[Shell review] East Asia instrument; it's awesome!

Hi gang!

So.. what do Electric Sunburst deluxe and East Asia have in common? Well... both got released on a Monday while I was away from my home studio, I insta-bought both on that same Monday and when I got to play around I was very much excited!

Honestly you guys? Native Instruments outdid themselves if you ask me.



About the spotlight series

If you weren't aware the spotlight collection is a group of Kontakt instruments which provide sampled sounds from existing instruments all over the world. From classic West African drums such as the Djembe and Calabash to specific Indian instruments like the Sitar and Tanpura. Oh, and there are bongos, cajon's, kanun's, ney's and a Zurna too.

But this is about East Asia...

I'm a huge fan of Asian based sounds...

Soniccouture's Guhzeng on Ableton Live​

The Soniccouture Guhzeng was one of the very first "external" instruments I bought. Little did I know back then about sample packs and sample instruments, let alone the Kontakt player. But I felt very strongly about all this. Enough to own this particular instrument twice:

Soniccouture's Guhzeng within Kontakt​

I bought the "Komplete Elements 7" kit not much later and quickly grew a liking to Kore's Sitar instrument. That was something else... and this is also how I got into contact with the whole spotlight collection because the India instrument (briefly shown in the first screenshot) was actually the offcial replacement for that Kore pack ("KORE SOUNDPACK North India"), at least from my understanding. I quickly discovered that Kontakt (the player back then) was something special and thus I also eventually got the Guhzeng again, but this time for Kontakt.

East Asia

So... it's not uncommon for the Spotlight collection to provide a seperation between melodic instruments and percussion. Of course this instrument takes it one step further and divides the whole lot into the countries they originate from, this can be seen in the first screenshot. Yet as if that's not enough we also get 4 ensemble presets: a general East Asia preset and one for each represented country (China, Japan and Korea).

But what makes this instrument stand out for me is that it provides a nice balance between automated patterns as well as the option to play things on your own. Do note that this is a commonly provided behavior amongst the spotlight collection:



Here I am playing a Buk (as shown) but I highlighted the key I'm actually pressing. Notice the key(s) to the right of that one which are also pressed? That wasn't me, it's the pattern that is playing here. Of course I can also focus on the cyan and purple presets and play individual sounds instead.

But how do we know if this is really real?

Seriously... With all due respect to NI but.. does them selling this make it real? How can we be sure that they didn't make any of this up? Yah, sure, there's Wikipedia and all but... reading!

Well.... so about that....

(edit): Notice how the camera focus doesn't change from 0:30 for several minutes? Like, whoah! (notice the running people near the sides?)​

Here is a (official!) YouTube video from the legendary Psy, you may remember him from the Gangnam Style song, here is my all time favorite live performance of that one and the reason why I gained a heavy amount of respect for Psy: this performance is long after his song went viral and he had heavily cashed in by performing almost everywhere all over the world. And then you get this: on a 'random' streetcorner in Korea you suddenly get this stuff. Free for everyone to join. Notice the traffic jam slowly but definitely happening?

But this story is about "Korea", another absolute masterpiece in my humble opinion.

So how do we know this new Kontakt instrument is legit? Well....

• 0:35 The link between Electric Sunburst and East Asia becomes official!
• 1:40 You might recognize those drums.
• 2:05 You might recognize several instruments. (yes, not only from this Kontakt instrument, but... you know what I mean).
• (edit: You'll also start noticing people running near the sides because this video is mostly a one-shot).
• 2:22 Another one, the flute in the background.

Just making sure we can agree that I'm not just making things up here....​

• And of course... 3:12. How dare NI give us this instrument without a flower pattern!

If you're into Asian instruments....

I'm going to be blunt: then this is a must have. In my humble opinion of course... but man... A wide diversity of several instruments and instrument types (wind, string (plucked / bowed), percussion) from 3 major influencing countries: China, Japan and Korea (in alphabetical order). And speaking of Korea, I think I (ok, ok.. Psy! ) managed to validate this instrument big time.

