In this video David Guzmán S. (DΛVNOIS) Show us a composing session of his song “Andean Shadows” using only VST instruments from South America from the virtual instrument collection from “South America Series”.
Hello, I am David Guzman, and today we are going to explore a composition session in which I used only virtual instruments from Tribe Instruments.
This song was composed for the “South America Series” Bundle Trailer, and it’s called “Andean Shadows.”
The first thing we are going to do is listen to it, and then I’ll show you how each of the instruments was created.
The first instrument we notice is a Pinkullo, also known as a pinkillo, which is part of “South America Winds.” This is a very sharp wind instrument from the Andean region, specifically from Bolivia. What I wanted with this instrument is to achieve a very bright and dynamic sound at the beginning of the song, so I used the Pad XY and the preset “Growing Pinkullo.” The performance with the Pad XY adds a lot more movement and dynamics to this sound.
In the introduction, I also needed something that would add some mystery and dissonance. For this, I used several instruments. On one hand, I blended a Cuatro and a Charango and, along with the arpeggiator, created a sound that resembles dissonant crystals. On the other hand, I used this preset of the Colombian Gaita to create a kind of drone and start with a mysterious atmosphere. Finally, I used the Marimba de Chonta to gradually introduce the melody of the song, and the sound of the “Chonta Ghost” preset seemed perfect.
However, a significant part of the melody and the hook of the song lies in the strings. To start, I used the Cirrampla, which is a very ancient and unique instrument from the Colombian and Venezuelan plains, to add anticipation and repetition to this section of the song.
The main instrument could be said to be the Ronroco since it has most of the melodic content, but I wanted to accompany it with a slightly more “Celestial” sound, and this Cuatro Llanero preset fit perfectly.
To accompany the chorus of the song, I used something like strumming on Cuatro and Charango, taking advantage of the “Mute” sound these instruments have in “South America Strings” to achieve something like this: (Sounds something).
Finally, to add depth without the need for an electric bass, I used the Bandola Llanera. In fact, I used this “Bass Bandola” preset. I also used the Bandola for this reverse effect, simply using the “Magic Bandola” preset and changing the Playing Style to “Reverse” in the “Playing Options” section.
For the rhythmic part of the song, I used “Andean Percussion,” which has a wide variety of seed sounds and instruments like Bombo Legüero, Redoblante Andino, and even a cymbal with a super “magical” effect.
As you can see, I’m using the instrument in Multioutput mode to have external control of each of the instruments within Logic.
A very useful feature of Tribe Drums is that you can load the same instrument into different samplers and process them differently. For example, here I have the Bombo on Channel 1 and on Channel 8. In Channel 1, I have control over the low frequencies, and in Channel 8, I have control over the Cascara or Wood.
Finally, let’s review the other vst wind instruments, such as the Quena, which I used primarily for effects and arrangements throughout the chorus, like this: (Sounds something). It’s important to note that I’m not using any processing; in fact, all the effects like delay and reverbs are within the Tribe Player.
I used this Zampoña Malta to create movement within the stereo spectrum, so I used this “Pad” from Malta and automated the instrument’s panning.
Finally, I used another Zampoña to accompany the melody of the strings and highlight the “Andean” touch of the song.
As we can see, we can create a wide variety of sounds with this collection of instruments and use all this musical and cultural richness of South America in our music.
Thank you very much for staying to watch this video. If you want to see more about our instruments, please subscribe to our channel and visit our website at tribeinstruments.com.