Kontakt 2+ / Apple EXS24
The Concert Grand Hammered Dulicimer (version 2) is Vol. 2 of the Hammered Dulcimer Trilogy
453 MB of 24 bit stereo samples of this lovely triple coursed instrument. Each note sampled with wood & felt hammers as well as plucked with the flesh of the thumb. "Drag" ornaments were also sampled for each pitch with wood and felt hammers. This instrument has a big sound and is quite a bit brighter than the Cimbalom.
Detailed Description
Most hammered dulcimers you see these days are double "course" instruments. Meaning they use 2 strings per note (much like a twelve string guitar). One of the unique things about the "Grand" is that it employs three courses making for a bigger sound as well as a bigger instrument. Not quite as big as the colossal Cimbalom, but still quite a big instrument to lug around. The Cimbalom's sound-print is quite a bit darker than this instrument. These "Grand" triple coursed hammered dulcimers enjoyed a bit of a revival among folk musicians in the 1960's.
Pictured above is a screen-shot of the Concert Grand Kontakt with a very flexible new KSP script.Notes on the Sampling and Programming
The Concert Grand hammered dulcimer was sampled in stereo at 24 bits/44k into a Alesis ML9600 High Resolution Master Disc Recorder using a stereo pair of Nuemann KM 184 mics into a Grace Design 201 mic preamp.
Total size of all samples and .nki's combined is 452 megabytes.
The Concert Grand hammered dulcimer was sampled with wood and felt hammers as well as being plucked by the flesh of the thumb for a very dark and warm tone color.
The Drag Ornament
Also sampled with both wood and felt hammers were "drag" ornaments - created by one hammer bouncing repetitively on the string to be finally interrupted by the other hammer which plays a long accented note. This ornament is generally used leading into a downbeat. So the bouncing portion of the note is just ahead of the beat acting as a pickup or anticipation into the down beat.
*Full version of Kontakt SAMPLER 3 or 4 required. Will only run on the Kontakt PLAYER for 30 minutes in demo mode.*
