Soniccouture has released Array Mbira, a sample library for Kontakt featuring a 5 octave thumb piano from Array Instruments, made especially for Soniccouture.
The Mbira is originally a folk instrument from Africa. Sometimes called a Thumb Piano, Sanza, or Kalimba, they are generally home-made and consist of several metal tines attached to a gourd or piece of wood, which are then plucked with the thumbs. They are mostly small, with a handful of notes.
Array Instruments, a U.S. company started by Bill Wesley and Patrick Hadley, have taken the concept of this ancient African idiophone to a whole new level, not only in terms of instrument design but also in purity of sound, and range of pitch. The Array Mbira is no toy, it’s a highly advanced musical instrument built to exacting specifications.
Array Mbira features
- 9 GB Library (4GB on disc with Kontakt sample compression) – 4 GB download.
- 24bit 44.1khz Stereo Sampling – separate, phase aligned Pickup and Microphone channels.
- 5 octave range: C1 – B5.
- 8 Velocity levels, 3 alternate round robins: 4,112 samples in total.
- Note off damping samples (8 samples per note) with configurable levels and midi control.
- KSP Strummer module allows realistic MIDI controlled strumming of played notes.
Array mBira is available to purchase as a Kontakt Player 4 instrument for PC and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS) for 69 EUR for the download, 79 EUR on DVD (ships 1 August).
Note: You can get 15% off with promo code : LNSZ3OKEW6 (Offer expires 30th July 2010).
More information: Soniccouture / Array Mbira
