Steel Tones KONTAKT

FANTASTiC | May 22 2016 | 1.37 GB

Steel Tones is a multi-sampled metallic tuned percussion instrument library for Kontakt that captures the essence of a Hapi Drum. Built by Hapi Tones, the Hapi Drum is a hollow steel-chambered acoustic instrument measuring 12 inches wide and 8 inches deep (30cm x 20cm). It’s in the family of steel tongue drums, also known as tank drums or hank drums. The concept was originally pioneered by Dennis Havlena in 2007 and has evolved into various forms by numerous instrument makers. Our particular model has 8 tongues tuned to a D-major pentatonic scale. Each note has a strong fundamental tone wrapped in a haze of complex overtones and harmonics and a long, very mellow sustain. We recorded it with a close stereo pair of Neumann studio mics for a dry and very present sound, as well as a second stereo pair captured in a hall at 15 feet for an open, spacious sound. We sampled it deeply with 7 round robins and up to 9 velocity layers per note, using soft rubber mallets and hard metal mallets.