Can fit Maschine like a glove!
(disclaimer: within context!)



Just saying... you do know Maschine has a Japanese styled grid setting, right?



As I mentioned this does not apply to all the melodic instruments, you could get huge gaps because of this setting. But... there are also a few instruments which fit like a glove, and you can get some really solid sounds out of the whole thing.

In conclusion

What are you waiting for?

Seriously.. once again I consider this a must have instrument if you're into Asian styled sounds. Either use the pre-made patterns to play or use the individual sounds and cook up something of your own. Even the individual sounds often come with a variation of effects which seriouslty allows you to make up your own performance while still making sure that things sound legitimate enough.

This has quickly become one of my Kontakt favorites and I cannot wait until my gf gets interested enough to check it out (she's currently enjoying Elite Dangerous and I'm about to join her).

But this is a steal! Also.... if you happen to own the Yangqin instrument (once sold seperately) you're entitled to a nice upgrade discount.

What can I say... I'm a fan!

 

Hi,
I totally agree with you. However I don't have budget to upgrade yet because I just spent a lot on Komplete Ultimate 13.
I use all I have in Discovery Series to make a 3 minutes song "I Surrender All".

Here's the YouTube link, I hope you like it:

 

Thanks for sharing your thought ShelLuser - always a great read

Why "Shell Vent" thought? Maybe my english is playing me tricks but I thought I was about to read a negative thread when seeing this note before the title.

 

Yeah it does have a negative connotation if you use "vent". Now if you used "infodump", would probably be a lot more accurate!

 

Right
ShelLuser we need to find you another catchy tag

 

Well, the whole 'vent' doesn't have to be negative you know. "Venting" is basically to express your thoughts/feelings about something and the emphasis is on strong feelings. Those can indeed be negative, and I agree that most people who start to vent are outing a lot of negative comments. But for me... yah, it works both ways:

(taken from the free dictionary).

The reason why I started using it is because when I start posts like the above I don't have a plan, no idea how it'll turn out, nothing. The only thing I do know is the subject I'm about to address. As such... a vent

But you guys make a good point as well of course. It's absolutely true that most people approach this in a more negative way, and we can't have that here. So... "Shell review" it is!

 

There we go!
We're almost bringing blogging to the forum, like it a lot haha

 

Hi, ShelLuser and all.
So, the title was "Shell Vent" before, right?
Plus and minus always go together.
On the plus side, "Shell Vent" must have attracted more readers, hahaha!!
As for me, I'll more willingly accept your final decision to change the title to "Shell Review" ^^

It's very tempting to get this instrument because of this great review,
but I just upgraded my M+ selection to Komplete 13 UCE very very recently (you know when ^^), and
I didn't have time listening to even a 1,000th maybe a 10,000th of the huge collection.
I guess it'll take more than a month to just scratch the surface...

Actually, I bought UCE for all those extra Maschine Expansions for my M+ in the first place, but
other interesting sounds (esp. Kontakt instruments) are drawing me towards the computer more and more.
(I bought M+ to stay away from PC or Mac)
I'm going to try and learn to play all the Kontakt instruments I already have, first, and then, spend money on new ones.
This is my determination to restrain the temptation~~~ for now at least...

By the way, ShelLuser, you were the culprit to make me buy the 9 expansions exactly like your list, the other day ^^

Again, a 5-star review!!

 

First, +1 for more Shell Vents. “Review” isn’t click baity enough nor does it capture the OP’s passion . This was an enjoyable read indeed.


I’m late to the show but I totally agree. This Spotlight is great. NI Sound Team has been absolutely crushing it lately !



Let me just add that the Mk3 touchstrip, special pad layouts and scales are your friend for these instruments. JAM extra saucy especially if you have it on a mixer stand turnt sideways like your boy here !