Ample Sound has launched Ample China Xun (ACX), a virtual instrument and standalone application based on the Chinese Xun. The instrument uses sampled recordings of a nine-hole Zhuhong Jinlong Series Xun, performed by Xiaokui Ding of the China National Traditional Orchestra.
The Xun is an ancient Chinese wind instrument with a history dating back more than 7,000 years. Ample China Xun is designed to reproduce its deep and resonant tonal character through a sampled instrument library comprising 4.5 GB of audio content.
The main sampled instrument is a Xun in C, supplemented by a Xun in G for the lower register and an additional Xun for extending the upper range. Samples were recorded using five microphone positions: Front, Mid, Rear, and a stereo pair of distant microphones. ACX provides three microphone modes intended to offer different tonal and spatial options within a mix.
Individual samples average around eight seconds in length, allowing sustained notes to be played without looping in many cases. A looping option is also available for longer sustained passages.
Ample China Xun organises its performance articulations into Head, Body, and Special Effects groups. The Head Group is intended primarily for note attacks and ornaments, and includes nine articulations:
- Sustain
- Tonguing
- Grace Up and Grace Down
- Arpeggio Up and Arpeggio Down
- Mordent, Pre-Trill, and Impulse
The Body Group contains 13 articulations that can be used as ornaments or as transitions between notes through articulation legato. These include Sforzando, Espressivo, several vibrato variations, mid-note trills, slides, slide turns, slide-out articulations, and repeated-note legato.
ACX also includes an Intelligent Legato System, which determines the appropriate legato transition according to the timing between adjacent MIDI notes. Its legato samples offer up to five velocity layers to accommodate different performance dynamics.
The release introduces Riffer 4 for the instrument. Developed around the monophonic and legato performance behaviour of wind instruments, Riffer 4 is designed to prevent polyphonic passages that would not correspond to a single wind-instrument performance. It provides tools for editing fingering, articulations, legato, expression changes, and other performance details without requiring all adjustments to be made through keyswitches and MIDI Continuous Controller data.
Riffer 4 can generate Expression and Vibrato curves after a phrase has been created. According to Ample Sound, the system considers note duration, articulation, and musical context when determining whether expression data should be applied. Short Tonguing notes and articulations with their own pronounced dynamic changes, such as Sforzando, are excluded from additional Expression curves.
The editor can display multiple MIDI CC curves at once, using separate colours and opacity levels. Curve presets can generate corresponding MIDI CC data, while additional MIDI tools include Quantize, Swing, Legato, and Monophonic processing. Riffer 4 supports MIDI import and export, with content transferable between the Riffer environment, instrument tracks, and compatible host DAWs.
For processing within the instrument, ACX includes an eight-band EQ, compressor, delay, and convolution reverb.
Alongside the ACX release, Ample Sound has updated its existing Chinese instrument range to Ample China 4, adding Riffer 4 functionality. The Ample China 4 update is available free of charge to existing users.
Ample China Xun (ACX) is priced at $119 and is available for $89 through October 25. Ample Sound’s Chinese instrument range is also available at 25% off through October 25, while the ten-plugin Ample China Bundle is discounted by 44% during the same period.
Find out more about Ample Sound and set deal alerts.
What do you think?
We’d love to hear your thoughts about this news. Please leave a message in the comments section below.
