「Lost Soul」

—— Chinese Xiao Virtual Instruments

Xiao is a Chinese vertically-played, membrane-less wind instrument made of bamboo. With Xiao’s deep, low sound, it is traditionally presented in court or ritual music. In contemporary works, Xiao is commonly used in Chinese fantasy themes. Though pieces for the Xiao are usually slow and smooth, it is also good at presenting fierce emotions through airflow attacks and vibrato.

There are three primary variants of Xiao: Dongxiao is what we present in Lost Soul, and it is the most commonly used one; Nanxiao, with a deeper sound, appears widely in southern China; compared with the previous two, Qinxiao has a sweeter sound and is specifically used to accompany the Guqin (a plucked seven-string instrument).

Samples: 1868

Samples parameter: 44100 Hz / 24 bit

Sample size: 3GB

Adjustable Sound Field

When samples were recorded, 5 different microphones were used with different positions to capture the spatial and reverb characteristics of Xiao. All these channels were mixed down to four channels: Yin, Yang and far stereo. The volumes of these four channels were adjustable in software, making it possible to obtain the most various tones.

Performances

By controlling airflow and fingers, Xiao has a very rich set of performances such as attack, mordent, finger pole popping, trill, flutter, vibrato, staccato and gliss. All these performances can be triggered in Lost Soul software, making it the most adjustable Xiao virtual instrument.

Realistic Expressions

Lost Soul has real-recorded expressions that are freely controllable. With the control of MIDI CC, it can express tone changes like a real Xiao performance.

Gliss

With two different speeds of real-recorded gliss samples and sample synthesis technique, Lost Soul can perform gliss at freely adjustable speed.

Vibrato Engine

A self-developed, real-sample-based LFO engine makes Lost Soul perform vibrato that is both realistic and adjustable.

Abundant sound effects

We summarized and screened 8 techniques of the Xiao, including traditional performance techniques, film and television soundtracks, and special techniques commonly used in Chinese ancient-style songs, just to preserve the natural talent of the Xiao to the greatest extent.

Spectrum fusion legato technology

Real-recorded legato samples can enhance the realism of legato instruments, but the junction created by a naive cross-fade of two samples would induce phase-cancellation problems. In order to make legato more cohesive, we use our self-developed “spectrum fusion legato” technology. When necessary, frequency-domain fusion is used instead of time-domain cross-fade to create the transition between samples, which improves the smoothness of the connection.

Convolution reverb

At the beginning of the Chinese Traditional series development, we started to record the convolution reverb samples from spectacular places, famous natural and historical heritages in China. Thus you can simulate Lost Soul being played at the Great Wall or Terracotta Army site.

Effect Rack

From the Heavier7Strings’ effect rack: Compressor, EQ, Chorus and Ping-Pong delay are included, allowing you to create more flexible sounds.

Pattern Library

A complete pattern library, allowing you to capture your works and ideas easily, with a rich preset of patterns that can be updated in the future. And you can create your own patterns by dragging MIDI clips inside.