Review: Plectra Series 5 Guzheng by Impact Soundworks

The Plectra Series Guzheng is a detailed and intimate recreation of this Chinese namesake instrument offering extended techniques that give it even more life.

Jump to the Videos of Plectra Series 5 Guzheng by Impact Soundworks

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Plectra Series 5 Guzheng sells for $59 from Impact Soundworks

Review: Plectra Series 5 Guzheng by Impact Soundworks

The fifth installment of Impact Soundworks’ Plectra Series is a detailed recreation of the traditional Chinese Guzheng, a plucked string instrument typically tuned to the pentatonic scale. There is a lot of technique to capture in a Guzheng, including vibrato, pitch bends, various types of picks and bowing; This deep-sampled library does an excellent job of capturing these details and presenting them to the user in a flexible way, thanks to ISW’s Total Articulation Control Technology. While the interface can be a bit intimidating to look at, the raw recordings are beautifully done, making this Guzheng a delight to play after a bit of tweaking.

Plectra Series 5 Guzheng sells for $59 from Impact Soundworks

Thoughts

Ghuzeng’s interface uses the wide format, which isn’t my favorite, as it seems to have quite a bit of empty space on each panel. But the controls are laid out in a fairly intuitive way, presenting your most important options up front. The articulations are clearly listed along with their “rules” from the TACT system. To the right are some basic playing settings, including the scale lock feature, which enables and disables certain notes to restrict you to a scale of your choice. Vibrato and pitch bend are also tweakable in this area. The bottom zone has envelope controls specific to each articulation, as well as an adjustable velocity curve graph.

This is where you can mix each of the three mic positions, including adding FX chains to the individual mics. By default, the “close top” and “room” mics are active, with a convolution reverb on the master, and an EQ and Stereo imager on the close mic. If you’re feeling lucky, you can click the dice in the upper FX control area to randomize the parameters.

These are the guts of the TACT engine. There are 3 pages of articulations. Each slot can be customized with different “rules” to trigger its assigned technique. Out of the box, everything is keyswitch based, but you can use rules such as velocity splits, CC ranges, key ranges, and pedal state to create your own articulation setup. All of the bend articulations are assigned to E-2, and the different recorded bends will trigger if you are on that keyswitch AND if you have the pitch wheel up or down (try holding the pitch bend wheel down or up BEFORE pressing your note key). It was confusing at first, but it’s a fairly elegant way to save keyswitch space for those various recorded bends.

I will freely admit, I’ve never heard a Guzheng played in person. But based on some live recordings I listened to while studying this instrument, I’d say this library does a good job of recreating the raw sound. It would certainly take some work programming in the details to create a convincing performance due to how common pitch bends and vibrato swells seem to be in traditional Guzheng playing. But the tools to get those details are certainly included in this library if you’re willing to put in the time to get the most out of them.

I wasn’t that pleased with the sound when I first played with this instrument, which I found out was due to the default mic mix. When you load up Guzheng for the first time, it has a sort of muddy convolution reverb enabled, as well as the room mic turned on. I think this instrument sounds its best with only the “close top” mic enabled and the reverb turned off. I’m a sucker for a detailed and intimate plucked strings sound, and the capability is definitely here, just hidden behind some washy room sounds.

As for the extended techniques, I’m pretty fond of the bowing. If you tweak the dynamics and play swells (CC11 by default), they can sound really gritty and raw in the low range. The bowings aren’t particularly agile or playable, but they would make a great addition to textural and atmospheric beds.

The Plectra Series Guzheng does have what it takes to get build a convincing performance: excellent recordings, captured details and techniques, and plenty of interface control. If you’re willing to dig into this library, I think you’ll find it to be of great value.

Facts

The Plectra Series Guzheng is a deep sampled traditional Chinese Guzheng, including standard and extended techniques, all performed by Qianqian Jin. Between 3 mic positions, 4 dynamic layers, 3 round robins, and 18 articulations, this library features 14,580 recordings, weighing in at 10 GB of disk space installed. The articulations are managed by ISW’s TACT (Total Articulation Control Technology) system.

Guzheng requires the full retail version of Kontakt 5.7 or higher

Plectra Series 5 Guzheng sells for $59 from Impact Soundworks

Demos of Plectra Series 5 Guzheng by Impact Soundworks

Videos of Plectra Series 5 Guzheng by Impact Soundworks

Contributor Steven McDonald reviews Plectra Series 5 Guzheng by Impact Soundworks
“The Plectra Series Guzheng is a detailed and intimate recreation of this Chinese namesake instrument offering extended techniques that give it even more life.”