The WORLD SERIES! The first installment introduces the family of the Dulcimer and Zither, a favored instrument color by composers throughout the ages and around the globe. Recorded at the famous Firehouse Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and mixed by esteemed engineer Tim Starnes, the Dulcimer and Zither library will add stunning brilliance and color to any scoring palette.
The Mountain Dulcimer is a high-quality three-string wooden stringed instrument which produces a soft and melodic drone, also known as a bourdon tone. It is well known for its use in compositions by Thomas Newman, such as American Beauty. We focused on capturing the Mountain Dulcimer in a variety of articulations. One can play the mountain dulcimer with fingers – but we have also played it with a Piano Hammer, Plec and Mallets. Besides five presets, the new Stringed 2022 GI impressively keeps many options available. But in no way should we forget to mention the soft shimmering strumming.
The Hammered Dulcimer is a high fidelity sounding string instrument with 31 pairs of strings. Its sound is well-known in film scores and in ethnic Arabian music. It is a wonderful instrument to enrich your music with lovely strings’ shining and glimmering sound. The Hammered Dulcimer is a stringed instrument with 31 string pairs stretched over a trapezoidal soundbox. Usually, the Hammered Dulcimer is set on a stand in front of the musician, who holds small wooden mallet hammers to strike the strings. The dulcimer has two bridges, a bass bridge near the right and a treble bridge on the left side. The bass bridge holds up bass strings, which are played to the left of the bridge. The treble strings can be played on either side of the treble bridge; playing them on the left side gives a note a fifth higher than playing them on the right. The strings of a Hammered Dulcimer are found in pairs, two strings for each note. Each set of strings is tuned in unison and is called a course. As with a piano, using multiple strings per course makes the instrument louder. However, as the courses are rarely in perfect unison, usually it results in a chorus effect – such as with a mandolin.
The beautifully sampled Hammered Dulcimer brings its dark and exotic sound directly to HALion. It was recorded with different mallets and sticks in two mic positions to create gleamy and fascinating atmospheres.
The Dulciano is a grand piano performed with dulcimer hammers. This unique hybrid instrument produces a similar timbre to a dulcimer or cimbalom, but the longer strings and large soundboard of the piano gives the instrument a richer tone and longer sustain. The instrument also has a much wider playable range than a standard dulcimer or cimbalom (A0 to E6). As with all our libraries, the goal of this instrument was to make it as easy to play as possible. We captured multiple dynamics, controlled by velocity. The highest velocities trigger short one-shot rolls – an articulation commonly used in dulcimer music. Continuous, sustained rolls are triggered by bringing up the mod wheel, or by using your keyboard’s aftertouch (channel pressure). The Dulciano was recorded in a modern concert hall environment (the same hall as many of our other libraries), and includes three configurable microphone positions, providing a great level of flexibility for placing the instrument in your mix. The close mics are almost fully dry, offering an intimate ‘studio’ sound when soloed. The far mics have just the right amount of ambience for a distant, spacious sound, without being drenched in reverb. The ‘perspective’ slider below the mixer allows you to easily move between a close and distant mix. We have also included a built-in convolution reverb, offering even more control over the amount of space in the mix.
Coming in at a mouthwatering 2.07Gb in size, Infinite Melody explores the more organic side of lush melody. From the beautifully recorded Dulcimers to the inspiring sounds of a Zither, each one of these amazing ethnic music loops will offer something new on every listen.
The Mountain Dulcimer come with superb recorded dulcimer by strumming or picking with the right hand and fretting with the left. It is normally diatonic, with the frets creating a major (or it’s relative minor) scale. The tuning is most often D-A-D, with the two highest strings close together and in unison. When the instrument is strummed, the high strings can be used to play melody, while the low strings drone. Or, chords can be formed and strummed guitar style.
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