RA

EastWest/Quantum Leap RA provides composers with access to a variety of rare and unique instruments from Africa, Europe, India, the Americas and Australia, the Far East, and the Middle East and Turkish Empires.

Musicians will find that RA has an amazing sound quality and they'll marvel at the articulation of each instrument which has a wide range that goes from controlled to expressive. All of the instruments and ensembles featured in the collection were sampled extensively as a means of preserving the true character and expression of each instrument. For the first time, users will have more control over the sounds offered in the collection along with the ability to load even more instruments than ever before.

With the combination of EastWest/Quantum Leap Ra, Gypsy and Silk collections you have the most detailed and expressive ethnic instruments ever produced.

In addition to PLAY's intuitive custom interface, EastWest/Quantum Leap RA - PLAY Edition includes many other features, such as:

• 64-bit (for 32-bit compatibility, please use PLAY 4)
• Intelligent performance section including portamento, repetition, legato
• Features round robin reset
• Offers improved articulation window and controls
• State-of-the-art convolution reverb with pre-delay
• Improved micro-tuning
• Improved sound quality with high-resolution audio engine
• Hi-fidelity one pole filter for natural cross-fades
• Stereo image editing is now possible using channel sourcing
• The instruments featured in the PLAY Editions are newly-programmed for PLAY from the original recordings

In ancient Egypt, RA was regarded as the creator of everything, the god of the sun. RA is usually represented with the body of a man and the head of a hawk, holding an ankh & sceptre. The chief location of RA worship was Heliopolis (a Greek word meaning city of the sun). RA is an appropriate name for the largest, and most comprehensive rare and ethnic virtual instrument ever made.

RA was born a few years ago, as a sample library called “Rare Instruments.” All of the sounds from Rare Instruments are included in RA, but this only represents approximately one-tenth of the content. The other ninety percent of RA was recorded at a top studio in Hollywood. We spent time hunting down the best ethnic artists on the West Coast. Los Angeles is so ethnically diverse and blessed with excellent institutions like Cal Arts, it is actually the ideal place to record a rare and ethnic collection.
You will find RA has amazing sound quality. RA was captured with a phase accurate 8-mic setup that gives a complete 3 dimensional image of the instrument. It is this type of sound that takes to artificial or sampled reverb extremely well. The sound is clear and broad. Mics used were Neumann U67 (U47s as alternates), Neuman M50, AKG C12 and Shoepps.

Another cool aspect of this virtual instrument is the fact that we recorded ethnic ensembles. This was done with African drums, bagpipes, gamelan and a Middle Eastern string section. The sound of these ensembles cannot be realistically simulated by layering solo instruments.

RA was a very expensive project, but well worth the cost. A lot of thought went into selecting instruments that would appeal to composers of all types, from dance music, to film. You might want to put the middle eastern string section in your next pop tune, or the hardanger fiddle in a sweeping romantic score ala Lord Of The Rings.
You might also be surprised at how little percussion is included in this giant ethnic collection. The reason is, we already covered much of this in EastWest/Quantum Leap Stormdrum. Stormdrum is the ideal companion to RA. The percussion in RA compliments Stormdrum perfectly.

You can have a lot of fun with RA. The possibilities are simply endless, especially when you mix the sounds of different cultures together. Load up the middle eastern string section, apply an Indian or Egyptian tuning from the micro-tuning presets and play octaves. Make a really cool groove with the didgeridoo fx and the Vietnamese jaw harp. Take a classical filmscore piece and replace all of the instruments with their ethnic counterparts: strings with middle eastern string section, solo violin or cello with electric baritone violin, hardanger fiddle or erhu, french horn with alpenhorn, flute with dizi, oboe with duduk, percussion with taikos and African percussion, harp with kora, trombones with rag dung etc. etc.... Or perhaps try the hurdy gurdy, hardanger fiddle, washburn guitar, mandolin and the dizi and make an interesting folk ensemble or the gamelan ensemble with the ney flute, duduk and esraj. And don’t forget the reverb!

Authentic Sounds and Performances

If you’re looking to add authentic sounds from across the world to your next film/video game score or simply weave an elegant and eclectic tapestry into your music, RA was designed specifically with you in mind. "With world instruments, the key to authenticity of sound is expression," says producer Nick Phoenix, "Now with RA’s built-in sensing technology that monitors a player's style and adjusts the software and sounds accordingly, users will experience a level of detail that was lacking in other products in the market, making their projects come to life with range and emotion."

Captured with a phase-accurate 8-mic setup (Neumann U67, U47, M50, AKG C12 and Shoepps), RA presents a full 3 dimensional image of every sound, ensuring that every expressive detail is captured in its entirety.

Africa

From the light plucks of the kalimba to a detailed ensemble of drums nearly old as time, this collection is the perfect way to add a traditional earthiness and impart a deep village feel to your music.

Americas and Australia

From the Brazilian berimbau to Cuban percussion and the Aboriginal didgeridoo, the journey to the New World yields iconic sounds that morphed into a rich tradition of folk music shaping generations to come.

Europe

Few traditional instruments of Europe stand out like Scotland’s bagpipes, Ireland’s Uilleann pipes, and the hurdy gurdy of olde. Easily evoke any age of the West using beautiful collection of folk instruments from centuries past.

Far East

Combine the musical histories of Japan, China, Indonesia and more into a group of expert performances and multi-sampled instruments. You won’t ever be limited again by low-res, single-sample instruments when you can get to capture the full beauty of each instrument in the Far East collection.

India

All the staples of popular Indian ensembles are now at your fingertips. If you don’t have a simple but well-featured ensemble of instruments from traditional India at your disposal, use RA to expand your arsenal into South Asia.

Middle East and Turkish Empire

Evoke images of sand dunes unfolding into the distant horizon with RA’s library of Middle Eastern instruments. If you’re looking for lyrical, ambient, and expansive sounds, you’ll particularly love the duduk, an iconic double reed woodwind capable of the most haunting textures imaginable.