EarthMoments releases "5Elements" for Kontakt - Eight Unique Sampled Instruments from India

EarthMoments has released 5Elements, a selection of unique sampled instruments created for Kontakt and the free Kontakt Player.

The 5Elements concept is inspired by the ancient Indian concept that all creation, including human existence, is made up of five essential elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Space.

Here's what they say:

In 5Elements, EarthMoments has captured the authentic character of eight original handmade instruments created by Aurelio C. Hammer at the Svaram workshop in Auroville, India. 5Elements adds features that enhance these distinctive instruments to create an immersive set of lively sounds, full of a wide range of frequencies and layers. It's perfect for sound design and scoring, adding a refreshing perspective to your projects. "What we are looking for in our instruments is capturing the atmosphere, the inherent harmonic structure of nature, because the aesthetics are right in nature," comments Hammer.

The 5Elements suite includes:

• Ananda, a wooden, stringed instrument with 4 bridged strings that resemble the Indian tamboura and 8 strings tuned to a pentatonic scale raga on the front, plus 36 strings on the bottom, tuned to E, for rich, natural harmonics.
• Golden Plates (plate gongs), rectangular plate bells made from brass with a majestic sound similar to brass bells.
• Healing Bed, an elaborately constructed instrument the size of a massage table that has 50 strings and a custom-designed resonator.
• Litophone, a mallet instrument made from granite stones and played with padded sticks.
• Octave Tubes, an array of nine resonant metal tubes that can be played, swung and rotated at the same time to create a captivating atmospheric sound.
• Silver Plate, a large and heavy silver plate that produces solid and heavy overtones with a very long sustain.
• Singing Stone, a large 200 kg stone instrument played in a fashion similar to rubbing the rim of a crystal wine glass.
• Tubular Bells, a set of large tubular bells utilising unique mathematically-based tunings based on a C-256 pentatonic scale over two octaves.

Each instrument includes several playing styles called "sub-instruments", such as strummed, plucked, struck with mallets or sticks, and pre-recorded phrases. You can layer and mix two layers of instruments or sub-instruments and can apply compression, EQ, and reverb.

5Elements also allows you to add a drone layer of binaural beats. A binaural beat is the frequency perceived by the brain when two different frequencies are listened to, one in each ear. The perceived frequency is the difference between the two frequencies. Research shows that certain frequencies are associated with specific brain activity. The use of binaural beats in 5Elements is influenced by the traditional drone sounds in classical Indian music. You also can add an ambience layer of field recordings and sounds of the beach, forest, village, workshop, and rain from various places in South India.

Hammer declares:

I am very excited about this collaboration with EarthMoments. Hopefully they can bring the sounds of Svaram to people who wouldn't have access to it so that the sounds inspire people and maybe open their ears to the vibrations of nature.

Price: £99 at earthmoments.com/.../5elements

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