User:Frankie Kimso

VIRTUALIZING THE CHINESE SHENG

This is a Chinese free reed wind instrument that comprises 17 pipes of bamboo set in a small chest connected to a Mouthpiece (woodwind)through which air is blown. Each pipe has a free reed that vibrates to produce sound when any of the finger holes of the pipe is covered. The acoustic length of each pipe is determined by a slot that is at the back of the pipe. Other than the 17 pipe set and the traditional 13 and 14 pipe sets there are 21,24 and 36 pipe sets that are based on the Chromatic scale with all the 12 semitones. A lot of instruments have been created from the Sheng, an example being the Japanese Shō (instrument). These instruments have since survived from the Han dynasty.The Sheng plays melodies with fourth and fifth harmonies, for example, for G or G above C. A Sheng that was taken to Russia in the 1770s helped to develop the invention of European instruments that use free reeds. These include; the Pump organ, Harmonica, Concertina and the Accordion. Composers today have access to a lot of virtual instruments from a lot of different publishers. These instruments are very suitable and accommodate most of the musical styles. Depending on the sound quality and the instrument at hand, sampling is due to take up a lot of time. The following are three steps that are key in sampling the 'Sheng.'

Step 1: Planning and set up

Planning is a very important part of the process of Sampling (music). The best results require prior preparation. Every instrument has its own unique qualities that should be analyzed in order to make the sampling process simpler. To bring a sense of realism to the instrument, one should record one note with several levels of Velocity. The Timbre of a note changes depending on the speed at which air is blown into the mouthpiece of the Sheng. Two notes played soft or loud have very different timbres and Overtone. A pure virtual instrument has several levels of velocity per note and may, at times, have several different sounds played in a sequence or at random for the same velocity. This process, known as Round robins adds a lot of accuracy to the instrument.For the total number of samples to record, the formula below is of much use: number of notes x, number of velocity layers x number of round robins. The overall sound quality and betterment of the instruments depend on the number of samples taken. However, when the recording takes longer, the cleaning process and programming take longer, too.

Step 2: Recording the samples

In order to put everything into account, use a checklist to prevent  omissions that are uncalled for which could result in ineffective results. You have to look at each good take after you record it. At this stage, the choice of Microphone to use is very important. Each microphone type has a different sensitivity level and tonal characteristics attributed to their varying Diaphragm (acoustics).A small diaphragm condenser microphone is best suited for recording instruments. Dynamic microphones respond quite nicely to a reasonably loud and close sound source. Recording loud instruments like the Sheng with high Sound pressure level is one of its strengths. The Shure SM57 and the Shure SM58 are the top-pick microphones for recording samples from the instrument. One can also choose to use multiple microphones to have mixing capabilities inside the final virtual instruments. With  files, one can make either a Stereo XY or AB sound take. The approach I would take for Sheng sampling is, first, recording it in mono with a Shure SM58 microphone. I would then add a Contact microphone to be able to get some more mid frequencies of the instrument. In doing this, I would be able to adjust the two microphones in order to adjust the sound. The quality of the recording is extremely important, and the samples should have the best signal-to-noise ratio. When several notes are played all together at the same time in the samples, several samples are triggered, and their background noise is added. This is easy noticeable in the long sustains.

To get rid of all unwanted sounds like breathing, transformers, and fans. One could use a multi-track recorder and then proceed to record each sample, listening to the sustains of each note. Recording the samples is indeed the most important phase as it determines the sound of the virtual instrument Sheng.

Step 3: Editing

After completing the recording process, the samples must be cut, cleaned, and renamed. To edit the samples recorded, a Digital audio workstation is used. These include FL Studio, Steinberg Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Logic Pro and many more. The sample trims and cuts should be precise, being careful not to leave spaces at the start of each sample, as this will induce Latency (audio) in the final virtual instrument. One should be careful when fading out samples so as to avoid hearing clicks in the background noise. You should name each sample with the name of the note played on the instrument. A Sampler (musical instrument) can recognize the notes automatically. The notes are named in the American notation system: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. After samples are cut and named, software such as Izotopes RX is recommended to clean the samples by reducing background noises are removing interferences.

Step 4: Programming

This is the phase that brings the Sheng to life. Import all the sounds into a Sampler, for example, Kontakt (software) or Logic EXS20. The sampler detects the pitch according to the name of the note. You should check, using a MIDI keyboard, that the note played corresponds to the note that you are hearing. The next step is assigning each note a velocity range. The key range of each sample is adjusted by setting a high and low key on the keyboard. Between these two keys is the range in which the sample will be triggered, and within that range, the sample will be automatically pithed down or up based on how you play away from the root key. The MIDI keyboard velocity ranges from 0 to 127, with 127 being the loudest. Set the top and bottom velocity settings for every sample so that the softer dynamic samples are only triggered by lower velocities and the harder dynamic samples are only triggered by higher velocities.

Step 5: Fine-tuning

After all sounds are programmed, one can now begin testing the instrument, making adjustments such as volume and sample tuning. This brings uniformity to the overall sound produced by the virtual instrument. When fine-tuning, you should check for holes (no sample given for a note or velocity range), redundancies (several samples that are triggered when a single key is pressed), the correct distribution of velocity layers, and the uniformity of sound volume between the different notes (no notes too strong or too weak at equal velocity) in doing this, a chromatic sequence can be played because this variable is difficult to verify with a keyboard.

That detailed process is how the Chinese Sheng can be made into a virtual instrument for use in the studio and in various music styles. The process pays respect to the original sound of the instrument, maintaining its ethnicity.