Crudebyte has introduced Oriental Strings – a sound module app for oriental keyboard players and for musicians who simply want access to ‘middle eastern’ sounds.
32 Sounds are included with this App:
- Chinese Erhu 1 – 3
- Chinese Erhu Trill
- Turkish Strings 1 –
- Arabian Strings 1 – 3
- Tremolo Strings 1 – 5
- Spiccato Strings
- Oriental Spiccato Strings
- Oriental String Quartet 1 – 3
- Oriental Staccato Strings
- Arabian Solo Strings 1 – 3
- String Quartet
- Oriental String Ensemble 1 – 5
- Slow Oriental Strings
General Features:
- Scale tuning editor, which allows you to adjust the standard well-tempered scale to all kinds of oriental scales (save and restore them as presets at any time).
- Low latency disk streaming.
- Polyphony up to 140 stereo voices.²
- Configurable audio latency down to 5 ms.
- Integrated effects with 18 presets.
- 16 parts.
- MIDI velocity response curve editor to fine tune the feeling of your MIDI keyboard.
- App can keep running in the background, so you can play on your keyboard while e.g. using Safari or another app to display scores or surfing the Internet
- Supports Apple’s “IAA” system for audio & MIDI streaming between other apps (iOS 7 or higher).
- Supports “JACK Audio Connection Kit” for audio & MIDI streaming between other apps (up to iOS 6.1.3).
- Virtual on-screen piano keyboard with velocity support, scalable & scrollable.
MIDI Player / Recorder:
- Record, save and load your songs in standard MIDI file format.
- Unlimited amount of tracks.
- Configurable target MIDI channel per track.
- Unlimited recording and playback length.
- Open MIDI (.mid) files directly from other apps (i.e. from Safari, Mail).
- Download or upload MIDI files with iTunes.
- Load your favorite songs as MIDI files from the Internet, and watch at the virtual keyboard how to play it.
- Metronome.
- Use the “Tempo Zoom” dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time and learn your favorite songs more easily.
There is not an official demo at the developer’s site at this point. Here is an unofficial demo, via thesoundtestroom:
Oriental Strings is available for US $54.99 in the App Store.
See the Crudebyte site for additional info and audio demos.
Still sounds like a reed organ.
Sounds pretty cool. But to be honest, the way to really get that sound is to use their intonation. It’s a deep reason why the difference between Arabic/Chinese/Western ensembles are so obvious even when they are all primarily based on violin. I’m glad to see stuff like this getting examined though.
It supports non-western timings.
54$? They are really proud of these sounds. 20$ maybe. 54$ is pretty damn pricy.
I’m certain that you MEANT to say Asian keyboard players.
Actually, no. The common term for referring to turkish,etc music is “oriental”. This is the common, socially acceptable term in eastern europe. You will find “oriental keyboards” made by Korg and others which feature sounds and tunings from Turkey, Greece, Syria, Iraq, etc. In the USA the term “oriental” often has a different, outdated connotation. But this is not the case in other places in the world.
Not the preferred nomenclature.
I do all this in thumbjam 😉