Sticks and Stones - Vietnamese Lithophone

Sticks and Stones is a Vietnamese lithophone, a pitched percussion instrument made from stone, meticulously sampled in a top Hanoi studio by a professional lithophone player.

Lithophones are some of the earliest musical instruments made by humans, and some of oldest known have been found in Vietnam, where the tradition lives on to this day, with the lithophone being an integral part of traditional Vietnamese music being performed daily across the country. In fact, Vietnam is probably the only country in the world where you can be a professional lithophone player.

Features

To make this instrument we sampled Vietnamese lithophone virtuoso Ngoc Tran in a top studio in the heart of Hanoi. The instrument was sampled with both traditional bamboo and hard wood mallets, as well as some non-traditional soft felt mallets. For both mallet types you get standard hits and rolls, the latter with 3 real dynamic layers that you can crossfade between with the mod wheel. You also get some resonant rubs which you can seamlessly crossfade between 3 different speeds, and some natural pentatonic glissandos up and down the instrument.

To capture as much detail as possible, we used eight microphones in total, mixed down to four signals: under, close, mid and far.

A sound across time

It's an instrument that's directly connected to nature, cultures and musical traditions that spans the globe and pre-dates modern civilization. It's raw, earthy, beautiful and in-your-face all at once, and if you are brave enough you can use it to replace your standard orchstral glockenspiel, when you need one that actually goes to 11. It's nimble and agile with a huge dynamic range, and it's great for anytime you need a sound that instantly conjures up nature and ancient cultures – or just for layering with your synths for some extra delicious bell tones.

Sticks & Stones contains 2472 samples, 5 Kontakt patches, is 1.92 GB installed size and requires the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 6.7.1 or later. It will not work in the free Kontakt Player.

It's available now with an introductory price of $19 until June 14th. Regular full price $29.