Sonokinetic releases Hurdy Gurdy, a FREE medieval bowed string instrument for Kontakt Player 7.
This free Kontakt library is special because it takes a 500-year-old traditional medieval Instrument and puts it in your DAW for free. The hurdy-gurdy is a beloved sound for those who enjoy fantasy movie scores and an instant recall for medieval-themed music lovers.
So whether it’s the Lord of the Rings soundtrack or festivals themed around medieval Europe or Eurasia, the sound of the hurdy-gurdy is a mainstay. It’s meant to create a harmonic environment for melodic instruments to play in. For those who don’t know about it, you are certainly going to enjoy checking out the virtual version from Sonokinetic.
It has a powerful ethnic feel that will fit in very well for creating the mood for roleplaying games set in an ancient world. And it will likely do equally well for modern electronic productions that want to add some medieval vibes. It’s great for creating rich rhythmic parts that will sit well with a rich synth lead, perhaps even a heavy and syncopated bassline.
Sonokinetic is known for creating boutique-quality virtual instruments, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It’s fairly basic in terms of control, but it has enough to make it useful for professional producers. You can control all the essential aspects of the instrument and thus control the overall feel. The added nostalgia is going to shine through no matter how you use it.
The instrument was made by sampling a single Dutch-made “DRAAILIER” Hurdy Gurdy, and it has the pristine quality that you would expect from a professional virtual instrument.
All the sound is at 48 kHz/24-bit, which should please the pickiest of producers. It needs the Kontakt Player 7 plugin from Native Instruments, which is also available for free for both Windows and OSX.
Sonokinetic’s free Hurdy Gurdy is made up of over 1,400 samples and is contained within a single NKI patch. If that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry, there’s a lot of documentation for everything. Get it all from the official Sonokinetic website.
Download: Sonokinetic Hurdy Gurdy
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