Digitization of Ethnic Instruments

Author: Fransiskus Asisi Arya Seta Wicaksana
Editor: M Perdana Karim

Ethnic instruments of the world were facing extinction during the advancement of music technology. The rise of globalization with the extended range of communication and information exchange could just worsen the extinction issue that ethnic instruments face. The music technology techniques of synthesizers and the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) which developed with the usage of computers, thankfully helped the ethnic instruments to exist and survive such as gamelans (metallophones from Javanese and Balinese) [1], middle eastern traditional instruments (such as Zurna, Oud, etc.)  [2], and Japanese (Koto, Shamisen, etc.) [3]. Sampling, synthesizing (in music terms), and sequencing techniques in modern music production are the causes of the developed ethnic instruments of the world as digitized, virtualized, and “computerized” [4]. Even though the digitized ethnic instruments helped the “sound” of ethnic instruments to survive, there are some problems. The question from the digital version of ethnic instruments is it is purely for their “sound” existence or a sort of romanticizing the “traditional” sounds.

The Making Process of “Digitized” Ethnic Instruments

A digitized version of ethnic instruments is usually programmed into a computerized musical term called VSTs (Virtual Instruments) [5]. The digitized version also gives any genre of music composer/producer many possibilities to experiment with the sound of the ethnic. It is programmed into a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) so it will be easier for music composers or producers to create a song with ethnic sounds through computers alongside the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) [6]. There are not only the ethnic instruments that had been digitized, but there are also western modern music instruments such as keyboards, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, etc. The digitized instruments are designed to help composers and producers with their projects and in reality, there is a lot of musicians, bands, or even orchestras are still performing with the actual instruments. But when it came to the traditional, ethnic, and non-western instruments, the question is quite simple, for whom is the digitized version of ethnic instruments?

First of all, some of the world’s ethnic instruments that have already been digitized are not distributed freely and easily to have. As an example, a company called “Native Instruments” created a third-party application “Kontakt”. Native Instruments offered a wide range of digitized versions of musical instruments from around the world.  The instruments can be played through the Kontakt third-party application as the VST together with the Digital Audio Workstation as the main program to create music. Native Instruments earned the sound samples of instruments through recording each note of the instruments. The example digitized ethnic instruments by Kontakt is a collection of Middle East Instruments that consists of Arabic lute (oud), kanun (zither), Zurna (oboe), and many more. Besides that, Native Instruments also offered ethnic instruments such as East Asian Instruments, Balinese Gamelan, and Balkan Instruments [7]. Native Instruments doesn’t distribute those instruments (Kontakt Library) freely, they sell their instruments for around 99$ [8]. But there is only a little information on how they digitized the instruments, on their Middle Eastern Instrument page, they told the reader about the musicians who helped them on sampling the instruments which were the musicians who are natives of the instruments. These example of paid content are somehow need to be questioned, who gain the benefit from the money? is it sustainable for other ethnic musicians to still create their music without any helps from a digitized version of their instruments?

Conclusion: Revival or Survival

When talking about near extinct objects, the universal discourses must be pointing to the survival of its matter. But in this case, thinking about wide-ranged ethnic instruments which had been partially digitized, it seems to have a distinction between revival or survival. VSTs that were sealed online could be seen as a way of reviving the sound, but not for the survival of the instruments. Realistically speaking, the age of globalization and endless information access helped worldwide musicians who seek for experimenting with sounds of the world find easier access to create their creative projects [9]. In this digital age, an actual representation of the ethnic instruments seems not to interest people who wanted an easy way to earn “traditional sound”. There is no right or wrong in this case because the function of music is a technology of enchantment, the enchantment that is born from the idea of the society which they relate emotionally and aesthetically [10], which means music are naturally a cultural construct through human abstractions that not only relies on the “physical” of the instruments but only longing for the “sound”.

Such musicians like Eka Gustiwana and Alffy Rev are an example of the struggle to make the “traditional” sounds exist on the ears of the young Indonesian [11]. The point is they not only helped the revival of the “sounds” but also the survival of the instruments, but the existence of a digitized version of ethnic instruments somehow are challenges ahead for the creative process of making music.

The digitized version of ethnic instruments is a sign of a new age in music, which not only helped musicians on their creativity of creating music, but also the “sound” existence of the music. There are still plenty of challenges like how could the traditional player be recognized in the age of the digital and how the musicians respond if they are in between cultural appropriation and appreciation. Tons of research is needed to see how the impact of the digitization of ethnic instruments affects these two kinds of musicians, the traditional ones and the contemporary ones. However, it’s still kind of progress to see how ethnic instruments are still played even though it is in the digitized version of it.

Reference:

[1] “Balinese Gamelan.” Spotlight Collection : Balinese Gamelan | Komplete, Native Instruments, https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/spotlight-collection/balinese-gamelan/. ; Javanese Gamelan (VST, AU, AAX) Virtual Instrument.” Impact Soundworks – Javanese Gamelan, Impact Soundworks, 24 Feb. 2022, https://impactsoundworks.com/product/javanese-gamelan/.

[2] “Middle East.” Spotlight Collection : Middle East | Komplete, Native Instruments, https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/spotlight-collection/middle-east/.

[3] Kessel. “List of Japanese Instruments Vsts.” List of Japanese VSTs, VI-CONTROL, 27 Dec. 2021, https://vi-control.net/community/threads/list-of-japanese-instruments-vsts.81019/.

[4]  Pejrolo, Andrea, and Richard DeRosa. Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer. First Edii, Elsevier Inc., 2007, doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315754932.

[5] Deutsch, Stephen. “Music and Technology : The Composer in the Age of the Internet.” RSA Journal, vol. 144, no. 5470, 1996, pp. 25–33.

[6] Roehmann, Franz L. “Technology , Culture , and Music.” College Music Symposium, vol. 35, 1995, pp. 124–31.

[7] “Spotlight Collection.” Spotlight Collection : Spotlight Collection | Komplete, Native Instruments, https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/spotlight-collection/spotlight-collection/.

[8] “Middle East.” Spotlight Collection : Middle East | Komplete, Native Instruments, https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/spotlight-collection/middle-east/.

[9] Brøvig-Hanssen, Ragnhild, and Anne Danielsen. Digital Signatures: The Impact of Digitization on Popular Music Sound. no. 1, MIT Press, 2016.

[10] Irnanningrat, Sang Nyoman Satria. “Peran Kemajuan Teknologi Dalam Pertunjukan Musik.” Invensi, vol. 2, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1–8, doi:10.24821/invensi.v2i1.1802.

[11] “Wonderland Indonesia”. Youtube, uploaded by Alffy Rev, 17 August 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtb7Y3qOck ; “Peran Teknologi dalam Proses Bermusik” Youtube, uploaded by CNN Indonesia, 10 May 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cKfcYI3i0M&t=249s