The Chordophones
$35.00 USD (including tax)
The Chordophones is a Kontakt instrument made from multisampled plucked and hammered strings. It is an interesting and creative sound design instrument that features 6 different sounds that can be layered together. As well interesting sound design, it’s capable of producing lively and realistic dulcimer-like or lyre-like tones. It comes with a sequencer which is excellent at making hybrid-organic rhythms and arpeggiations.
This product requires the paid version of Kontakt.
Style | Cinematic, Realistic, Unusual |
---|---|
Content | Found Sounds, Tonal Percussion |
Format | Kontakt Instrument |
- 9 nki presets
- 3/4 round robin on up to 2 velocity layers
- 28 Custom IRs
- Features the FrozenPlain Effects Engine v2.0: arpeggiator, reverb, atomise, echo & more
- 6 layers of sound to mix in and for unique sound design
- Built in arpeggiator
- Great sound design tool (pads/ambiances)
The Chordophones is built using the combined sounds of the retired FrozenPlain products “Ancient Chordophone” and “Hammered Chordophone”. The new and vastly more powerful engine breathes new life into the samples.
The Chordophones is a library of steel string sounds that can be blended and morphed in interesting ways to make anything from something resembling a dulcimer to something guitar-like or even organic sustains and pads. The volume, pan and tuning of the 6 layers can be chosen using the mixer.
First we have the hammered strings sound, this is a multi-sampled sound made from hitting steel strings with pencils. Its tone is bouncy and rich, similar to a dulcimer. The next 4 layers are multi-sampled plucked string sounds. They’re made from recording steel strings in unusual setups, for example a very short length string. The last layer is a morphed sound made by stretching and editing a plucked string sample to last infinitely.
Overall, the Chordophones has an emotive, old sound to it. Sometimes even sounding quite “medieval”. Using the powerful interface you can adapt the sound to fit your needs. For example, you can use the Strum effect to turn chords into strums. Or the Atomise and Scatter effects to granulate the sound and create string sounding textures and pads.
The second page of The Chordophones is the FrozenPlain Effects Engine v2.0, this is features 13 effects such as: reverb, delay, arpeggiator, sequencer, chorus, filters and more.
“A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification.”
Download The Chordophones Manual (PDF)
Download Effects Engine Manual (PDF)
![]() | Easy to Use MixerUsing the mixer you can change the volume, pan and tune of each of the 6 layers. This allows you to dial in the sound that you want. If you need to save RAM you can shift+click to purge the samples of that layer from memory. |
![]() | ADSR EnvelopesEach of the 6 layers have their own ADSR volume envelope allowing you to shape the sound. As an additional ease of use feature, you can edit all of the envelopes at once using the master envelope. |
![]() | Convolution ReverbThe convolution reverb in The Chordophones can be used as a sound design tool. This reverb unit includes 28 custom made creative impulse responses. When applied they can turn the sound into beautiful textures and atmospheres. |
![]() | Effects Page with 13 racksThe Chordophones comes with the FrozenPlain effects engine which features effects such as an arpeggiator for creating rhythms, an Atomise effect used to granulate the sound, and filters, reverb and more. |
- This library requires the full version of Kontakt verstion 5.1 or above to work. It will only work in demo mode if you have the free Kontakt Player.
- Because this product is not for Kontakt Player, it cannot be added with the ‘add library’ function, you must instead load the .nki files through the file browser, or by dragging and dropping.
- 104 samples (lossless NCW format)
- 282 MB extracted
- 24bit/44.1khz stereo samples
- 256 MB zip file download
3 reviews for The Chordophones
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Peter Marcy –
I love the sounds I can get from this instrument. I use it for both atmospheric pads and rhythmic accompaniment.
Michael Dawson –
Great sounding VST!
Just like it says, realistic dulcimer-like or lyre-like tones.
Very useful and sounds great! 🙂
oldersound –
It’s there every time I’ve needed this sound. I don’t remember feeling: I must look for a better one. It always complies with what you want and you can take it to more states than its own.