Tuesday, March 26, 2013

"Asian DreamZ" - A small but useful Ethno VST!

Of cause, this absolutely free VST can not compete with the big ethno sample libraries, but it is free ;). The sound is more than ok, but the number of samples is rather small. Available are: Pipa (single shot and tremolo), Luan, Guzhen, Erhu and a complete set of asian percussion. You never heared about some or all of the instruments mentioned? Exactly this is the reason why this VST should not be missing in the VST collection of artists who use ethno sounds from time to time. There really is no abundance of free ethno VSTs, and if you are looking for sounds of rare and/or not very well known instrument, you find them, if at all, only in high priced commercial products.

The GUI of "Asian DreamZ" is, as expected quite spartanic. But you don't need more:
  • At the left you see a picture of the currently selected instrument. IMPORTANT: Many users do not know first, how to change the current instrument. You do this by clicking on the picture. It then switches to the next instrument.
  • In the middle you find the settings for a typical ADSR envelope. You can achieve some pretty interesting effects by using it, because the original instruments of cause have no envelope generator ;).
  • Also made for experimental fun is the filter section on the right. You can choose between a highpass and a lowpass filter and there are sliders for setting the cutoff and resonance values.
Quality: The samples are, in my opinion, high quality, but they sound rather flat without using external effects. I personally prefer such dry samples, because they bring less or no own reverb and cause less problems when putting own effects on them. On the other hand I heared about people who were scared away from "Asian DreamZ" because of the rather flat sound it presents to novice users. The builtin filter section is... well... usable. For simple experiments or LoFi oriented projects it is just right.

Conclusion:
  • rare and (to most) unknown instruments
  • high sample quality
  • flexibility because of the dry samples
  • absolutely low CPU and RAM load
  • easy and well structured GUI
  • stable and multi instance capable (FL Studio)

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