Tear of Land

Chinese Xun Virtual Instrument

Tear of Land brings the haunting, ancient voice of the Chinese Xun into the modern production world. With over 7,000 years of history, the Xun is one of the oldest known Chinese wind instruments, traditionally crafted from pottery and known for its deep, hollow tone. Once used in ceremonial and court music, the Xun fell into obscurity but has since seen a revival, particularly in cinematic and historical compositions. Tear of Land captures the instrument’s unique emotional depth with incredible detail, blending its raw, earthy timbre with cutting-edge sampling techniques for an expressive and playable virtual instrument.

Crafted by Three-Body Technology, Tear of Land offers rich performance articulations like trills, vibrato, gliss, and flutter, alongside multiple legato styles specific to the Xun—such as “cry legato” and “popping legato.” With real recorded samples, a self-developed vibrato engine, and the innovative Spectrum Fusion Legato system, every nuance of this ancient instrument is preserved and enhanced. Adjustable mic positions, a curated effect rack, and an evocative convolution reverb system—captured in iconic Chinese locations—allow producers to place the Xun in both intimate and epic soundscapes.

Xun

A 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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

• Deeply sampled Chinese Xun with rich historical tone
• Multiple mic positions mixed into adjustable Yin, Yang & stereo channels
• Full range of articulations: trill, flutter, gliss, vibrato, mordent, staccato, and more
• Three legato types: regular, popping, and cry legato
• Self-developed vibrato engine with real-sample LFO control
• Spectrum Fusion Legato tech for seamless, natural transitions
• Realistic glissando with adjustable playback speed
• Custom convolution reverb from iconic Chinese landmarks
• Built-in effect rack: EQ, Compressor, Chorus, Ping-Pong Delay
• Pattern library with drag-and-drop MIDI workflow and updateable presets

System Requirements

• macOS 10.9+ / Windows 7+

Plugin Formats

• 64-bit VST2, VST3, AAX and Audio Unit.

Important note: Logic 9 is not supported