Ancient Greek Percussion
Ancient Greek Percussion is a fantastic collection of 6 deeply sampled hand percussion instruments that explore the oldest roots of Western musical traditions, stretching back thousands of years – and likely with roots that easily predate all of recorded history. This library features a Crotalum, Kymbalon, Sistrum, 15-inch Tympanon, 22-inch Tympanon, and Tympanon Zill. Crafted of wood, gut, goat skins and bronze, these rustic musical artifacts capture the sound and soul of classical Greek musical craftsmanship at its peak. Their influence has shaped modern frame drums, riqs, dafs, tambourines and finger cymbals. Each piece was hand-crafted by master instrument maker and musical historian Panagiotis Stefos of LyrΑvlos in Athens. Stefos and his team played each instrument, all recorded in exquisite detail by producer John Valasis, with up to 12 round-robins and 10 dynamic velocities per articulation.
You'll enjoy our flexible GUI features, with independent close and overhead mic positions, a wide selection of chromatic and special effect articulations and a bank of 20 sound-designed ambiences created from the raw acoustic source for added texture and creative potential. Ancient Greek Percussion includes 4,092 24-bit 48kHz stereo samples and is just over 3 GB installed.
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Artist
John Valasis [website] [music] [facebook] LyrAvlos [website]
Ancient Greek Percussion was recorded by John Valasis. John is a Greek-born composer, producer and sound designer. From his Athens based studio, he delivers scoring, foley and sound design services for many local and international clients. John's clientele includes prestigious brands like Native Instruments, Ableton, Soundiron, Virgin, Amazon Prime Video, Vice Magazine and BBC. John is also roster of Ninja Tune's imprint Just Isn't Music, alongside artists like Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Flying Lotus and The Cinematic Orchestra.
Lyravlos is a historical organization, musical ensemble and research group that recreates authentic bronze age instruments, using the same raw materials as instrument craftsmen in the height of Athens in 430 BC. They are recognized in Greece as well as abroad for a work not only of artistic and educational value, but also of important accomplishments in original research. From the Athens Hall of Music and the Warsaw Opera, from the Festival of Old Music in Stockholm and Corcoran Gallery in Washington, to the co-operation with the National Orchestra of Athens in the First Greek Musical Celebrations, to the participation in the festivities of the 2004 Olympic Games and with Universities as the Boston University, Sorbonne, Ionian University, University of Ioannina, also with more than 400 concerts and seminars in schools of all grades, Lyravlos has become identified to realize the most well documented effort towards the learning and promotion of the rich Ancient Greek musical tradition. The fundamental aim of Lyravlos is to revive in a scientifically documented manner and to rightly promote the Ancient Greek music, by reconstructing the instruments which give life to the ancient sounds.
Contents
The Kontakt interface includes a suite of automation-ready sound-shaping controls to give you total creative flexibility. You have control over swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse & fine), articulation switching, cross-fading and layering, and so much more. We've also included 20 unique sound-designed custom FX presets to give you lots of creative options.
This library comes with an adaptable LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing and fade-in time. You can also apply your choice of 12 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters, with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, modwheel, expression, after-touch, key position and step-sequencer table control. Our customizable arpeggiator offers a velocity table and control over arp direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. We’ve included a key and scale lock system to constrain your notes to common scales and keys for easy melodic composition and live performance.
The interface is rounded-out by our modular FX rack panel, with 18 different DSP effect modules that you can assign in any of 10 available slots, in any order that you wish. You’ll find classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator and so much more. The Reverb effect includes our favorite convolution reverb impulse responses, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, plus another 40 custom FX impulses to radically transform the sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibility. We’ve added a great bank of FX rack chain factory presets to get you started!
Kontakt Format
This library is designed for the full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or later. Kontakt is an industry-standard advanced virtual instrument software platform. You can view screenshots of this library's custom graphical user interface in the image gallery above. This library is packed with features to provide you a wide range of sound shaping parameter controls, each one totally automation-ready in your host environment or Kontakt's stand-alone mode. Learn more about Kontakt by Clicking Here.
This is a standard Kontakt open-format library, so the free Kontakt Player does not fully support it and can only run it in a limited "demo mode". However, the sample directories are unlocked so you can use them in other wav-compatible software, sampler and synth formats. The special Libraries tab doesn't support this open-format Kontakt library, but you can use the standard File browser tab and import this library into the Kontakt Quickload window for easy loading and navigation.
Product Specs
- One master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format
- Crotalum, Kymbalon, Sistrum, Tympanon articulations sampled in close and far mic positions
- 20 Ambience patches created from the source content
- 24 bit / 48 kHz uncompressed PCM wav samples
- 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
- 4,092 Stereo WAV files
- 3.06 GB installed
- Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator
- Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments
Documentation
System Requirements
The full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt version 5.5 (or later) is required to use .nki instrument presets included in this library. The free Kontakt "Player" and "Add Library" import process do not support this standard open-format Kontakt library. Windows 7 or higher. Mac OSX 10.9 or higher. Dual Core CPU, 2 GB System Ram, SATA or SSD hard drive recommended for this library.
Note: This digital product is delivered as a download via the Amazon S3 cloud network. A broadband internet connection is required. Please see our Help Page for licensing information, download and installation instructions, tutorials and to read our End User Licensing Agreement before ordering. All sales are final.
Videos
Walkthrough: Ancient Greek Percussion
Composing With Ancient Greek Percussion
Ancient Greek Strings - Trailer
Reviews & Endorsements
"Ancient Greek Percussion is highly musical and well produced. Its unique character shines through each of the beautiful instruments."
"If you already own, or are planning to purchase, the Ancient Greek Strings, I warmly suggest you get this library too, since this is the natural addition to it."