sflib directory worldstring

(chordophones from "world" and non-Western cultures)

This directory consists primarily of sets of multisampled plucked tones covering the complete range of various near Eastern, Chinese and eastern European chordophone instruments, along with some miscellaneous chordal and percussive sounds produced on these instruments.

(1) Multisampled collections

• pipa and liuqin : Classical Chinese plucked string instruments; the pipa has a somewhat lower pitch range and brighter timbre

  pipa : 10 samples: 3 "normal plucks" (a2 through ef3; 2 soft plucks (a2 and c3 and 4 harmonics (.h , e4 through fs5)
  liuqin : 36 samples : normal plucks (g3 throughj g6, soft plucks (g3 through g6 and several harmonic plcuks (.h

• erhu violin : a small Chinese plectrum violin; 9 samples with various articulations on the pitches bf3 and f4
  
• kantele : a 5 stringed Russian and Finnish folk instrument; 8 soundfiles, pitched between f4 and f6
  
• mandtruxa : a timbrally bright Irish Mandolin Truxa folk instrument; 7 samples, pitched between e3 and g5
  
• saz : a 7 stringed Turkish instrument with a timbre is similar to that of a Greek bouzuki; the 12 samples include 7 "normal" plucks pitched between a2 and a4 and 5 timbrally "bright" plucks pitched between a2 and a4
• Zithers:
  zith1 : short, "dry" tones; 10 multisamples, pitched c3 through e6
  zith2 : longer, timbrally brighter, buzzier and more reverberant tones; 8 multisamples, pitched g3 through b5

• Rumanian Zimbalon (zimb):
  17 multisamples, pitched c2 through e6
  4 short, "dry," pizzicato-like damped tone multisamples (zimb.dmp), pitched b3 through e5)
  2 Zimbalon chords: zimb.Bdim (B dimished triad) & zimb.Cmaj (C major triad), and the tanbura chord tanbura.Efmaj (E flat major triad)

• halam (a small kalabass, somewhat like a 5-string guitar):
  5 multisamples, pitched ds3 through gs4
  

(2) Chords

• Flamenco Guitar:
  Arpeggiated chords:
  F# dominant 7th chord : flamguit.chord.Fs7.1 flamguit.chord.Fs7.2
  B minor triad: flamguit.chord.Bmin.1 through flamguit.chord.Bmin.4
  

  Chordal "grooves":
  flamguit.groove.1 flamguit.groove.2 (E minor chord) flamguit.groove.3 (chord progression: A minor/G maj/ F maj/ E7) flamguit.groove.4 flamguit.groove.5, flamguit.groove.6 and flamguit.groove.7

• halam : an F# Major triad (halam.Fsmaj) and an octave diad fs3/fs4 (halam.fs.oct)

(3) Percussive knocks

Technically these are idiophonic sounds. The body of the guitar or halam is struck with the fingertips or knuckles. However, for convenience (grouping all of the flamenco guitar and halam sounds together within a single directory), and because these playing techniques are most characteristic of non-Western musical cultures, we have included them within this worldstring directory.

• guitar knocks, individual hits: guit.knock.1 guit.knock.2 guit.knock.3
  
• guitar knock "grooves": guit.knock.groove.1 guit.knock.groove.2
  
• halam knocks 5 samples; "drier" and higher pitched than the guitar knocks: halam.knock.1 through halam.knock.5

Last updated Dec. 15, 2001 by A.S.