The story
After hearing the soundtrack to the Mandalorian, I found out that Ludwig Goransson uses a Bass Recorder in it and I was like “Cool! How much do those cost?” — because they’re pretty nifty and amazing– they usually cost minimum 99 USD (and reviews were bad) to 3000+ USD and I thought… “Nah, I’m not going to play it professionally, I just like the sound! I need something cheaper So… why not make one myself ?”
Quick Youtube tutorial search and I found Blue Bear flutes explaining how to make a decent 5 hole bass flute for under 20 USD! I then used PVC pipe and the tools at my workplace to create this flute. There was a broken wooden pig toy that my children didn’t play with anymore lying at the house, so I glued it on top for a dramatic effect. Though the flute is a little airy, I was overall quite happy with the result.
I then realised that it would be lovely if others could also have access to this flute and when I joined the Pianobook community, I realised that this was the perfect group to show these kinds of things to. I recorded 3 dynamic layers for the Long Notes and later also added Short notes with single dynamic layer. I feel it can find uses both as a solo instrument or as a pad in the background of a mix.
So, without further ado– a truly unique, hand-made bass flute now available in Decent Sampler format for you guys to use. I hope you like it.
An Introduction to the Pig Flute
Interface
Reviews for The Pig Flute
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Mysterious sound
I am always keeping an eye out for sounds that can add a feeling of "mystery" to tracks that I am working on, especially for game music. This is a flute that really fits the bill, it really does not sound like anything else. The ADSR controls are a bit tricky to move, other than that it is fine.
One breathy piggy
I've always wanted to build my own family of PVC flutes, and I think this is giving me the drive to finally do so. I'm a big fan of the airiness of this instrument. The samples themselves are a little noisy, but it gets blended in really well with just a touch of reverb. I love the blend of the 2 articulations, as well as full ADSR control. It's really easy to dial in an almost synth choir sound out of this.
Only gripes are the sliders for ADSR are hard to actually manipulate, and it is very hot on default. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things though
Nothing to snort at!
An extremely breathy flute sound which makes an excellent pad. The combination of dry longs and shorts can give a kind of 'steam-powered factory' sound, while tweaking of the ADSR/tone/fx can yield sounds reminiscent of calm waves at the seaside. It probably won't give you any beautiful flute solos, but definitely has some interesting pad sounds hidden in the trough.
User advised to heed Alex's warning about volume, I find it sits well at around -10db.
A deep, breathy wind!
This wind instrument has a deep and intimate sound, with a very breathy texture to it, and features 2 articulations at once, short and long. You can blend these however you want, which is great, since adding some shorts on top of the longs creates a very powerful attack. This lets the user become very creative when ti comes to programming. The inclusion of full ADSR settings makes it even more open and customizable.
While there is some noise in the samples, you will likely not notice it due to the breathy nature of the insturment. If I had to complain about something, it would be the GUI not having the elements aligned properly, and the ADSR controls and labels being too small.
As a final note, I'd suggest to bring the overall instrument volume a little down, because it is very loud by default, to the point that it can easily clip.
Pig Pipes
I like the mix of the long and shorts notes. With a bit of messing and a dollop of reverb and chorus you get a breathy staccato with a massive tail. The ADSR faders are maybe a little small but other wise its great.
