Bamblong

A Tuned Bamboo Mallet Percussion Library For Kontakt

The Bamblong is a small bamboo idiophone similar to a marimba or angklung, meticulously hand-crafted from sections of cut and carved bamboo from Southest Asia. It is comprised of a row of tuned bamboo logs that serve as resonance chambers, each ranging between 11⁄2 - 21⁄4 inches in diameter and 8 – 14 inches in length, with sound holes cut into the top of each one. The actual playing surface for each log is a thin bamboo plank suspended on pegs over each bamboo log. When played with recycled rubber bicycle tire mallets, the instrument has a smooth and mellow, yet very crisp and clear musical note, with a quick decay.

Soundiron recorded it first in a very close, intimate dry setting to capture the full warmth and tonality of each note. This gives it a rich, strong presence and total creative flexibility and also allows the Bamblong to work extremely well with any reverb or spatializing effect you like. The Soundiron team then deep-sampled the instrument exhaustively, with an average of 20 dynamic velocity layers per note and 10 round-robin variations per dynamic layer. They also recorded strikes and rolls using nylon jazz brushes for a unique raspy effect. In addition to the dry studio articulations, the bamblong was also recorded in a large glass and stone recording hall for a bright, organic live sound. This “wet” version of the Bamblong is ideal for use in symphonic arrangements and blending with other concert percussion.

All four notes of the bamblong were deeply sampled using rubber mallets and jazz brushes, with up to 24 velocity layers and 10 times round robin per note. The notes have been carefully hand-tuned and spread across 4 octaves. Micro-tuning and width allow you to fine-tune how the angklung sits in a mix with other instruments. The “width” in particular controls the amount of stereo panning based on key position, simulating the natural stereo width of the instrument in an orchestral environment. In addition to strikes, the Soundiron team have also recorded rolls with release samples using the nylon brushes.

System Requirements

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10.9 or higher.
• Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB System RAM, SATA or SSD hard drive recommended for this library. 

Important Notes: 

• The Full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.1+ or above is required to run this software.
• This software will not function in full within the FREE Kontakt Player engine and will only be available in DEMO mode.