Tonehammer releases Epic Dhol for Kontakt

Tonehammer has announced the release of a new Kontakt-based instrument: Epic Dhol. The library is made from deep sampling the high-end Punjab Dhol drums and recording them in the same orchestral hall as Tonehammer's Epic Toms.

The Punjab Dhol is a double-sided barrel drum large and bulky to produce the preferred loud bass. The drum consists of a wooden barrel with animal hide or synthetic skin stretched over its open ends, covering them completely. These skins can be stretched or loosened with a tightening mechanism made up of either interwoven ropes, or nuts and bolts. Tightening or loosening the skins subtly alters the pitch of the drum sound. The stretched skin on one of the ends is thicker and produces a deep, low frequency (higher bass) sound and the other thinner one produces a higher frequency sound. In contemporary Punjabi music, dhols with synthetic, or plastic, treble skins are very common.

The Tonehammer Epic Dhol drums follows Tonehammer's general direction in terms of recording all articulations at 10 velocity layers and 10 round robin pr. velocity layers. The Epic Dhol drums contains a great variety of articulations, since each side of drum produces very different sounds. Essentially it's divided into a bass section and a snare section. Tonehammer played the bass section with the traditional big wooden Dhol stick, mallet, hands and fingers to ensure they covered the entire range.

The sound is remarkably close to Taiko drums, but with a little more tone to it. The snare side was recorded with the traditional thin bamboo Dhol stick, however Tonehammer also recorded this side with mallets, brushes and fingers. In addition they recorded different rimshot positions on the drum, so the users can create a variety of different soundings rhythmic textures on the drum.

The library also contains a bonus section made from 874 live loops divided into BPM based banks.

Details:

• Core Dhol Drum Articulations, includes:
  • Dhol Bass Drum w/ traditional Dhol stick (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Bass Drum w/ mallet (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Bass Drum w/ hands (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Bass Drum w/ fingers (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Body Rim Shot 1 (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Body Rim Shot 2 (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Snare Drum w/ traditional Dhol bamboo stick (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Snare Drum w/ mallet (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
  • Dhol Snare Drum w/ brushes (10 velocity layers - 10 round robin).
• 874 BPM loops w/ assorted percussion.
• 80, 90, 110, 120, 130, 140 BPM.
• 20 instrument patches, 2.063 samples, 1.7 GB installed, 995 MB .rar download.
• Sample resolution: 44.1Khz/16Bit .wav format (optional 48Khz/24bit .wav format included).
• Format(s): Kontakt 2 and .wav. Note: Native Instruments Kontakt 2.2.4 / 3 full stand-alone retail versions required.

Pricing & Availability

Epic Dhol has an MSRP of $89 (16 bit) / $99 (24 bit).