KA Mini BangDi

What it does

A single sampled Chinese bamboo flute, sold as its own standalone and AUv3 app. The BangDi is the shorter, higher pitched member of the DiZi family, and this one sits a shade darker in tone while reaching further up the keyboard than its sibling. It is monophonic, so only one note sounds at a time. The panel holds four controls, volume, tone, reverb and pitch bend depth, plus a switch between an onscreen keyboard and an electronic wind instrument.

In the demo

Jade plays it straight after the DiZi and points out the shorter keyboard range, then layers the two together. The tone control is where the breath noise lives, and pushing it up brings more of it forward.

Worth knowing

The app defaults to wind instrument input on every fresh launch, so nothing sounds from a MIDI keyboard until you flip the switch. There is no vibrato or modulation to shape a held note. The nine wind instruments are sold one at a time, and a bundle is now on the App Store.