MUSICMAKERS VOL 1

Developed in collaboration with Musicmakers, designers of popular DIY musical instrument kits and music therapy instruments, Musicmakers Volume 1 features 10 folk and world instruments including harp, lyre, mountain dulcimer, mandola, handpan, and more.

Recorded with four mic arrays representing both the finest in modern mic design and vintage tone, these instruments are designed to be highly flexible to fit into nearly any context yet be entirely consistent with each other when used together.

$149.00

Developer: Versilian Studios LLC.
Software: Kontakt FULL 6.5.2+ Required
Format: .nki (Kontakt instrument)
Samples: 5,147 Samples; 20,588 Files (?)Samples are individual performances, not including duplicates from multiple mixes or mic positions. The File count is the total number of sample audio files in a product.
Instrument list
Filesize: 15 GB of HDD space (+14 GB for installation files)
Other: HDD of 7200+ RPM or SSD recommended
8GB+ of RAM recommended

To our UK & EU Customers:
For VAT purposes, please purchase this item on Loot Audio & Best Service

FEATURES

From Humble Origins…

While modern machining and a variety of socio-economic conditions have largely moved production of affordable folk instruments out of the hands of hobbyists and craftsmen and into factory settings, several companies have risen to provide a third option: build your own instrument! With well-designed kits and detailed instructions, even an apartment-bound hobbyist can assemble a beautiful instrument.

The 10 instruments sampled include seven designed and made by the folks at Musicmakers, namely the Cheyenne Harp, Lynda Lyre, Dakota Mandola, two Monochords, Mountain Dulcimer, and the
Strumbly. Three additional instruments sold on their website, two handpans and a shruti box, are also included.

Flexibility & Expanse

In addition to the natural, typical plucked or strummed sounds of instruments, we also recorded a variety of unique articulations such as striking strings with hammered dulcimer mallets, harmonics, and more, in the style of our Artist and Nouveau Series libraries.

Combined with four diverse mic arrays, the total range of tones and colors available is significant, from those suitable for popular music to more spacious, cinematic tones.

3-5 velocity layers and 2-6 round robins were recorded depending on the type of instrument.

High-quality Recordings

Sampling was done over the course of a week in a quiet rural home just a few miles from the Musicmakers showroom.

The main/room mic array is a spaced pair of Warm Audio WA14 large diaphragm condensers, with a pair of Blue Hummingbirds (medium diaphragm condensers) and a Samar Audio VL-373A stereo ribbon mic as two close mic options, providing brighter and darker colors. A mono Royer R-121 or Shure 545SD is also used to capture the resonant body of the instrument.

Advanced Control & Realism

Fretted instruments such as mandola, mountain dulcimer, and strumbly include a special feature where the particular string ‘emphasized’ in playing can be selected via modwheel, like was done with our strumstick library. In this way, up to four timbres can be accessed on the same keys.

The harp includes two different mute techniques: ‘hard’ (all strings are muted at once, i.e. ‘sans viber’) and ‘soft’ (only the single string is muted, not all strings).

The ‘soft’ option provides a lighter muted sound which is more that used when rearticulating a string rather than a ‘sans viber’ direction in the music. This lets sympathetic strings continue to resonate, giving a more realistic sound.

About the Artist: Musicmakers

Musicmaker’s core mission is to help people experience satisfaction in building performance quality musical instruments and learning to play them.

They first opened in the Spring of 1978 as an unusual hobby store, called St. Croix Kits, offering a variety of do-it-yourself projects for making practical household items such as clothing, clocks, outdoor furniture, kitchen cutlery, and musical instruments.

By 1993 they were manufacturing their own instrument kits in their current small factory in Stillwater.

They now ship their products to enthusiasts around the world, and have become widely known as one of the friendliest sources of creative musical assistance for a wide variety of acoustic instruments.

Instrument List

Cheyenne Harp (36-string lever harp)

Pluck – Normal (laissez viber)

  • Pluck – Thumb (l.v.)
  • Pluck – Prés de la Table (l.v.)
  • Pluck – Harmonics (l.v.)
  • Pluck – Normal “Soft” Muted
  • Pluck – Normal “Hard” Muted
  • Pluck – Thumb Muted
  • Pluck – Prés de la Table Muted
  • Pluck – Harmonics Muted

Mountain Dulcimer

  • Pluck – Combined

Lynda’s Lyre

  • Pluck – Normal
  • Pluck – Normal “Hard” Muted

Dakota Mandola

  • Pick – Normal
  • Pick – Muted
  • Strum – Normal
  • Strum – Muted

Strumbly

  • Finger – Normal (l.v.)
  • Finger – Muted
  • Pick – Normal (l.v.)
  • Pick – Muted
  • Pick – Vibrato (l.v.)
  • Pick – Vibrato, Muted
  • Ricochet – Dulcimer Mallet Bounce
  • Ricochet – Mallet Bounce, Muted
  • Hit – Hammered Dulcimer Mallet
  • Hit – Hammered Dulcimer Mallet, Muted
  • Pick – Harmonics (l.v.)
  • Pick – Harmonics, Muted

Hapi Handpan (“Big Hapi”)

  • Hit – Finger
  • Hit – Mallet
  • Hit – Middle (Dulcimer Mallet)
  • Hit – Hand-Muted (stopped)

Hapi Mini Drum (“Medium Hapi”)

  • Hit – Soft Mallet
  • Flam – Soft Mallet Flam
  • Hit – Medium Mallet
  • Hit – Hard Mallet (Dulcimer Mallet)

Monochord – Mid C

  • Pluck – Individual Strings (original tuning)
  • Pluck – Individual Strings Edge (O.T.)
  • Continuous – Continuous (O.T.)
  • Continuous – Continuous Edge (O.T.)
  • Pluck – Individual Strings (tuned)
  • Pluck – Individual Strings Edge (tuned)
  • Continuous – Continuous (tuned)
  • Continuous – Continuous Edge (tuned)

Monochord – Open C

  • Pluck – Individual Strings (original tuning)
  • Pluck – Individual Strings (tuned)
  • Continuous – Continuous (O.T.)
  • Continuous – Continuous (tuned)
  • FX – Effects 1
  • FX – Effects 2

Shruti Box

  • Sustain – “Closed” Sustains
  • Sustain – “Open” Sustains
  • Sustain – Perfect 5ths
  • Sustain – Chords