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Oriental Strings app for iPhone and iPad


4.4 ( 2944 ratings )
Music
Developer: Christian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte
7.99 USD
Current version: 2.3.1, last update: 1 year ago
First release : 17 Dec 2014
App size: 1.87 Gb

Oriental Strings is a professional sound module app for oriental keyboard players and for musicians who simply want to resemble the typical sound of the Orient and Middle East in their songs. Connect an external MIDI keyboard to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch by using Bluetooth MIDI or by using the Apple USB camera adapter or another adapter supported by Apple, or launch Oriental Strings as virtual instrument directly within your favourite DAW app on your iOS device!¹

Watch and listen to the demo video on our product website!

This app supports "Audio Unit", "Audiobus" and Apples "Inter-App Audio" System for audio & MIDI connections from/to other audio apps, as well as Bluetooth LE MIDI !

The sounds of Oriental Strings were exclusively recorded with players who are professionally dedicated to oriental style of music. Typical string instrument sounds for the Arabian genre are covered by this app. Besides rather exotic instruments like the Chinese erhu, typical western string instruments were used as well, but since the players of the recording sessions are focused on oriental music, those western instruments sound completely different than you might be used to from western orchestra players.

The sounds of this app were once again created by Kurt Ader, winner of the NAMM 2015 "Best Sound Designer of the Year" award.

32 Sounds are included with this App:
• Chinese Erhu 1 - 3
• Chinese Erhu Trill
• Turkish Strings 1 - 4
• Arabian Strings 1 - 3
• Tremolo Strings 1 - 5
• Spiccato Strings
• Oriental Spiccato Strings
• Oriental String Quartet 1 - 3
• Oriental Staccato Strings
• Arabian Solo Strings 1 - 3
• String Quartet
• Oriental String Ensemble 1 - 5
• Slow Oriental Strings

There is no in-app purchase in this app. So all sounds and all app features are immediately available to you as one buy.

General Features:
• Sounds based on high quality stereo sample set.
• Master Tune & Scale Tuning (including factory presets for common Arabian & Turkish scales).
• Low latency disk streaming.
• Configurable audio latency down to 1 ms.
• Polyphony up to several hundred stereo voices.²
• Integrated effects with 18 presets.
• 16 parts.
• App States: Save apps entire state as user presets.
• MIDI velocity response curve editor to fine tune the feeling of your MIDI keyboard.
• App can keep running in the background, so you can play on your keyboard while e.g. using Safari or another app to display scores or surfing the Internet.
• Audio Unit plugin version of this app, to be used as virtual instrument directly within third-party multi-track DAW apps.
• Audiobus support.
• Supports Apples "IAA" system for audio & MIDI streaming between other apps.
• Virtual on-screen piano keyboard with velocity support, scalable & scrollable.

MIDI Player / Recorder:
• Record, save and load your songs in standard MIDI file format.
• Share your songs easily as audio file.
• Unlimited amount of tracks.
• Configurable target MIDI channel per track.
• Unlimited recording and playback length.
• Open MIDI (.mid) files directly from other apps (i.e. from Safari, Mail).
• Download or upload MIDI files with iTunes.
• Load your favorite songs as MIDI files from the Internet, and watch at the virtual keyboard how to play it.
• Metronome.
• Use the "Tempo Zoom" dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time and learn your favorite songs more easily.

¹ For more information about adapters and connecting external MIDI keyboards: https://doc.crudebyte.com/iOS/External_MIDI_devices/

² Some sounds are using several voices per note. Polyphony depends on the exact device model being used. You find a polyphony table on our product website.

Pros and cons of Oriental Strings app for iPhone and iPad

Oriental Strings app good for

I just bought Oriental Strings. Im surprised you cant use it in Audiobus. They need to update so its compatible with Audiobus to record Oriental Strings.
Yes, it would be nice to save recorded wav files and audiocopy them into daws - do this across all your music creation apps and Id buy them all :-)

Some bad moments

The preset sounds are great, rich, leaning towards the "dramatic" side, but a nice selection. Controls and UI is good. MIDI CC for program change does sort of work, but is flaky, changing the presets, but not in the correct order, and the large preset name on the screen does not update to the currently selected one, though it does when not controlling through midi. With a few minor fixes, this app will be A+.
Huge bloated file size, terrible sound, nothing to offer in terms of interface, inter-app compatibility, or even unique sounds, etc. I cannot imagine how angry I would be if I didnt get it on sale. Deleted day 1.
Crudebyte really turned up the notch last fall when they upgraded iSymphonic and then released this Oriental Strings app. Then, they made both of the apps universal; that was a wonderful thing for me (large capacity iPhone). The app string sounds were improved quite a lot since the initial release and now they are smooth and quite beautiful.
I Love These String Sounds!!! As With Any CRUDEBYTE Product,Quality Is AWESOME!! If You Want Eastern String Sounds,Search No Further!! This App Is Nothing Short of OUTSTANDING !!! No Regrets!!! Get It Now !!!
Good enough to integrate into DAW, especially with an interface.
Im used to high quality string instruments from embertone on my pc so this was a disappointment. I played with this for about 15 minutes and then deleted it. Too cheesy for me.