ChineeGuQin Released!

[sosayweall]

Kong Audio proudly presents the latest addition to the Chinee Series line: ChineeGuQin.

1.ChineeGuQin: Superior Man's Zither
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The Vivacious Vessel of Harmony
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GuQin is similar to GuZheng, but since GuQin does not have bridges, it is far more versatile in terms of tones and playing techniques, it is also much harder to master.

GuQin has a special place in the Chinese history as a symbol of the high-culture of the nobles and intellectuals (Junzi, Superior Man). It's also seen as the vessel for pursuing harmony. Even Confucius played and taught GuQin. During the last two tumultuous centuries of China, however, GuQin's tradition was almost extinct. Nowadays the Chinese have resumed the tradition and are trying to revive it.


About ChineeGuQin
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With true knowledge of the Chinese instrument, Kong Audio planned GuQin from the ground up. By intertwining the detailed sampling and the tailored Intelligent Legato mode, GuQin is brought back to life in its authenticity. As can be heard from the audio demo, ChineeGuQin captures not only the sound, but also the "silence" (string-sliding), and this "silence" is an integral part to GuQin music.

Also new is the real-time subset browser which greatly helps the user to see which subset is active in the current patch according to the incoming notes.

Audio Demo

The price of ChineeGuQin is 60 USD.

For more info & video demo:
http://www.chineekong.com/chineeguqin.htm

All existing customers should have already received the email notification which contains a time-limited (till Jan 12th, 2010) special deep discount. Contact us if you haven't received your discount offer yet.

[Sweep1]

This is a general comment on your instrument recreations. I may have missed the point, but I thought I'd comment anyway in case what I say is useful to you.

I checked out the demos on your website and downloaded the free Erhu and Xaio. The samples sound excellent and I really liked what I could probably do with these sounds.

I seriously considered buying one or two of the instruments, but I hesitated because of what I'd get for the price. It looks to me as though the prices reflect the cost of designing the VST software to run each instrument as well as the cost of making the samples? I don't need that and I'd be paying for something I wouldn't use. All I need is the sample sets to play from a keyboard, adding the ornamentation (pitch bends, trills and so on) myself as needed.

That could be done from the programs you sell, I think? But it looked to me as if the intention was to pre-program everything. One of your demos, in fact, showed a grid of pre-programmed sounds, and presumably the bends and so on were achieved by slotting in the appropriate sample. What I need, as a musician, is something I can play, live and responsively.

With that in mind I decided not to buy any of your instruments but to find my own samples from elsewhere or make them myself. If it had been possible to buy basic soundsets at a lower price instead of paying extra for stuff I don't need, I'd probably have done that and played them from my own sampling instruments.

I thought I should pass this on as you've missed a sale and these comments may be helpful.

[sosayweall]

Hi Sweep1,

Our products are presented as VST instruments, instead of pure sample packs. This is a business decision, so until we change our business plan completely, that's pretty much the way it is. In other words, if you want to use our samples, you will have to use our VST plugin in order to access them. It's not very likely we will open up to other formats in the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

While I agree the fact that our plugins are hardwired with pre-designed presets which might make some users to feel being restricted, we see ourselves selling the "design" just as much as the samples. We believe what really separates us far from any other competitors in the market is, at the very least, partially in the patch design and arrangement department.

It's true, as you noted from our audio demo, that it's inevitable for us to accommodate the music to the samples/phrases/articulations, so yes, the live playability is less than a dream come true. But then the same can be said to most, if not all, of the sample-based instruments. OTOH, we do strive to expand the versatilities of our plugins, as shown in our innovative design in ChineeGuanZi and ChineeGuQin.

Thank you again for speaking up your mind nonetheless. We always listen to all kinds of suggestions and will take them into account for future plans. We will also always try to improve the fundamental aspects of our products, that part you can count on it.

[Sweep1]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your views on this.

Your instruments really do sound excellent, and I may decide to buy one or two of them and adapt them to my own use at some point, unless I find a different way to work with these sounds.

Good luck with your business, anyway. It's good that you're making more people aware of instruments and kinds of music that they may not have heard otherwise.