Impact Soundworks has released Sitar Nation, a sample library for Kontakt.
Impact Soundworks Sitar Nation

We came up with the idea for Sitar Nation in mid-2007, after noticing that despite the growing popularity of ethnic instrument libraries, few products sampled non-Western instruments with a level of depth expected from a modern sample library. We spoke with numerous composers and producers who were unhappy with the current offering of ethnic instrument samples which only provided an “overview” of sounds and lacked the detail necessary to provide realistic solo performances.

The sitar, tampura, tabla and baya were chosen for our library not only because these instruments have remained a foundation of Indian classical music for centuries, but also because they have even permeated Western music since the 50s and 60s. Sitar Nation is the first library to capture these instruments with a level of detail and realism normally reserved for violins and pianos, allowing the composer to control and play these beautiful sounds without relying on excessive programming.

Sitar Nation features

  • Instruments: Gourdless Sitar (Handcrafted), Tampura, Tabla & Baya.
  • 18 main patches, covering a variety of important playing techniques for all four instruments.
  • All of these sounds can be loaded from up to three positions: close, room, and ambient.
  • 17 FX patches which take the core audio content into new directions using both pre-rendered offline processing and effects/programming within Kontakt. The result is a wide variety of highly useful sounds, from drones and percussion to chimes, pads and keyboards.
  • All samples are 24-bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz.

Sitar Nation is available for Kontakt (version 2 and above) for $119 USD.

Visit Impact Soundworks for more information and audio demos.