Bunker Samples has announced the release of Sticks & Stones, a new lithophone library for Native Instruments Kontakt.
Here's what they say:
Lithophones, instruments made from stone, are some of the earliest musical instruments made by humans, and some of oldest known have been found in Vietnam, where the tradition lives on to this day, with the lithophone being an integral part of traditional Vietnamese music being performed daily across the country. In fact, Vietnam is probably the only country in the world where you can be a professional lithophone player.
Bunker Samples managed to get professional lithophone player Ngoc Tran into a top Hanoi studio for a sampling session, and the result is Sticks & Stones.
A sound as old as civilisation
The sound of Ngoc Tran's gorgeous instrument is similar to a traditional orchestral glockenspiel, but it can get a lot louder and has a raw, organic bell-like sound. Great care was taking in the programming to make it agile and responsive, with smooth velocity splits. While it's a sound that instantly conjures up nature and ancient cultures, it's also a sound that packs a punch and works great when layered with synthesisers.
To capture as much detail as possible, we recorded with no fewer than 8 microphones mixed into four different perspectives: under, close, mid and far. We captured hits and rolls with both traditional hard mallets and non-traditional soft felt mallets, as well as resonant rubs that lets the user seamlessly crossfade between 3 different speeds. A set of pentatonic glissandos playable in all keys rounds out the collection.
The library contains 2472 samples, 5 Kontakt patches, is 1.92 GB installed size and requires the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 6.7.1 or later. It will not work in the free Kontakt Player.
It's available now with intro discount for $19 until June 14, 2024. Regular full price will be $29.