Desert Winds

Essentials – March 2016

by A. Arsov

I’m not sure if it ever crossed your mind that you may need such specific instruments as are presented in this small boutique library, but those four ethno winds sound absolutely divine. Even if you are miles away from any ethno music production, those winds can give an extra dimension to your production. Just imagine some ambient, electro, Trop House or even classic pop ballad where all of a sudden appears some mystical, beautifully sounding instrument playing the line that would otherwise be played by a synthesizer or maybe even a guitar in the case of pop song.

Eduardo Tarilonte is an award-winning sample library developer, making many unique libraries covering all sorts of sounds. The whole library contains only four instruments along with some additional drones and various micro-tuned versions of the same instruments covering most of the Arabic and Turkish scales. This would be almost nothing to write home about if those American Duduk, Persian Ney, Turkish Ney and Zourna didn’t sound so good. All four instrument have a quite limited playable range, sometimes even smaller than two octaves, so you need to be careful making your wind line. Also an interesting thing is that all additional articulations, mostly some double notes, vibrato or even staccato with pitch bend, are programmed such that the articulation is active only when the key is pressed. I’m not big fan of this method, but in the case of those winds it even has some advantages, as you can really implement those changes on the fly during a performance. As this is not quite a new library, to say it politely, the whole graphical interface is a bit old school, but still containing all the controllers you need for adapting anything to your need. Included are buttons for Speed, Expression and Legato type for some of the instruments, for others Release knobs along with Reverb, EQ Color, Volume, Pan and Pitch that are presented in all four instruments.

Maybe all this doesn’t look much to you, maybe you have a large number of various wind instruments. But such a breathy one, with so much character, you could even say soul, is nearly impossible to find. So, that’s why this one is essential. It’s not for every taste, but it’s so unique that at least you should listen to the demo clips and decide for yourself.

ESSENTIAL for: those boutique old libraries offer a small quantity of divine sounding, breathy, exotic winds full of unique character, even if not for all occasions.

With each new release in this series I half expect creator Eduardo Tarilonte to run out of fresh ideas and not warrant our top five-star rating, but he's managed it again. Indeed, I suspect that many film, TV and game-scoring musicians will approve of the move from epic soundscapes to a smaller and more focused set of deeply sampled isntruments. along with a slightly lower price. All this, combined with scene-setting sopundscapes, adds up to a top-notch release!

Martin Walker, SoundOnSound

What I think:

No doubt this is a unique, specialized library. That's cool and all, but I have to say that the detail and realism of the sounds are out of this world. I've been a fan of Eduardo's libraries ever since he released 'Sampled Landscape' a few years ago. His work always speaks quality, of which I think Desert Winds is among his best. This library is heaven-sent for those of us who do not know how to play these wind instruments. I know it takes time to practice and get acclimated with an instrument, but with Desert Winds' you get convincing sound and amazing playability that you can incorporate into your own arrangements. Producers like you and me have finally found the missing piece that was once buried in the sands of time. Best Service and Eduardo Tarilonte deliver a sure winner here.

Ginno Legaspi

.. Bei Desert Winds denkt man unwilkürlich an Sandsturm und Palmenrascheln. Tatsächlich stellt diese Library orientalische Flöten, garniert mit Klanglandschaften, in den Fokus. Ein Orient Special für die Filmvertonung, Ambient und artverwandte Genres. ...

...Durch modernes Sample-Management sowie die Echtzeitsteuerung von Legatovarianten und Klangparametern gelingne schnell abwechslungsreiche und ausdrucksstarke Darbietungen. Zusammen mit den dramaturgisch mischbaren Klanglandschaften im Beipack hat man im Nu filmmusikreife Kompositionen erstellt.

Eduardo Tarilonte und Best Service ist es hervorragend geglückt, die Leidenschaft,mit der diese Bibliothek produziert wurde, spiel-, hör- und fühlbar zu machen. Mit seinen vier charaktervollen und äußerst realistisch spielbaren Blasinstrumenten sowie den inspirierenden und variabel einsetzbaren Klangwelten ist Desert Winds genau das richtige virtuelle Instrument, um Ihr Publikum in den Orient zu entführen.

Auszug

Desert Winds hat mich auf allen Ebenen überzeugt, ob Film & Werbemusiker, der es orientalisch braucht, oder als i-Tüpfelchen in der eigenen Ambient, sowie Türk Ethno Pop Produktion, macht das Plug-In seinen Job ausgezeichnet.

Wir leben in aufregenden Zeiten als Musiker & Produzenten, Eduardo Tarilonte´s Desert Winds sorgt dafür, dass es so bleibt.

Autor: Christian Peter Müller

 

Recording Testbericht DesertWinds

What’s the bottom line?

You already know I’m a fan of Eduardo, I love his libraries.

They bring something unique and different to the thousands of libraries out there.

The richness and tone of his samples is what I love the most…coupled with the fact that I can go in and edit the layers and parts in each soundscape/texture…pure dopeness!

I give this library 4.5 out of 5 subs, it’s really a unique and amazing sounding library with plenty of control to make it your own.

I always look forward to whatever he does next, and I’m hoping to see a product that is full of nothing but soundscapes and textures, as those are usually my favoirte part of his libraries.

They sound amazing.

SoundsAndGear review DesertWinds