「World in Gourd」

—— Chinese Hulusi Virtual Instruments

Hulusi is a clarinet-like instrument in southern China, and it is especially favored by Dai, Yi, and Miao ethnic minorities. It has a bamboo wind tube and gourd resonance chamber, with two auxiliary wind tubes that play two fixed notes for harmonics. Due to the mellifluous and lovely sound of Hulusi, it is massively used to express romantic relationships and as accompaniment for lyrical dance.

Samples: 1829

Samples parameter: 44100 Hz / 24 bit

Sample size: 1.1GB

Adjustable Sound Field

When samples were recorded, 5 different microphones were used with different positions to capture the spatial and reverb characteristics of Hulusi. 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, Hulusi has a very rich set of performances such as mordent, finger pole popping, trill, flutter, vibrato, staccato and gliss. All these performances can be triggered in World in Gourd software, making it the most adjustable Hulusi virtual instrument.

Realistic Expressions

World in Gourd has real-recorded expressions that are freely controllable. With the control of MIDI CC, it can express tone changes like a real Hulusi performance.

Gliss

With three different speeds of real-recorded gliss samples and sample synthesis technique, World in Gourd can perform gliss at freely adjustable speed.

Vibrato Engine

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

Tune

Users can switch between bass, alto or treble Hulusi to have different tuning, where alto Hulusi sounds from the original samples.

Harmony

Sounds from the two harmony tubes were recorded into triggerable samples.

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 World in Gourd 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.