Ricotti Mallets

Tuned mallet percussion, performed by a legend.

A beautiful selection of tuned percussion instruments — Marimba, Glockenspiel, Xylophone and Crotales — performed by master of percussion Frank Ricotti. Expertly sampled on our dry stage at Spitfire Studios, we give you a definitive collection of mallets with the greatest amount of control.

Frank Ricotti is one of Britain's greatest percussionists and jazz vibraphonists. Growing up in a musical family, Ricotti followed in his father's footsteps when he decided to take up percussion. While in his teens Frank followed the guidance of his teacher Bill Ashton, and embarked on a project that lead him to play in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Frank's talents are shown in his ability to master a variety of percussion instruments, though he concentrates mostly on the vibraphone, as well as being a composer and arranger. From the late 1960s onward Frank has established himself as a popular studio musician. Frank has now both played and recorded with Dave Gelly, Meat Loaf, Graham Collier, The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Ardley, Freddie Mercury, Mike Gibbs, Tina Turner, Gordon Beck and Stan Tracey. Frank has recorded on a string of successful film and TV soundtracks, including; The Beiderbecke Affair, The Beach, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Golden Compass, Fantastic Mr Fox, Puss in Boots and Skyfall:

• Marimba - The marimba is a direct descendant of the xylophone and looks very much like its ancestor. Although composers have only written extensively for this instrument since 1950, it has recently started to come into its own as part of the contemporary orchestra. The playing technique is identical to the xylophone's, but the marimba's mellower, deeper sound has generated a different kind of music.
• Glockenspiel - The Glockenspiel is not easy to record well or make truly convincing, so our extensive array of microphones gives you choices beyond plugins to get the sound you're looking for, from mellow and bell like to bright and sparkling.
• Crotales - Crotales are small bronze disks arranged in a keyboard style layout to produce chromatic pitches. As one of the brightest tuned percussion instruments, they will cut through even the biggest orchestral arrangement, for moments of magical beauty.
• Xylophone - A bright sounding wooden barred instrument similar to the Marimba. Whether it be scaling a staircase in the Tom & Jerry cartoons, providing the top end for an awesome systems percussion session, or providing a darker malevolence in a Jon Brion score, a mallet collection would be incomplete without this primordial tuned percussion instrument.

Requires a full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or Kontakt 5 to run.

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