Hopkin Instrumentarium: Alt Alt

Alt Alt is a board zither with 16 strings, 12 of them tuned to the same pitch and 4 tuned to the octave above. The strings are positioned very close together so they aren’t picked separately; the idea is to sound all 16 strings at once to produce a single grand composite tone. The played note is chosen by a row of steel bars just above the strings. To change the effective string lengths, the player presses down on one of the bars, holding it against the strings. There are 36 spring-mounted bars positioned to produce a chromatic scale. The strings sound by strumming with the right hand while pressing the bars with the left, or simply by hammering the bars down.

Predecessors for Alt Alt’s keying mechanism can be found in a variety of instruments around the world, including akkordia, bulbul tarang, and taishogoto, as well as nyckelharpa and hurdy-gurdy. The technique of sounding the strings by hammering down with the bars is reminiscent of the way the strings are activated in clavichords, except that in clavichords only one or two strings are activated. For these samples, the strings were played in three ways: slow strums, fast strums, and hammer down. Alt Alt sounds best when the tuning is slightly imperfect, because that creates the richest chorusing effect. The tone is very distinctive; not really strange or far-out, just unusually organic and full.

We've faithfully sampled every interesting sound we could get out of this zither, with two stereo mic positions: Close mics, and Pickups. Hammer down, fast strums, and slow strums are available in all four layers to easily mix and match. With up to 8x round robin and 6 velocity layers per note, you’ll be swimming in lush timbres in no time. We've also included a wide selection of custom FX presets and plenty of our signature sound-designed ambient content, crafted from the raw acoustic source to give you complete creative freedom.