Quilcom – SIM-SHENG

SIM-SHENG

size 24 MB / 19 MB

SIM-SHENG is a plugin designed to simulate this ancient class of Chinese mouth organs.

A sheng (pronounced “shung”) is an ancient Chinese wind instrument which has existed in many forms for at least 3000 years. Sound is generated by air blown or sucked into the wind chest at the base and is directed across a set of free reeds which are mounted in pipes, usually made from Bamboo. The vibration of a reed (one per pipe) interacts with the vibrating air column in its pipe to produce a harmonically rich tone. The pitch is determined by the natural frequency of the reed in combination with the effective length of the pipe.

The pitch is enabled by a finger covering a hole at the base of the pipe (to get resonance started) but on some complex modern shengs keys are used to make for easier fingering of a wider and chromatic range.

A sheng’s polyphony is determined by the number of reed pipes present and many different numbers of pipes and tuning configurations have existed and are still produced. Also the materials used and the design have an influence on the timbres produced.