Enigma Sadeness, the flute sound: going deeper

[juno987654321]

At 1:30 onwards there is an interesting flute sound in this song by Enigma. It's called "Sadeness" and it used to be a chart breaker for a long time:



I found out that the sound may be BASED on the E-mu II sample "hakuhachi".
Here is the sampled sound for note d. This sample can be found online:

https://sndup.net/3znh


Now I'd like to find out more about this sound and go deeper.
2 questions concern the (post-) production techniques of the sample.
1 question concerns the playing technique of the original Japanese flute.

If you compare the E-mu II sample and the sounds in the original song, you'll notice that the ONSET (or the beginning part) of the sound is still somewhat different.
1. Hence my first question if anybody knows a different sampled version (in sf2 format?)
in which the onset of the sound is more similar to what we can hear in Enigma's song.
2. If such an alternative sample does not exist OR if we suppose that post processing was involved as well my 2nd question would ensue:
How do you think they (then obviously) processed the sample for the song
and change it?

3. A third thing I'd like to find out about this sample is about something only musicians would be able to answer: how the flute was played when it was actually sampled in the beginning.
You can hear that the sound changes in the middle and that it seems like a further (grace) note is shortly added in the middle of the sound. This must be due to some playing technique on the flute. If anybody knows how to play such a flute so that exactly the sampled sound would result please let me know more about this. My guess is that this is some kind of a grace note in between but I am not sure. It might as well be something completely different.
We have a pentatonic flute here and it is possible to add half notes, even better than on a recorder. I think the added note is indeed a half note above or below the notes of the scale: it's a g sharp which is a semitone below a perfect fifth from d. f and g are part of the scale I think.
How would you actually play this flute to achieve the effect you can hear in the middle of the sound?

Write down your ideas and comments below if you think you know something of value about this that serves the purpose of education in music.
Thank you!

[jancivil]

"How do you think they (then obviously) processed the sample for the song"
it sounds to me like cutting into the attack of the sample, ie., the characteristic of the blast in the embouchere is messed with.
by shortening the duration of the attack basically, or cutting off some of it. it's inconsistent and random-like, unstable sounding.
I got effects similar to that using a sample-based patch in Equator, a bansuri-derived patch but describing why it works that way is beyond me, it was accidental. not exactly the same thing either. it had to do with velocity keying things in the patch which are DSP, filters etc.
it's not effects or DSP creating that odd behavior in this though, I do not think. it's a pretty clean sample of the shakuhachi, although probably not a very deep multisample kind of thing, but something quite older like in a rompler.

[juno987654321]

Thanks for the first reply. Appreciate it!
Yes, it sounds less like the real Japanese flute that way and more synth-like but the artists have made it fit better into their song I think. The original sample would sound a bit clumsy if there was this long onset/attack time on each note, especially on the shorter notes in the song, so I think this had been a deliberate decision they made at some point. Flute sounds naturally have some relatively long attack time until the sound starts to get more stable...

[jancivil]

well, this kind of flute can have a quite aggressive attack moving a lot of air, and some of that 'spit' is in there in this, but they have subverted it and made that kind of more of a synth patch. I'm highly confident it's cutting into the attack portion of the envelope.

grand flute, ie., the usual C flute can also enjoy a quite immediate attack, it's just not usually percussive. Listen to a rock flutist or a jazz flutist, Jethro Tull or something.

the patch I know from Equator is the best of both worlds, deeply sampled but very elastic with a lot of sound design potential in DSP.

[juno987654321]

So who else knows something about this?
Any people who can play flutes?
What would the (grace) notes look like and how would you play it to make the exact same sample live?