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World
Winds
Keyboard Magazine
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Pros: Excellent idiomatic phrases. Very playable
and musical programs. Great pad programs.
Cons: So good, you want more.
Bottom Line: This is the ethnic wind instrument
collection to have.
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This is the first disc I've heard that recreates
a large number of ethnic wind instruments so musically. This set
represents the sound of many instruments from the private collection
of composer and multi-instrumentalist Dirk Campbell - a collection
which was sadly destroyed in a fire.
This CD-ROM covers end-blown and transverse flutes,
single and double reed instruments, bagpipes, and even a buzzed-lip
horn, representing a fairly even spread over the globe. Each instrument
has at least one menu program in which idiomatic phrases are mapped
to the lower octave of a 61-note keyboard, straight tones and bends
to the middle two octves, and more ornamented notes to the top two
octaves - this makes it easy to create melodies with a variety of
inflection. "The shenai programs, for example," said John
Krogh, "are set up brilliantly. Creating evocative and authentic-sounding
melodies isn't hard to pull off. It's highly playable across the
board."
Each instrument has from five to 24 phrases. Some
don't adhere to a particular meter, others do; the otherwise excellent
documentation doesn't divulge such details. But then, this setisn't
about looping, it's about creating melodies.
The instruments are all recorded well. "The
samples themselves are clean and present," noted John, "without
much of a sonic imprint from the mic pres. However, compared to
some more recently-recorded libraries, World Winds doesn't have
as much high-frequency detail. These samples are stunning nonetheless."
The idiomatic phrases are highly emotive and characteristic, and
I often wanted more. The straight and ornamented tracks offer a
fabulous amount of variety; with the Japanese shakuhachi, these
come in a wide variety of ornaments, trills, articulations, focussed
of breathy tone, and vibrato, all played up and down the range of
the instrument. Extremely cool and musical.
Each instrument also has pad programs that present
the basic samples with effects. Some of the pads sound like Joe
Zawinul programmed them himself; they have a human quality to the
tone, but with a playable consistency, and many use articulations
from the original samples. Very cool.
This is by far the best sampled presentation of
ethnic wind instruments I've ever found, a Key Buy in any language.
-Ernie Rideout
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