Tear of Land

[Tear of Land].

——Chinese Xun Virtual Instruments.

Xun is a wind instrument with deep vacant sound. It has a history of about seven thousand years. The earliest unearthed items can be widely found in many archaeological sites, such as the Hemudu site, the Zhaobaogou relics, and the Banpo site of Yangshao relics. Xun usually has an egg- or pear-shaped body made of pottery, with one blowing hole on top and multiple finger holes along one side. Xun is a component of aulic and ritual bands in Ancient time. However, its use has been discontinued due to the turmoil in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In the 1980s, Xun playing was revived by archaeologists and artists, and nowadays, it is commonly used in historical topics with murky or falling scenarios.

Samples: 1152.

Samples parameter: 44100 Hz / 24-bit.

Sample size: 2GB:

• Adjustable Sound Field.

When samples were recorded, 5 different microphones were used with different positions to capture the spatial and reverb characteristics of Xun. 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 most various tone:

• Performances.

By controlling airflow and finger, Xun 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 Tear of Land software, making it most adjustable Xun virtual instrument:

• Realistic Expressions.

Tear of Land has real-recorded expressions that are freely controllable. With the control of MIDI CC, it can express tone changes like a real Xun performance:

• Gliss.

With two different speeds of real-recorded gliss samples and sample synthesis technique, Tear of Land can perform gliss at freely adjustable speed:

• Self-developed Vibrato Engine.

Real-sample-based LFO engine making Tear of Land performs vibrato that is both realistic and adjustable:

• Sampling Engine.

Self-developed sampling engine with better sound quality, more powerful disk buffer streaming/sampling compression technology, and brand-new sound fusion technology:

• Legato.

We recorded the sound between legato notes in three speeds, and apply them according to playing speed in software. In addition, we recorded "regular legato", "popping legato" and "cry legato" that are specific in Chinese Xun:

• Self-developed spectrum fusion legato technology.

Real-recorded legato samples can enhance the realism of legato instruments, but the conjugate part by naive cross-fade algorithm of two samples would induce phase-cancellation problems. In order to better cohesive legato performance, we developed the "spectrum fusion legato" technology. When necessary, frequency domain fusion is used instead of time domain cross-fade to create transition part between samples, which improves the smoothness of the connection:

• Abundant sound effects.

We summarized and screened 8 techniques of Xun, 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 Xun to the greatest extent:

• Convolution reverb.

At the beginning of 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 Tear of Land 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 to create more flexible sounds:

• Pattern Library.

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