Review: World Suite Sample Library by UVI

In this review, we will be going over a new UVI sound library called World Suite. World Suite is a collection of over 320 virtual instruments compiled from over 50,000 samples and 8000 loops and phrases, totaling over 28 GB in size it’s safe to say that is quite an expansive resource of ethnic sounds and instruments from all over the globe and one of UVI’s largest libraries to date.

So let’s see what World Suite is comprised of starting with the Browser:

Browser

So UVI’s World Suite has a lot of instruments and sounds from all over the globe and it is all neatly sorted in the browser by Region, Type, Loops and phrases, Travelers, and Vocals.

Browsing by region allows you to choose iconic instruments from twelve regions across the globe: Africa, Asia, Australia, Celtic, Eastern Europe, India, Indonesia, Middle East, Occidental, South America, Spanish Gypsy, and West Indies.

Browsing by type lets you view all of the instruments in World Suite in six different instrument types: Bel metal and gong, Fretted string, Key, Percussion, Stringed, and woodwind.

Loops and phrases let you browse through all of the single loops and phrases that have been used to create the instruments these can be played all along with the keyboard and thanks to UVI’s high-quality pitch shifting algorithm they sound really good.

Travelers are a six-track player for your loops and phrases allowing you to Mix, Transpose, and play up to six loops at a time and are sorted by region to create fast and intuitive instrument groupings for those fast flashes of inspiration.

Vocals are a collection of vocal loops that are sorted by region and ambiance there are also two vocal traveler instruments that are a lot of fun to play with.

Interface

The instruments in the World suite from UVI all have a similar design to them with easy-to-use controls that change to fit the instrument you are playing at that time. The layout of the Kontakt instruments is really nicely designed making the instruments readable in just a quick glance which lends itself well to performing keyboardists.

All of the instruments in UVI’s World suite have multiple recordings of that instrument which can be easily selected with the key switches and being able to midi learn all of the sliders and knobs to your keyboard really lets you control the instruments expression and tonality with ease making it a great performance instrument.

Variety

World suite is in its variety of instruments, vocals, loops, and phrases truly a one-stop-shop for all your ethnic musical needs with a library of over 320 unique instruments to choose from variety is something that World suite certainly does not lack.

Africa: 55 different instruments including Flutes, Guitars, Large drums, Percussions, Balafon, Bamboo sax, Karimba, Kora, Mbira, Ngoni Donso, Sanzas, and Udu and over 650 loops and Phrases.

Asia: 78 Different instruments including Bian Zhong and Qing, Dan Moi, Er Hu, Gongs, Koto, Laotian Zither, Miscellaneous percussions, Pipa, Shakuhachi, Shamisen, and Taiko and over 290 Loops and phrases.

Australia: 14 different instruments including Aboriginal drums, Aboriginal Flutes, Aboriginal Percussion, Didgeridoo, and Jaw Harp and over 450 loops and phrases.

Celtic: 28 different instruments including Bagpipes, Celtic Guitars, Celtic percussions, Celtic whistles, Concertina, Fiddle, Harmonica, Harp, and Irish Bouzouki and over 460 Loops and phrases.

Eastern Europe: 10 different instruments including Balkanish double bass, Balkanish Violin, Bulgarian Tupan, Eastern Accordion, Eastern Lyra, Hungarian Cymbalum, Moldavian Cymbalum, Roots Balalaika, Russian Balalaika, and Ukrainian Bandura and over 330 loops and phrases.

India: 47 different instruments including Dilruba, Harmonium, Flutes, Percussions, Swarmandal, Violins, Jaladarangam, Morsing, Nadhaswaram, Pungi, Santoor, Sarod, Shenai, Sitar, Tabla, Tambura, and Veena and over 1210 loops and phrases.

Indonesia: 14 different instruments including Gamelan Bonang, Gamelan Drums, Gamelan Gambang, Gamelan Gong, and Gamelan Kenong.

Middle East: 31 different instruments including Baglamas, Bouzouki, Duduk, Electric Bouzouki, Lute, Maghreb Violins, Mandolin, Middle East Flutes, Middle East Percussions, Middle east Santur, Oud, Persian Daf, Saz, Turkish Lyra, and Tzouras and over 540 Loops and phrases.

Occidental: 14 different instruments including Alpine Concert Zither, Banjo, Carina Accordion, Dobro, Finnish Concert Kantele, Naeshult Table Piano, Nordic Low Whistle, Nordic Psalmodikon, Nordic Upright Piano, Orfeo Accordion, Parisian Accordion, Piano Bastringue, and Victorini Accordion and over 310 Loops and phrases.

South America: 22 different instruments including Andes Flute, Cuatro, Latin Panpipe, Latin Percussions, Peruvian Ocarina, South American El Bass and Tango Accordion, and over 990 Loops and Phrases.

Spanish Gypsy: 6 different instruments including Flamenco Guitar, Flamenco Percussions, and Gypsy Jaz Guitars and over 1660 Loops and phrases.

West Indies: 5 different instruments including Requinto, Steel drums, Steel Tongue Drum, Sun Drum, and West Indies Bass and over 310 loops and phrases.

With all of these different elements from all over the world, we can certainly say that the UVI World suite definitely ranks up there in the variety department, and with the high recording standards of UVI the sound quality is top notch too.

Conclusions

I’ve had the opportunity to review other UVI Products and so far UVI has always brought out high-quality great sounding libraries and instruments and I have to say UVI World suite has really brought the brand up another notch because not only do the instruments sound wonderful they are also really expressive and easy to play.

Whether you are playing it through the free UVI workstation or have the fortune of playing it through Falcon which adds another world of UVI magic to the table World suite just sounds awesome and is a definite must have if you want to add ethnic sounds to your music.

Pros:

• Great sound.
• An immensely diverse library of instruments, vocals, and sounds.
• Instruments load up super quickly and are not CPU intensive.

Cons:

• None whatsoever, it’s just another great UVI library.

As I said from the beginning, this is a pretty big library, weighing nearly 30 GB you’ll need some extra space on your disk. Also, you must know that the World Suite library work in UVI Workstation (version 2.6.8+, and Falcon version 1.2.0+). World Suite is available for both Windows and MAC users, priced at 299 via UVI’s website. Follow the link below to discover more details about this awesome library.