Indonesia the Magic
Indonesia the Magic
Publisher - Discovery Sound
Contact - overseas@discoveryfirm.com
Web - www.discoverysound.com
Discovery Sound’s ethnic sample sets are always a treat and this CD-ROM of Indonesian stringed, wind and percussion instruments, with a few vocals thrown in, is no exception. Think of Bali or Java, in musical terms, and the distinctive sound of the gamelan orchestra inevitably springs to mind. Comprised of bronze metallophones, flutes and drums, these exotic ensembles have been skilfully captured by world music producer Makoto Kubota, in both solo instrument and ensemble forms.
But there is more to Indonesian music than gamelan. Jegog ensembles consist mainly of bamboo instruments and they, too, have been recorded in multi-sample format.
The tabla is called a gedang in Indonesia and a generous selection of short patterns and one-shot examples can be found in the percussion section. However, the real rhythmic gems, a set of intriguing jungle-like chants, are located in the Indonesian voice percussion folder.
Only one stringed instrument, the rubab, is presented here, which is a shame because it produces a rather beautiful, if plaintive sound. The suling, a bamboo flute, fares better with dozens of short melodic passages, in five different keys.
As usual, on Discovery Sound’s ethnic sets there are male and female solo vocal performances plus a reading, this time spoken by a young woman.
It all adds up to a classy sample set, meticulously recorded (completely dry) and obviously well planned from the outset. Supported formats include Acid WAV (645 files), Battery (2 programs), Kontakt (8 programs), Mach Five (8 programs) and Rex 2 (276 files).
Verdict – If you need authentic Indonesian samples for either a music or multi-media production you’re bound to find something suitable among these top-quality Gamelan, vocal and instrumental sets.
