Kalimba v3.0 KONTAKT

P2P | 25 August 2021 | 1.95 GB

The Kalimba is a modernized version of the ancient African Mbira, also often called a thumb piano. It has a humble, melodious percussive plucking sound with a marimba-like warmth and tonal body. It is often used in conjunction with pianos and other tuned percussion instruments to add a sharper attack and playfulness to the sound. Our instruments were made of wood and coconut shell, with hammered steel tines suspended over their sound holes. The notes span about an octave and a half for the smaller of our two instruments and over two octaves for the larger kalimba. We recorded kalimbas in 3 different environments: Close and Dry in our studio; at medium distance in a small bright chamber; and in a large, long linear hall, at both close (1 meter) and far (15 meters) microphone distances. We call our long hall “The Bunker”, because that’s exactly what it really is – a deep underground World War 1-era artillery bunker. It’s one of our favorite secret locations, used for some parts of the Rust 2 library and several other instruments in our collection. The dry recording was done with a stereo pair of large-diaphragm condensers at 2 inches away in a very dry space. You’ll hear a little bit of wood scuffing and creaking. We think those elements help to give the instruments a truer life-like sound and feel.