Ample China Guqin (ACGQ) provides a wide range of articulations across the Head, Body, and Special Effects Groups, with 12 GB of high-quality samples.

The Guqin is one of the oldest and most representative traditional Chinese plucked string instruments, with a history spanning several thousand years. Its seven strings stretch across a wide, fretless surface, forming a distinctive sound system through open strings, stopped notes, and harmonics. Its tone is ancient, deep, tranquil, and restrained. The Guqin is particularly expressive through subtle fretting and sliding techniques such as Yin, Nao, Chuo, and Zhu, creating rich and nuanced musical expression between individual notes and their lingering resonance. It is one of the most culturally symbolic instruments in traditional Chinese music.

All seven strings of the Guqin are fully sampled at their individual playing positions, rather than being sampled only by pitch. The tonal differences of the same pitch played on different strings and at different positions are faithfully preserved, allowing string positions, fingerings, slides, and other techniques to be reproduced with real samples.

• Performer: Ning Lu (China National Traditional Orchestra)
• Instrument: Shennong-style Guqin, crafted by Wang Peng of Juntianfang.

System Requirements:

• macOS: macOS 10.15 or later.
• Windows: Windows 7 through Windows 11, 64-bit.
• Plugin Formats: VST2, VST3, AU, and AAX, plus the standalone application (Rectangles VST3).
• Storage: 10 GB or more. An internal SSD is recommended, or an external SSD connected through a high-speed USB interface.
• CPU: Intel Core i5, AMD Ryzen 5, Apple Silicon M1, or higher.
• Activation: Activation through the free iLok License Manager software (no hardware dongle required), or with an iLok USB dongle.

Sampling:

• Head Group: Sustain, Natural Harmonic, Harmonic Slap, Short Tremolo, Slide In from Below, Slow Slide In from Below, and Slide In from Above. The Head Group is primarily designed for note attacks and ornaments.
• Body Group: Legato Slide Up, Legato Slide Down, Slide Up and Return, Slide Down and Return, Upward Vibrato, Downward Vibrato, and Virtual Legato Portamento. The Body Group articulations can be used both as note ornaments and as transitions between notes through articulation legato, allowing more varied phrase transitions.
• Supports Key settings, automatically adjusting the pitch and arrangement of the strings according to the selected key, using the nearest-string retuning method of the real instrument.
• Samples were recorded with 5 microphones, including two Outer, two Inner, and one Mid microphone, 4 microphone modes are provided for different tonal and spatial characteristics in the mix.
• Provides three playing modes: Instrument Mode, Keyboard Mode, and Open String Mode.

Riffer 4:

A MIDI editor tailored for plucked string instruments.

• Dual View Modes: Seamless real-time switching between Piano Roll and Tab views - a first of its kind, offering two perspectives for reviewing and editing the compositions.
• String Visualization System: Strings are now visualized within the Piano Roll, enabling MIDI writing that adheres to authentic plucked instrument techniques - automatically preventing polyphony on the same string and intelligently assigning fingering. The result is MIDI that sounds closer to real performance.
• Easy Articulation Editing: Easily edit fingerings, articulations, legato, expression changes, and other performance details, reducing the need for cumbersome Keyswitch and MIDI CC programming.
• MIDI CC and Velocity Editors:Display multiple MIDI CC curves simultaneously using different colors and opacity levels. Curve presets allow the corresponding CC curves to be generated instantly with a single click.
• Full MIDI Input and Output Compatibility:Whether importing external MIDI or exporting Riffer content to MIDI or instrument tracks in the host DAW, playback can remain fully consistent.
• Riffer 4 also provides a range of MIDI editing tools, including Quantize, Swing, Legato, and Monophonic processing.

FX:

• Built-in effects: 8-band EQ, Compressor, Delay, and Convolution Reverb.