Native Instruments Absynth 5 Reference Manual page 192

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Bass: A sound which can serve as the bass part in a production. A synth should only be
categorized as Bass if the lower range is more convincing than the upper range. (Note
that a double bass used in a classical context (i.e., bowed) would be categorized as Bowed
Strings. However, if used in a jazz context (i.e. plucked), it would be categorized as Bass.)
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Drums: A single drum sound, a drum kit or a drum loop based on an acoustic or electronic
drum kit. Typically this includes kick drum, snare, toms, hi-hat, ride/crash cymbals, claps.
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Percussion: A single percussion sound, a percussion kit or a percussion loop. This includes
all idiophones and membranophones of indefinite pitch, such as bongo, timpani, agogo etc.
It also includes electronic percussion that is not usually found in an electronic drum kit.
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Mallet Instruments: All instruments with definitive pitch played with mallets, like vibra-
phones, xylophone, marimba, bells, steel drums etc.
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Flute: Instruments that reproduce or simulate flutes (oscillating air tubes) or which are
based on flute samples. This includes acoustic flutes, pan pipes, synthetic flute simula-
tions, breathy sounds, etc.
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Reed Instruments: Instruments that reproduce or simulate reed instruments like oboe,
clarinet, bassoon, saxophones etc. Note: reed organs are categorized as Organ.
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Brass: Instruments that reproduce or simulate brass instruments like trumpet, french
horn, trombone, tuba. You'll also find a lot of analog brassy synth sounds in this catego-
ry. Note that Saxophones are not brass, but reed instruments.
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Bowed Strings: All instruments with a playing technique defined by bowing a string, typi-
cally violin, viola, cello and double bass. Also, typical analog string pads are found here.
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Vocal: Choirs, vocal samples and all other instruments that sound like vocals. This also
includes synth sounds that clearly make use of a formant/vowel filter or a talkbox/ vo-
coder to make the sound speak or sing.
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Soundscapes: A sound providing some sort of acoustic scenery, whether it's based on
tonal timbres or noise textures (typically long compared to sound effects).
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Sound Effects: A sound effect (not an effect plug-in) similar to an explosion, shot or foot-
steps (typically short compared to Soundscapes).
ABSYNTH 5 Reference Manual – 192