000XL’s optional effects board. If your sampler has no effects,
try using outboard units or plug-ins to add a little reverb or chorusing
to the pad programs.
THE INSTRUMENTS
by Dirk Campbell
Bansuri
The Indian bansuri is a bamboo flute played in the transverse manner
like the western concert flute. Because of its large fingerholes,
each note can be adjusted by partial covering of the hole, so infinite
shades of pitch variation are theoretically possible. The sound
of the bansuri is pure and sweet, and nothing evokes the spiritual
heart of the Indian subcontinent better. Sitars are fine for Indian
food commercials, but for sheer beauty, stillness, depth and mystery
– in almost any context – a bansuri is hard to beat.
Duduk
The Armenian duduk is a double reed instrument with a soft, beautiful
and touching sound, described as something between a flute and an
oboe. It is traditionally played in pairs with one player supplying
a drone. Equal hole spacing gives a Turkish folk modality, but the
Armenian player adjusts this to a more western pitching by careful
finger positioning and lip pressure. Playing style involves soft
note attacks, dynamic variation and vibrato with a good deal of
subtle gracing.
Irish Whistle
The ordinary tin whistle as an Irish folk instrument provides that
sound element which, when combined with fiddle or pipes, marks the
music as unmistakeably Irish. The delicate gracings that are integral
to Irish music can best be performed on an unkeyed instrument such
as the whistle, and the resulting music calls to mind nothing so
much as a butterfly flitting from flower to flower – that is,
if you’re gifted with a vivid visual imagination, which no
musician is.
To prove my point, here is the true story of Tommy Peoples, the
legendary Irish fiddler, being interviewed on Radio Telefis Eireann.
After detailing all the wonderful images that Tommy’s playing
evoked in his mind’s eye – the green grass waving in the
sunshine, the birds in the hedgerows, the mist drifting over the
mountains – the enthusiastic interviewer asked Tommy if he,
too, saw such scenes as he played. “No,” replied Tommy.
“You don’t see rainbows on the Slieve Mish, you don’t
see streams running over stones, you don’t see the bothys and
cottages on the hillside?”
“No,” said Tommy.
“But what do you see then?” asked the perplexed interviewer.
“Nothin’,” said Tommy.
Irish Low Whistle
The low whistle (twice the size of the tin whistle and sounding
an octave lower) is simply a recent invention for whistle players
who want to sound like flute players without having to learn flute
embouchure. The low whistle, however, doesn’t sound like a
flute. It has a pleasant character all its own, very effective and
evocative in capable hands.
Ney
The ney is a simple tube of cane open at both ends, sounded by blowing
upon the rim of the tube. This is in contrast to the transverse
flute which is blocked at the top end, the sound being produced
by blowing across a hole in the wall of the instrument. The ney
is a very old instrument and is depicted in Egyptian tomb friezes
from as long ago as 3000 BC. Neys possess different hole arrangements
in different parts of the middle East, but are basically divided
into the Arab/Turkish type with seven holes and the Persian with
six. The Arab sound is made with the lips, and looks like someone
kissing or whistling. The Persian sound is made with the tongue
and teeth, and looks like someone trying to pick their front teeth
with a walking stick. In the upper register the instrument has a
sweet sound with gracings and sliding pitches, and it is this which
most effectively evokes the sumptuous magic of the Thousand and
One Nights – or a Cairo night club.
Kaval
The kaval is the Europeanized form of the ney. It is sounded in
the Arab way, having the same range of some two and a half octaves,
but with a complete chromatic scale in the upper register. In the
lowest octave a certain amount of cheating is needed to fill in
the missing semitones, since the hands of human beings are only
very rarely equipped with twelve fingers. When I was a child in
Kenya we had a gardener called Mwakamba who had six fingers on each
hand. The extra digit protruded from the base of his little finger
like a sort of growth; I don’t think he could have played kaval
with it.
African Flute
In most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa you can find some
form of basic flute. Central Africans tend to prefer fixed to sliding
pitches, so their flute style is fixed notes, with simple melodic
phrasing where rhythmic articulation is as important as melody.
I am not referring here to the South African penny whistle. Like
most South African black music penny whistle playing reveals a strong
white European influence. The sub-Saharan flute is purely African;
It takes you right out of the western frame of reference and far
away to the morning of the world.
Suling
The suling is a type of ducted flute played primarily in Java, Bali
and Sumatra. It is not usually heard on its own, but as part of
a gamelan tuned percussion ensemble. It does, however, possess a
beautifully delicate and sensitive sound, and a strange humid quality
in its lower register, like a rare tropical flower. The arrangement
of fingerholes varies on different instruments to correspond with
the two Indonesian pentatonic modes, pelog and slendro, the latter
of which is about as far removed from western equal-tempered tuning
as it is possible to be. To sound authentic you will want to use
the native tunings, but please don’t try to use them over any
kind of chord sequence, you will regret it.
