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World
Traveler
Producer’s Notes:
Introduction:
Having instruments from all over the world available in one place
is powerful for use in many different styles of music. World Traveler
contains mostly playable multisampled instruments as opposed to
riffs and phrases. This gives the user a tremendous amount of flexibility
to make his or her music with the ethnic flavor of a diverse group
of stringed, wind and percussion instruments. You’ll find
sounds that come from Finland, Latin America, Africa, France, Germany,
Italy, Greece, Spain, Japan, India, China, Switzerland, Hungary,
Armenia, Russia, Australia and more, all on this disc! Besides using
these instruments to reproduce traditional ethnic music from various
regions around the globe, there are many eclectic uses for these
sounds in modern pop and TV/film scoring applications. Artists such
as Peter Gabriel, Bjork and others have incorporated exotic percussion,
wind and stringed instruments into their modern pop and film score
arrangements and have achieved a unique sound as a result. It’s
our hope that people will use this library in many interesting ways
to add a depth of character to their recordings and to bring the
sound of instruments from all over the world to the ears of others
no matter where they are!
Many of these instruments were a discovery for me. (Perhaps I still
haven’t discovered the correct spelling of some of them too!
There are many opinions on this subject!). I was fortunate in 1993
to tour on Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival (World of Music
Art & Dance) playing keyboards with world class Indian “Double
Violinist”, L. Shankar (sorry we don’t have samples
of his custom made 10 string double necked electric violin…
a fascinating instrument). On this tour I was able to see bands
from all over the world perform on a variety of interesting wind,
percussion and stringed instruments. I spent a lot of my time researching
these instruments to find out what to capture for a diverse sample
library such as World Traveler. I was even able to buy some exotic
African percussion instruments from the “Drummers of Burundi”
and others that had brought instruments to sell at the fair. In
each city I would meet musicians and sometimes set up sample sessions
to capture as many exotic tones as I could.
Like my sampling craze for vintage instruments over the years I
have also collected a massive archive of ethnic instrument samples
for release on this and future sound libraries. In addition, I asked
long-time friend, Klaus-Peter Rausch over in Germany to capture
some exotic instruments around his area of the globe to make this
collection even more diverse and powerful. The World Traveler sample
library contains samples of rare and unusual instruments that we
hope you will enjoy.
Have fun!
-Dave Kerzner
Producer, World Traveler
Sonic Reality
Tips and Commentary:
This collection features a great selection of stringed, wind and
percussion instruments. The Spanish Nylon is an absolute blast to
play “Flamenco Style” runs on. We recorded local guitarist,
Chris Schmidt, on a rather expensive custom nylon guitar (that we
almost didn’t want to give back!). The Bouzouki is another
favorite of mine that was recorded in LA with our scary multi-instrumentalist,
Gene Siegel. The Greek Bouzouki is like a large baritone mandolin.
I am fond of this instrument also because it was used on the intro
to a song called “Last Plane Out” by a band called Toy
Matinee (a group of musicians I used to play with).
The Hurdy Gurdy is one of my favorite instruments mainly because
it is so bizarre. It is a stringed instrument where you crank a
wheel that has rosin on it and bows strings that are pitched by
keys you can play with your other hand. It is a fascinating instrument
and one that dates back many centuries of folk music from France,
Hungary and other places around Europe. The one we sampled belongs
now to Mike Campbell (guitarist for Tom Petty, so if you hear a
Hurdy Gurdy on their records chances are it’s the same one).
It was a basic model from Lark in the Morning. I am personally on
a mission to find a more deluxe Hurdy Gurdy for my personal ethnic
instrument collection. We will of course sample that too (for the
upcoming Interactive Hurdy Gurdy library… just kidding).
Some of the multi-struck tremolo instruments are quite fun to play
such as the Ukulele, Mandolin and Hammered Dulcimers. If you get
good at the programs that switch velocity layers between a straight
tone and the tremolo you can convince most people into thinking
it’s the real deal. Also, adding in the elements of harmonics
and/or drones with the Sitar+Tambura and several other programs
can be quite enjoyable.
The Zither is an antique I picked up for my personal collection.
It is from the 1800’s and is made of Rosewood. So many of
these instruments from around the world have such a beautiful design.
The Finnish Kantele is another beautiful instrument. The one sampled
for this library was borrowed from guitarist, Lyle Workman. I am
particularly fond of the slightly out-tuned velocity-switched pitch
bends on the attacks. This sound reminds me of early Pat Metheney
records which had a very moody vibe.
The reed keyboards are an ethnic music staple and there is a nice
cross section of them here in this library. We have an Italian Accordion,
Squeeze Box, Indian Harmonium, Bandoneon and a full sized Noble
Harmonium to choose from. The flutes and recorders are another particular
favorite. Friend and associate producer, Klaus-Peter Rausch from
Germany, recorded some of the recorders and flutes. He is also responsible
for sampling the very cool Alp Horn from Switzerland. This is the
giant sized horn seen in those Swiss mountain-set cough drop commercials.
You may notice that some instruments are familiar to you just by
their sound even if you’ve never seen one in person. Try playing
“Stairway to Heaven” on the GS Recorder for a smile.
The Duduk is a double reed instrument from Armenia and you’ll
find its breathy part flute/part oboe quality makes it an expressive,
powerful instrument. The Australian Didgeridoo, which was also recorded
by Klaus-Peter, is quite a trip. There are plenty of drone variations
to choose from at long natural durations.
The percussion section can be used to build up some serious rhythms.
The two sections of African percussion can keep one busy playing
for hours in a trance. Try just banging on multiple keys at once
in a chosen rhythm and it can easily sound like an ensemble of tribal
percussionists! Some of the instruments such as the Djembe and Shika
are deep and expressive which will lend a nice dynamic to musical
styles ranging from world music to rock to dance to soundtracks
and more. The Indian percussion section gives you the definitive
sounds of Tablas and Clay Pots. Combine that with a Sitar performance
and you’ll sound like you are in the heart of Bombay. The
Latin percussion section is filled with standard percussion instruments
used in many styles of music. Congas, Bongos, Shakers, Cow bell,
Timbales, Guiro, Cuica, Triangle and more are mapped to the GM standard
with multiple velocity layers to give you an easy to use yet expressive
selection. Overdub some Mariachi Bass, Spanish Guitars, Spanish-style
Trumpets and you can get most people to dance immediately.
We hope you enjoy this collection of choice musical instruments
from around the world. We’re looking forward to bringing more
ethnic instruments into sample form in the future so keep your eye
out for the next one from Sonic Reality. Cheers!
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