Chinese Xiao Virtual Instrument
Lost Soul is a deeply expressive virtual instrument capturing the haunting elegance of the Dongxiao, the most widely used form of the Chinese Xiao. Traditionally heard in ritual or court music, and now often featured in fantasy and cinematic works, the Xiao delivers a deep, breathy tone that evokes introspection and emotional depth. With its slow, flowing melodies and the ability to express intense passion through airflow-driven articulations and vibrato, Lost Soul offers a versatile palette for composers seeking authenticity and nuance.
Meticulously sampled using five microphone positions and powered by a custom-built engine, Lost Soul provides full control over tone, space, and expression. It features advanced legato transitions, real-sampled glissandi and vibrato, and dynamic performance controls. With its spectrum fusion legato technology, convolution reverb from historic Chinese landmarks, and a production-ready effects rack, Lost Soul stands as the most realistic and flexible Xiao instrument available for both traditional and modern music.
Xiao
A Xiao is a Chinese vertically-played membrane-less wind instrument made of the bamboo trunk. With Xiao's grave and lower sound, it is traditionally presented in aulic or ritual music. In contemporary works, Xiao is commonly used in Chinese-fantastic topics. Though the pieces of Xiao are usually slow and smooth, it is also good at presenting fierce emotions by airflow-attack and vibrato.
There are three primary variants of Xiao: Dongxiao is what we present in Lost Soul, which is the most commonly used one; Nanxiao, with a deeper sound, appears widely in southern China; compare with the previous two, Qinxiao has a sweeter sound and is specifically used in accompany with Guqin (a plucked 7-string instrument).
Adjustable Sound Field
When samples were recorded, 5 different microphones were used with different positions to capture the spatial and reverb characteristics of Xiao. 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, Xiao has a very rich set of performances such as attack, mordent, finger pole popping, trill, vibrato, staccato and gliss. All these performances can be triggered in Lost Soul software, making it most adjustable Xiao virtual instrument.
Realistic Expressions
Lost Soul has real-recorded expressions that are freely controllable. With the control of MIDI CC, it can express tone changes like a real Xiao performance.
Gliss
With two different speeds of real-recorded gliss samples and sample synthesis technique, Lost Soul can perform gliss at freely adjustable speed.
Self-developed Vibrato Engine
Real-sample-based LFO engine making Lost Soul 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
Three-Body Technology recorded the sound between legato notes in three speeds, and apply them according to playing speed in software. In addition, they recorded "regular legato", "popping legato" and "wuxia style legato" that are specific in Chinese Xiao.
Abundant sound effects
Three-Body Technology summarized and screened 8 techniques of Xiao, 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 Xiao to the greatest extent.
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, Three-Body Technology 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.
Convolution reverb
At the beginning of Chinese Traditional series development, Three-Body Technology started to record the convolution reverb samples from spectacular places, famous natural and historical heritages in China. Thus you can simulate Lost Soul 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 manage 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.
Features
- Authentic Dongxiao virtual instrument with rich, deep tone
- 5-mic adjustable sound field with Yin, Yang, and far stereo control
- Real-sampled glissandi and advanced vibrato engine
- Spectrum fusion legato with regular, popping, and wuxia-style transitions
- Includes 8 expressive Xiao techniques from traditional to cinematic
- Built-in effect rack: compressor, EQ, chorus, ping-pong delay
- Convolution reverb recorded at famous Chinese historical sites
- Pattern library with MIDI drag-and-drop and custom creation
- Presets spanning traditional, fantasy, and experimental styles
System Requirements
- macOS 10.9+ / Windows 7+
Plugin Formats
- 64-bit VST2, VST3, AAX and Audio Unit.
Important note: Logic 9 is not supported
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