60% OFF · INTRODUCTORY PRICE

AI-refined solo erhu for film, TV and games.

Imperial Erhu

$200$79  |  BUY NOW

Introductory price $79 (save $121 off RRP) — limited. Or pair it with Abril Molina in the Lament bundle from $119.

“Cannot recommend Auddict’s libraries highly enough.” — Stephen Barton, composer of Call of Duty 4, Titanfall & Titanfall 2

The erhu, played like a voice

Play a phrase, and it sings back.

Imperial Erhu is a solo erhu sample library built for composers who reach for that aching, near-human cry — the lonely melody over a battlefield, the ache beneath a love scene. Play a phrase and it sings back, the way the instrument is supposed to. No fighting the seams that usually betray a sampled erhu.

  • 13,000+ SAMPLES
  • 17 ARTICULATIONS
  • 6 LEGATO TYPES
  • 7 ROUND ROBINS ON SHORTS
  • 2 MIC POSITIONS
  • AI-REFINED LEGATO (AI-P)
  • LEGATO AID REAL-TIME CORRECTION
  • PERFORMED BY HARUYO KIMURA

Listen / Watch

AI in the pipeline, not in the patch

AI-Refined Legato

Every legato transition in Imperial Erhu passes through Auddict's AI-P pipeline, where phase-convergence and audio-merging refine each connection beyond what manual editing can reach. In internal testing, legato realism measured at 2× that of traditional deep-sampled techniques. For an instrument routinely described as the closest thing to a human voice, that difference is the gap between believable and not. What you trigger from your keyboard is sample audio — refined, not generated.

The playing behind the library

Haruyo Kimura

Imperial Erhu is the playing of Haruyo Kimura, an erhu artist with a career spanning international solo recital and film recording credits. Every articulation in the library was performed by her, including the named traditional techniques — Ya Rou, Gun Rou, Rengong Fanyin — that define the instrument's expressive identity. The hybrid legato, where Ya Rou and Gun Rou are stacked into a single transition, came from the session — the kind of detail that arrives when an experienced player is in the room.

When you write a line in Imperial Erhu, the phrasing under it is hers. The recordings stay the recordings, and your part stays your part.

Six legato types, named by tradition

The Vocabulary of the Erhu

Most virtual instruments give you one legato mode. Imperial Erhu gives you six, and they’re labelled by the technique they reproduce — not “legato 1, 2, 3.”

Ya Rou (壓揉) — pressing vibrato, weight pulled into the string.

Gun Rou (滚揉) — rolling vibrato, the hand turning around the note.

Hybrid — Ya Rou and Gun Rou stacked, the way a player may layer them in performance.

No Vibrato — the straight tone, for stillness.

Portamento — the slide between pitches.

Bowed — the connective bow change.

This is the vocabulary that makes the erhu the erhu. Switch between them with keyswitches and the instrument behaves like a player thinking about their next phrase — not a patch waiting for a trigger.

Clean phrases without the cleanup

Legato Aid

The erhu is unforgiving — a slightly mistimed note exposes the seams immediately. Legato Aid corrects performance inconsistencies in real time, so phrases come out clean during live playing. Less MIDI editing after the take. More time writing the next cue.

What's Inside

Core

  • Solo erhu, performed by Haruyo Kimura
  • 2 mic positions
  • AI-Refined Legato (AI-P) pipeline
  • Legato Aid real-time correction
  • 17 individually sampled articulations

Legato

  • Pressing Vibrato (Ya Rou / 壓揉) — 3 dynamic layers
  • Rolling Vibrato (Gun Rou / 滚揉) — 3 dynamic layers
  • Hybrid (Ya Rou + Gun Rou stacked) — 3 dynamic layers
  • No Vibrato — 2 dynamic layers
  • Portamento No Vibrato — 2 dynamic layers
  • Bowed No Vibrato — 2 dynamic layers

Longs & Sustains

  • Sustains Rolling Vibrato (Gun Rou / 滚揉) — 3 dynamic layers
  • Sustains Pressing Vibrato (Ya Rou / 壓揉) — 3 dynamic layers
  • Sustains Hybrid (Ya Rou + Gun Rou) — 3 dynamic layers
  • Sustains No Vibrato — 2 dynamic layers
  • Tremolo — 2 dynamic layers
  • Ornament Attacks — 1 dynamic layer
  • Glissando Sustains — 1 dynamic layer
  • Artificial Harmonics (Rengong Fanyin / 人工泛音) — 1 dynamic layer

Shorts

  • Staccato — 7 round robins
  • Staccatissimo — 7 round robins
  • Pizzicato — 7 round robins
60% OFF · INTRODUCTORY PRICE

Make your scene sing.

Introductory price $79 (save $121 off RRP) — limited.

Two introductory bundles pair Imperial Erhu with complementary solo voices for the classic emotional-scene palette:

Imperial Erhu

60% OFF · INTRODUCTORY

$200$79  |  BUY NOW
  • Solo erhu, performed by Haruyo Kimura
  • 17 articulations · 6 legato types
  • 2 mic positions
  • AI-Refined Legato (AI-P) + Legato Aid real-time correction
  • 7 round robins on shorts
ADD ABRIL MOLINA

Lament

Imperial Erhu + Abril Molina — save $201 off RRP

$320$119  |  GET BUNDLE
  • Imperial Erhu + Abril Molina (ethereal voice)
  • Lament pairs the erhu's cry with a breathy, ethereal vocal
🔥 BEST VALUE

Lament: Complete

+ Celestial Voices: Calypso — save $301 off RRP

$450$149  |  GET BUNDLE
  • Imperial Erhu + Abril Molina + Celestial Voices: Calypso (classical soprano)
  • Lament: Complete adds a pure operatic soprano for soaring climax material

Best value — the full Lament palette.

Technical specifications

Instrument
Solo Erhu, performed by Haruyo Kimura.
Mic Positions
2 mic positions.
Legato
Pressing Vibrato / Ya Rou 壓揉 (3 dyn), Rolling Vibrato / Gun Rou 滚揉 (3 dyn), Hybrid Ya Rou + Gun Rou (3 dyn), No Vibrato (2 dyn), Portamento No Vibrato (2 dyn), Bowed No Vibrato (2 dyn).
Longs & Sustains
Sustains Rolling Vibrato / Gun Rou (3 dyn), Sustains Pressing Vibrato / Ya Rou (3 dyn), Sustains Hybrid (3 dyn), Sustains No Vibrato (2 dyn), Tremolo (2 dyn), Ornament Attacks (1 dyn), Glissando Sustains (1 dyn), Artificial Harmonics / Rengong Fanyin 人工泛音 (1 dyn).
Shorts
Staccato (7 RR), Staccatissimo (7 RR), Pizzicato (7 RR).
Processing
AI-Refined Legato (AI-P) — phase-convergence and audio-merging applied to all legato transitions. Legato Aid — real-time performance correction.
Content & Size
13,000+ samples. 13GB installed — allow 26GB free space for download and extraction.
Performer
Performed by Haruyo Kimura — an internationally active erhu performer with a career spanning solo recital and film recording.
Requirements & notes
Kontakt instrument — requires Kontakt 5 full version or above.
All prices shown are excluding VAT and/or other applicable sales taxes. These will be added during the checkout process.