Shakuhachi
The shakuhachi needs no introduction. Japanese technology ensured
the worldwide dissemination of that famous glottal-sounding shakuhachi
phrase early in the history of samplers. Now it has become such
a cliché that advertising agencies love using it for deodorant
commercials. Along with that (in)famous phrase, we give you a number
of authentic shakuhachi performances and scales in two Japanese
modes, performed by Britain’s top shakuhachi master Clive Bell.
Aymara Panpipes
The Aymara panpipe is played by Peruvian folk musicians, sometimes
in the Andes mountains but equally often, it seems, in Leicester
Square, London. Like the shakuhachi, the South American panpipe
needs no introduction, having been popularised decades ago in the
form of a Korg M1 patch from which many CD’s flowed, selling
in large numbers on garage forecourts. However, no ethnic wind sample
collection would be complete without a Peruvian panpipe multisample,
and so here it is with soft and loud attacks, played by Juan Mateo,
a genuine Aymara busker from Leicester Square.
Fujara
The Slovakian fujara is a five-and-a-half foot long contrabass whistle.
That is taller than the average Slovak. The pipe is doubled back
to half its height so you blow it in the middle at the back of the
instrument, holding it up in the air so that the top sticks up way
above your head while your hands span the three widely-separated
finger holes down by your knees. Tricky? Yes indeed, but the hardest
part is hitting the right note, because these are selected from
high upper partials and are extremely difficult to sound accurately
at will. If you can do it (Slovak mountain shepherds can, but they
have plenty of time to practise) the effort is well worthwhile.
The sound of the fujara is eerie, breathy and complex, with strange
mixtures of several different harmonics in each note, and a finger-vibrato
that alternates emphasis of partials, giving an intriguing warbling
effect. Enough description, listen to the samples!
Dudy
The Czech dudy is a central European bagpipe found in different
versions in Germany, Poland and Hungary. Its chanter (melody pipe)
is of a primitive single-reed type that occurs all over Europe,
from Wales to Russia. Cowhorn bells are used to amplify both drone
(continuous note pipe) and chanter. The skin is that of a long-haired
goat, hair side out, and the chanter stock is in the form of a carved
goat’s head, which, along with the bleating sound quality,
completes the impression any American tourist might have that the
guy is actually playing a live goat.
Gaida
The gaida is a bagpipe played in Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece.
As an instrument with a skilled tradition attached, it requires
a lot of practice (like the Highland pipes, preferably in a sound-proofed
room or somewhere far from human habitation.) The bag is made from
the uncut skin of a goat, with pipes inserted where the head and
forelegs used to go. The chanter sounds rather different from western
bagpipes, being sounded by a single reed, like a small clarinet
reed. It is played in a rather oriental style with frequent gracings
and sliding between notes. Gaidas come in several keys, usually
unrelated to western concert pitch. The highest pitched is around
D (highest note A, an octave and a sixth above middle C); this chanter
has a shrill sound like a demented wasp - the Greeks call it kounoupi
(mosquito). Normal pitch for a gaida is around B flat with a more
mellow sound; the lowest pitched is the Rhodope gaida with a keynote
of E or E flat.
Uilleann Pipes
The Irish Uilleann pipe is the world’s most insanely complicated
bagpipe, an instrument which could only have been invented by the
Irish. It looks like a crazy experiment in Victorian plumbing, but
its sound evokes worlds beyond the ordinary, and it is this which
has made the instrument so popular in recent years, much used on
film scores and pop albums. An added advantage is that the chanter
is (nominally at any rate) tuned to tempered pitch and has a two-octave
range, greater than that of any other bagpipe. Chanters are normally
in D major but are also made in C, B and B flat. These latter, flat
set chanters have quite a different timbre from the D, being narrower
in bore and quieter. Their sound has a woody or nutty quality as
compared to the brighter, more open sound of the D chanter.
“Uilleann” is Irish for elbow and refers to the action
of the elbow in pumping the bellows to keep the bag inflated –
hence the Irish expression “more power to your elbow”.
Playing technique makes use of subtle gracings, sliding notes and
finger vibrato, much as in Balkan and middle Eastern piping. The
Uilleann pipes must be played sitting down, and by closing the chanter
on the knee or lifting it off, effects can be produced such as staccato,
changes in the timbre of certain notes, or popping – a yelping
sound like a barking dog.
Scots Highland Pipes
The Scottish piob mhor (great pipe) is the world’s best known
bagpipe. Reactions to its wild, piercing sound range from love to
hate, with nothing in between. The fact that it is instantly associated
with Scotland does rather limit its use, but Highland pipers all
over the world (and there are many thousands of them) can usually
find employment on Hogmanay and Burns Night. (And once every 1000
years, they can charge $3000 to pipe in the Millennium.) It is a
little known fact that the highest population of Highland pipers
is concentrated in Australasia, the area of the world that includes
India, Indochina, the Indonesian archipelago, Japan and Australia.
That is why the annual World Highland Piping convention takes place
in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is in the middle. Highland piping technique
is the most demanding of any bagpipe, requiring the crisp execution
of multiple gracings at a speed which the untrained ear cannot detect.
