Tonehammer releases Whaledrum II (Dry) for Kontakt

Almost one year ago Tonehammer released the original Whaledrum. It followed along with Tonehammer's original ideals of deep sampling with abundant velocity layering and round-robin variation. Tonehammer chose to record it naturally wet, in a large wet hall environment, so that it blended well with many of Tonehammer's other instruments. Customers asked Tonehammer to capture it dry - enter Whaledrum II.

This new compendium takes the Whaledrum above and beyond the original concept. This humble 8-key vermilion box tongue drum is based on the traditional African slit drum. It has a warm, rounded, soft, almost dreamy tone. It's generally played with soft rubber mallets, although Tonehammer also played it with brushes wood sticks for effects and added rhythmic potential. Both versions are included: a wealth of new up-close and dry articulations, along with the original wet content, naturally captured in a large, bright tile and stone hall.

The dry version also includes an important new feature. While working with this instrument, Tonehammer noticed that playing the tongues closer to their base produced a thinner, crisper sound, while striking at the tip produced a fuzzier, deeper, muddy tone. These new dry patches allow mallet position cross-fading or switching, allowing for a greater playability.

As a bonus, Tonehammer included a wide selection of extra content. There are two 2 mini-libraries, featuring a little toy wooden "whaledrum" and a toy wooden Xylophone. Tonehammer also included a new set of custom multi-layered morphable ambient drone instruments, created by heavily manipulating the raw source behind this library. The process allows these droning "synth" pads to naturally meld with the whaledrum's sound.

This new complete Whaledrum library now features 3158 Samples, 53 instrument patches, custom ambient synth pads and a bonus epic reverb impulses set.

Whaledrum II is available for download now for $59. Native Instruments Kontakt 2/3/4 full retail version required. The free Kontakt Player is not supported.