Modern Bodhrán

Modern Bodhrán features four unique drums:

Drum 1 was built by Seamus O'Kane in Ireland in 2005. It's made with lambeg skin and has 8 standard tuners on the inside of the rim which are manipulated with a screwdriver. This is quite a big drum with a 16" frame and it has a beautiful smooth tone with a huge range. The tones have a really clear and soft quality, with a booming low end and a very high and striking top end.

Drum 2 is a wonderful bodhrán made by Christian Hedwitschak, who is based in Germany. He crafts beautiful bodhráns, and they are certainly some of the most sought after and revered in the bodhrán playing community. The model we sampled is the Martin O'Neill Signature line, made around 2014. This is a slightly smaller drum at 14" with a depth of 6". It has a beautiful skin with a huge range of tones that gives a very balanced sound across the whole range of the drum.

Drum 3 was built sometime around 2007 by Steve Forman. Steve is a fantastic and highly respected percussionist based in LA who relocated to Scotland. This bodhrán is one he made as part of his Tambourine Studios Bodhrán collection. This bodhrán is made with a premium natural rawhide goatskin, on a 13" all-maple Keller cylinder frame. It has a wide range of tones and a slightly 'harder' tonal quality to the skin.

Drum 4 was crafted by John Wilson of Skye Bodhráns sometime around 2009/2010. Another of the more modern style bodhráns with a deep rim and smaller 13" frame. It has quite a wide range of tones and responds nicely under a mic and live. It also gives a good range of volume and responds well to the strength with which you strike the skin. As is common for many bodhráns made around this time, it is a more comfortable drum to play with its diameter and depth, but not as big a range tonally as one of Seamus O'Kane's.

For every stick and every tone of the four drums we recorded both up and down strokes at three dynamic levels. Each of these was recorded six times to give a total of twelve repetitions at each dynamic.

We recorded each drum with 3 different sticks.

Hot Rod: Bundles of thin dowels or sticks bound together. They offer a unique sound by blending the qualities of sticks and brushes.

Tipper: This is considered the traditional stick of the bodhrán. They come in a range of shapes and materials. For Modern Bodhrán we used a hard wooden tipper which gives a firm, clear sound.

Brush: Unlike the hot rod or tipper the brush produces a soft sound. Perfect for mellow background accompaniment.

The bodhrán is capable of producing a range of tones depending on how and where the player places their hand inside the drum.

We recorded five tones for each drum and stick. Low, Low Middle, High Middle, High, and No Tone (hand flat on the back of the drum skin). In addition we recorded rimshots with the Hot Rod and Tipper to help you recreate that authentic bodhrán sound.

The virtual instrument's on-screen keyboard has been colour coded to help you trigger the tones you want.

We recorded everything with five microphones. Three were placed at the back of the drum and two at the front. In addition a stereo mix of the five microphones is included.

{See video at top of page}