Tiny hurdy-gurdy patch for Kontakt

[nowotnik]

Hi guys,

I recently started to record my collection of unique instruments, and decided to go for one of the most organic one: Polish hurdy-gurdy recorded together with engaged drones (for more natural sound) and key clicks/strings buzzing.

This is the very first take so the patch is very simple, but I believe that the unique nature of this instrument can compensate for my "noobiness" ...

Anyway, feel free to download (ca. 10MB) and have some fun.
Notes included are from melodic open G string to C octave and half above.
Engaged drones are Bourdon C and G lowered to F - giving that nice Lydian vibes.

Samples are ca. 4-5 sec with looping and sounding best played legato.
Edit: looking forward to your comments, of course



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/291 ... Lydian.zip

Cheers.
Peter

http://www.pmnmusic.com

[Spitfire31]

Thank you very much for this nice gift! I like it a lot.

It sounds beautiful and it will readily find its place in different kinds of music.

I understand that from the pure sound aspect, it may be preferable to record the harmonic interaction between the drones and the melody strings. However, eventually you might perhaps design a similar, or updated, hurdy-gurdy with and option to have the drones as a separate voice from the melody strings?

It might be quite useful to play the drones separately and then add the melody at will, don't you think?

Again, thanks for a very useful instrument! Looking forward to what might come next…

/Joachim

[nowotnik]

Thanks, Joachim.

Thank you for your suggestions and kind words.
You are correct. Recording drones/chanter separately is a useful avenue to follow and I will surely do that.
I am considering it even thou there are few commercial libraries providing that option already.
Every hurdy-gurdy "resonates" differently so there is never enough of them sampled - That drone setup allowed me to deliver that particular cross-interference of strings but I know it might be more a novelty instrument rather than fully fledged melodic machine

As I'm currently writing a dissertation about "contemporary" techniques for hurdy-gurdy - as opposed to conservative playing derived from medieval and renaissance repertoire - I thought about things like "tremolo" and "arpeggiated chords" libraries in each key - that would be something completely new as I see this instrument as something absolutely capable of playing contemporary music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7156IUdKpU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsP5GR4wuDk

Thanks for your interest
I will surely develop more useful ones in nearest future.

Cheers,
Peter

[deastman]

Thank you for this. I've always wanted a hurdy-gurdy. Maybe I'll pick up a real one one of these days...

[nowotnik]

Thanks deastman.

More the merrier World needs more HG players.

BTW: tiny demo of this patch:
https://soundcloud.com/pmn-music-creati ... ni-kontakt

[Spitfire31]

Just goes to show that a Kontakt sampled instrument doesn't have to be complex, with a gazillion keyswitches and round robins, in order to be playable and enjoyable.

But then, I watched your videos and realised, for the first time, what a fascinating wealth of expression is possible with a hurdy-gurdy ("vevlira" in Swedish).

In fact, I sat like hypnotised watching you play, while at the same time, I tried to imagine what might be attained with aftertouch or CC11 for crank speed, some clever scripting for articulation, etc.

I see the possibility of a sampled instrument way beyond the exisiting Kontakt HG libraries. Whether that would be a viable commercial project, I have no idea. Personally, I'd certainly stand in line to buy it!

Kind regards,

Joachim

[wakax]

thank you! can you share also the samples(wav)/not a monolitic file pls?
i'm on win xp and I can't load it (can't update to new kontakt...)
thanks!

[nowotnik]

thank you! can you share also the samples(wav)/not a monolitic file pls?
i'm on win xp and I can't load it (can't update to new kontakt...)
thanks!

Sure!
Here you go:
https://db.tt/Bw8VkqVg

[whyterabbyt]

cheers for this! enjoyed the videos, too.

[wakax]

thanks !!!

[nowotnik]

Just goes to show that a Kontakt sampled instrument doesn't have to be complex, with a gazillion keyswitches and round robins, in order to be playable and enjoyable.

But then, I watched your videos and realised, for the first time, what a fascinating wealth of expression is possible with a hurdy-gurdy ("vevlira" in Swedish).

In fact, I sat like hypnotised watching you play, while at the same time, I tried to imagine what might be attained with aftertouch or CC11 for crank speed, some clever scripting for articulation, etc.

I see the possibility of a sampled instrument way beyond the exisiting Kontakt HG libraries. Whether that would be a viable commercial project, I have no idea. Personally, I'd certainly stand in line to buy it!
...

Hello again.

Thanks to you all for your encouragement.
I was working on another patch this week: still the same instrument but with C drone sampled separately, with both melodic strings (tenor and alto) engaged (both are open G octave apart).

I am planning to start working on a larger library and I decided to bring this new patch and the previous one as a 'donation-ware' - simply, if you enjoy it, feel free to leave some token of your appreciation - also it will help me to assess my time input into future development of the library I hope it makes sense.

It the "Lira Korbowa - Pack One" we have the original "F Lydian" patch and the new, chromatic 'keyboard' with C drone placed on the lower part of your keyboard.

Having in mind that on authentic hurdy-gurdy, we will hear 'open melodic string' when not using keys (the keyboard in 'resting' state), I place "open-G" just 5th apart from the drone so your left pinky can hold the drone and your thumb press 'Open G' whenever 'all melodic notes are released' - I know it sounds a bit complicated but rest assured this is a very practical approach to tackling HG technique

As usually, I decided to record key-attack noise and all the hurdy-gurdy noises without 'synthesizing it'.

Please feel free to spread the word - more people will be interested in future development of this product, the more time I will be able to put into sampling my beloved instrument )

Thank you all for your support.

Kind regards,
Peter

PS: here is the link
http://pmnmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... ckOne.html

[nowotnik]

I just added the project to Sampleism website.

http://www.sampleism.com/piotrnowotnik
http://www.sampleism.com/piotrnowotnik/lira1

As per Joachim's suggestion, independently playable chanters are there.
Time to look into velocity layers and tremolo for the next iteration

Cheers!
Peter

[nowotnik]

quick new demo of the second patch:
https://soundcloud.com/pmn-music-creati ... or-kontakt

[Spitfire31]

Very nice indeed!

I just made a small contribution, to a pint or cuppa.

On my rather crowded sample instruments HD, I found a hurdy-gurdy Kontakt instrument that I had forgotten about – Sonokinetic's Hurdy Gurdy. It's rather sophisticated and can be tweaked in various ways.

For instance, it has a neat implementation of the chien – you can add the buzzing manually by using aftertouch on the drone keys. A lot of fun, that.

Looking forward to the next level of the Lira Korbowa!

/Joachim

[nowotnik]

Very nice indeed!

I just made a small contribution, to a pint or cuppa.

On my rather crowded sample instruments HD, I found a hurdy-gurdy Kontakt instrument that I had forgotten about – Sonokinetic's Hurdy Gurdy. It's rather sophisticated and can be tweaked in various ways.

For instance, it has a neat implementations of the chien – you can add the buzzing manually by using aftertouch on the drone keys. A lot of fun, that.

Looking forward to the next level of the Lira Korbowa!

/Joachim

Thank you!
I appreciate your contribution.
As a matter of fact, I know SC's version - very well done instrument. I was thinking about adding chien under sustain controller so it can go independently from melodic rhythm. I'm not sure if it's possible that's why I read and try to learn about NIK as much as I can. To bad that NI is not providing SDKs or anything resembling it.

Anyway, I want the second pack to tackle some experimental sounds as well