To play these gracings satisfactorily requires many years of dedicated
effort. To get around this problem, a Japanese businessman has recently
invented a computerized robot chanter that does the gracings perfectly
by means of electrically-operated keys and an air pump. (This is
absolutely true, I read it in the Highland Pipers Quarterly.)
Medieval Bagpipes
The Praetorius bagpipe is of a late medieval German design. It is
named after Michael Praetorius, the 16th century German musicologist
who included a sketch of it in a book of instruments of the period.
The European middle ages (roughly 1000 to 1600 AD) were undoubtedly
the era of the bagpipe. Paintings, illustrations and church carvings
from the period abound with bagpipers. Contemporary attitudes, however,
were mixed. The apocalyptic artist Hieronymus Bosch saw bagpipes
as phallic symbols encouraging sexual licentiousness leading to
eternal torment in Hell. Supporting his view, gargoyles of bagpipers
appear alongside grotesque faces in medieval cathedrals. Breughel
the Elder made his famous paintings of Flemish villagers dancing
lasciviously to the music of bagpipes. Angels playing bagpipes,
however, also appear in medieval religious iconography, so the instrument
must have been thought heavenly to some people at least.
Tulum
The Turkish tulum is a bagpipe without a drone, but with a double
chanter made of two pieces of cane and a flared wooden bell. It
is similar in construction to the Greek tsabouna, a primitive bagpipe
whose music is among the most ancient in Europe, connecting directly
back to the double-pipe (avlokitos) of ancient Greece. (I didn't
include any tsabouna samples on this CD-ROM because it sounds practically
identical to the mezoued – see below.)
The tulum is in fact another ancient Greek instrument, played by
the original Greek inhabitants of Pontos in what is now northern
Turkey. Tulum music is played very fast with frequent gracings and
trills, making its melodies difficult for the western ear to detect.
(Well, impossible, to be honest.) Tulum players, unique among players
of primitive bagpipes, achieve polyphony by briefly fingering only
one of the parallel holes instead of both. In this way simultaneous
intervals from a second to a sixth can be sounded.
Mezoued
The mezoued or zuqqara is similar to the Greek island tsabouna in
construction, except that it has six fingerholes instead of five,
and these are slightly differently spaced, producing a different
scale. Otherwise, its sound is the same as that of the tsabouna.
It is found in North Africa and the Arab countries of the Levant.
Because of its status as revered folk instrument, it is not in the
same danger of extinction as the tsabouna – this could also
be because Arabs quite like the sound of it.
Zourna
The zourna, or oriental shawm, has a powerful and penetrating sound
useful for outdoor events such as weddings, dances and wars. In
former times, going back as far as ancient Egypt, it was exclusively
a military instrument. The medieval Turkish army used a combination
of zournas and drums to terrify their European enemies, much as
Scottish highlanders did with the piob mhor. In fact the sound of
the highland pipe is not dissimilar to that of the zourna. Nowadays
the zourna has lost its military connotation and suggests to the
Turk only joyful and unrestrained celebration, accompanied by yelling,
firing of rifles and scattering of women and children.
Shenai
The shenai is a double-reed shawm with a quieter and more oboe-like
voice than the zourna. Crescendo and diminuendo are an integral
part of Indian music. This, combined with sliding between pitches
(portamento), is what characterizes the Indian woodwind sound. Indian
wind music is also notable for its long sustains completely free
of vibrato, interspersed with active melismatic lines. The shenai
is difficult to play, and the only Indian shenai player in Europe
is – in my experience at least – extremely reluctant to
impart his knowledge. If he is typical, this would explain why few
exponents of shenai can be found outside India.
Zummara
The Egyptian zummara is a cane double pipe sounded by a pair of
single reeds. It is made in two sections with different widths of
cane fitted into each other. It is, like the ney and the zourna,
of very ancient provenance, depicted on the tomb friezes in the
Egyptian Valley of the Kings.
Askomandura
The Cretan askomandura is another version of the ancient Greek double
pipe, developed into a bagpipe (aski = bag, mandura = pipe). Askomandura
tunes are the basis of all the old Cretan dance tunes, although
the askomandura itself, like its cousin the tsabouna, is no longer
well-regarded locally and is heard as often in south-east England
(where I live) as in Crete nowadays. Traditional Cretan dance tunes
are remarkable for their liveliness, insistent rhythm and modular
complexity; all the more so when you consider that, like most folk
melodies of the eastern Mediterranean, they employ no more than
five or six notes. The genius of askomandura music is its intricacy
within such a limited pitch range.
Nafir
The Moroccan nafir is a long brass trumpet in three sections which
can be taken apart and put in your saddle bag while you are riding
across the desert. Should you come across some herdsmen you can
then assemble your instrument, frighten the life out of them with
a loud blast on the nafir and steal their camels.
Kudu Horn
The Kudu horn is an instrument favoured by the Masai nomads of East
Africa. It is a spiral-shaped antelope horn with a hole bored near
the pointed end, and played like a trumpet or a conch. The single
note has a pleasant French horn-like quality and makes a good pad
sound. The phrases are pretty wild and will work well on top of
African drums for sports show themes and other atavistic rituals.
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