ISO Chinese Orchestral Ensemble Samples [found]

[dix]

Are there any Chinese orchestral libraries out there? The internet isn't coughing up any. There's lots of single instrument libraries, but no big orchestra samples with multiple players as seen here for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFAu54G_Ys

Thx!

[kgdrum]

http://www.chineekong.com/productsmain.html


pricey,their own engine,I think windows only but it received a nice review from SOS.

[dix]

Thanks. Still looks like single instruments though. I'm looking for ensembles.

[bayswater]

Thanks. Still looks like single instruments though. I'm looking for ensembles.

I spent ages looking for good Chinese samples a few years ago, and didn't find much with ensembles. Magic and Big Fish claim to have percussion ensembles. Silk Road from East West has a "30 piece string section".

[dix]

Yes, but the 30pc strings in Silk are from the Persian part of the library, made for those lazy legato string lines in middle-eastern music. Layering that with a few erhu patches almost gets me there, but it's not really right.

Pretty weird that in the vast sample-library universe no one has yet thought to create a Chinese orchestral library. They will one day I'm sure. The Chinese aren't going away anytime soon.

[David Polich]

I think you're looking for recordings of Chinese orchestral phrases.

There are Chinese orchestral arrangements…that is a different thing. The strings in a Chinese orchestra instrument are the same as they are in any other orchestra….contrabasses, cellos, violas, violins. A violin is a violin, it doesn't know whether it's "Chinese" or "European".

It's all a matter of arranging and composing in a "Chinese" style. And you could do that with any orchestral library, plus a few specific sampled Chinese instruments.

[dix]

Thanks David, but I definitely want ensembles, not phrases.

There's are Chinese orchestras made up of just traditional instruments out there, and then others still that use both western and eastern. In the link I posted, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFAu54G_Ys) you'll see sections made up of traditional Chinese orchestral instruments - looks like there's 6-8 erhus, several pipas and so forth. It sounds completely different than a european orchestra.

[mhschmieder]

Yes, the Windows-only product listed above is still the standard, and they do have an ensemble version for a full Chinese Orchestra. I doubt they'll ever port it to the Mac.

I am quite fond of the two Chinese windows offered by Ilya Efimov, which are on sale until New Year's. I bought them during the Black Friday sale, having pegged them in AUG/SEP for a current project and just biding my time. They include the Bawu and the Hulusi.

Percussion is easy to find; too many libraries to list.

Strings are also not so hard -- especially lately, with many new players on the market.

Somebody just did a standalone Er Hu library, but I forget who it was. I only have Er Hu as part of larger sets from Quantum leap's RA and Silk (I cannot recommend either product), MOTU Ethno (much more usable), and Ethno World (an excellent product now that it is on its fifth version, and an invaluable source of instruments across the world while waiting for higher-quality dedicated libraries).

The ENGINE stuff from Best Service is excellent as well, but doesn't yet broadly cover east Asian stuff. Better for Middle Eastern and Indian Subcontinent for now. Yellow River Sound Peking Opera Percussion is quite good though.

I have a Master List of sound sources that I have compiled over the years; though I delete duds from it once something good comes along (by duds, I mean stuff that doesn't even work anymore or is of the level of something you'd find in a 90's/00's hardware ROMpler). List some specific instruments you're looking for and I'll cross-reference my Master List.

[dix]

List some specific instruments you're looking for and I'll cross-reference my Master List.

Thank you! I think I'd be happy and able to get by with just erhu and pipa/liuquin ensembles. The dulcimer things, flute and percussion are pretty well covered in libraries I have.

Yes, there is a lot of thoughtfully done, incredibly detailed, well recorded singles of erhu, pipa and other Chinese instruments out there, but, as I say no ensembles that I've been able to find. - I couldn't find the ensembles in the Kong Audio link, but no matter.The Windows thing is a deal breaker.

Any further help or links are appreciated.

Thanks again.

[mhschmieder]

MOTU Ethno has Liu Qi, Pipa and Er Hu.

Quantum Leap Silk has Pipa and Er Hu.

Quantum Leap Ra has Er Hu (very low resolution).

Ethno World has Er Hu.

Here is the link for the Chinee Orchestra from Kong Audio:

http://www.chineekong.com/chineeorchestra.html

Indeed, it is Windows only. All of their products sound lovely from the demos, but I don't hold out hope they'll ever be available on OS X.

Soundiron has a primarily loop-based Er Hu library that sounds cbloody awful to me:

http://soundiron.com/products/street-erhu

I like some of their percussion and choral stuff, but when they get to stringed instruments and wind instruments, their stuff sounds ignorant of folk traditions to me and specifically designed to add "flavor" to bombastic Hollywood productions.

Sound Magic is another vendor that has a small offering of products that cover some soloed Chinese instruments (Er Hu, Pipa, and Bawu), and they look and sound lovely as well:

http://www.supremepiano.com/product/chinaimp.html

Their stuff is available for OS X, fortunately. I've had them pegged for purchase in case I don't find my current libraries sufficient once I get around to using them. Right now I've mostly been using Ilya Efimov's Bawu and Hulusi as I'm doing more wind work than string work at the moment.

Finally, Embertone also has a nice Er Hu library (in fact, it might be the best currently):

http://embertone.com/instruments/changerhu.php

[dix]

Thanks for your input, but I guess I'm not making myself clear. These libraries include all the various instruments in a traditional Chinese orchestra ensemble, but each instrument is played individually. I'm looking for something like CineStrings or Hollywod Strings, with multiple players all playing the same note, except with Erhus etc instead of violins etc, like in the video above.

It's a really cool and emotive sound when there's a group of players performing. I wouldn't think it would be any more complicated to sample than a conventional string section, but maybe the demand is not there.

Thanks again!

[mhschmieder]

I am well aware of that. Did you not see my link to the Chinee Orchestra? I mentioned it in my first post, abstractly, then more specifically in the post above, once I had a chance to find the product definition page and remember its full name.

Other people are reading this thread, so the individual instruments are useful to discuss as well -- especially as there are some products that people can load into Kontakt as "shells" and then load individual instruments to come as close as they can to an ensemble sound given the current limitations for OS X users (since Chinee appears to be the only ensemble-based product and is Windows-only).

[dix]

Did you not see my link to the Chinee Orchestra? I mentioned it in my first post, abstractly, then more specifically in the post above,

Yes, I poked around the Chinee Orchestra link for a while before I posted. It's all singles from what I could find. ...ensembles may be in there somewhere. The site isn't too well laid out. But again, it's moot since I don't have a Windows machine.

Thanks again mhschmieder for your time and input. It's appreciated.

[mhschmieder]

Oh, sorry, I had read a review of Chinee Orchestra and the reviewer said otherwise, but it wasn't the best-written review so they were probably on the lazy side.

Maybe VSL will address this soon. I'm only half-kidding, but I do doubt they would because the market is probably fairly local overall and thus the volume sales would't justify it. Still, they have surprised us before with unexpected extensions to the standard European Orchestra.

[dix]

Finally, Embertone also has a nice Er Hu library (in fact, it might be the best currently):

http://embertone.com/instruments/changerhu.php

[In case anyone else ever needs this info] Turns out this DOES have an ensemble mode after all. It's not a sampled section, but a scripted ensemble. It essentially plays 7 samples at a time. Somewhat resource intensive, but very flexible and exactly the sound I was looking for. Thanks for the reco! ...though it took me a few months to take you up on it.