Sho, the fourth release in the Virtuoso Japanese Series, is now available as a software instrument in Kontakt format.
The sho is free reed musical instrument and one of the three primary woodwind instruments used in gagaku court orchestra music. Consisting of 17 slender bamboo pipes, it is sometimes said to resemble a resting phoenix because of its shape. In antiquity, the sho’s fluid tonal character was associated with light shining down from the heavens.
Main Features:
Peerless recordings of the impeccable sound and technique of famed sho performer Ko Ishikawa
Single tones of all 15 pipes* and 11 chords sampled separately in every articulation, making the library applicable to all musical styles from gagaku to contemporary music
A detailed analysis of sho playing techniques led to an instrument model that allows playing any combination of the sho’s distinctive tone clusters (chords) and single tones
Two key modes, including a traditional fingering mode that replicates actual sho fingering with one key per pipe
Pipe Indicator lets the performer see the pipe arrangement of the sho and monitor the current pipes being played
Comes with traditional sho Pythagorean tuning, equal temperament tuning, and fully customizable tunings, for seamless coverage of both classical and contemporary scale tones
Unique Key Trigger Connection function lets the performer move through a colorful assortment of articulations without ever interrupting the sound
Expression control adjusts tone color naturally and continuously without gradations
Ensemble selector simulates gagaku ensemble performances with up to three performers
The library’s lively yet subtle sounds sampled in full 24 bit 96 kHz fidelity (the library itself contains 24 bit 44.1 kHz samples)
Create your own mixes with the multi-microphone samples and a dedicated mixer with individual controls for Direct, Overhead, Room, and Stereo Mix
Although the sho has 17 pipes, only 15 pipes actually produce sound
Articulation List
Chord Tone articulations
Straight (exhaled tone)
Straight (inhaled tone)
Flutter (exhaled tone)
Flutter (inhaled tone)
Sforzando
Crescendo
Tremolo Slow (exhaled tone)
Tremolo Slow (inhaled tone)
Tremolo Fast (exhaled tone)
Tremolo Fast (inhaled tone)
Single Tone articulations
Straight (exhaled tone)
Straight (inhaled tone)
Flutter (exhaled tone)
Flutter (inhaled tone)
Sforzando
Slide-Up
Audio Mixer
Samples were recorded in three stereo microphone positions - Direct, Overhead, and Room - plus a Stereo Mix. Full mixing control is available, with individual Volume, Stereo Width, Pan, Reverb Send, and EQ adjustments for each channel. Sho also comes with a quality convolution reverb for excellent in-instrument sound creation. The parallel output bus sends the microphone channels to individual DAW tracks for finer mixing sessions.
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