Kalimba Experiments

Over Christmas, I got my first physical instrument. A 17 key kalimba from amazon.

Originally, this library was going to be a few things… first it was going to be an ensemble library, then I was going to record a few articulations including an odd swarm articulation and then playing the kalimba into a coffee mug and have multiple dynamic layers…

My birthday came around on the 4th of Feb (at the time of me writing this, this month) and I then got a new microphone. The microphone is a TONOR TC-777 (highly recommend if you want a mic that isn’t too expensive but also doesn’t sounds like grated cheese.) and I tried to record my original library idea, the cup idea was scrapped because it was too quiet to be heard on the mic, another problem i had was that the ensemble didn’t really sound like an ensemble, just an amplified version of the signal.

A project came through that I needed to score which was a comic dub project called Avatar Book 4 Restoration Project, and so I had to get the kalimba library ready to score my parts for the episode which I can’t talk about yet, so I put together my own kalimba library or that reason. I’m not one for using commercial libraries for things like a kalimba.

You have 1 dynamic layer, and 3 round robins.

The recorded range is C4 to C6, it does go up to E6 but the last 2 notes are difficult to play. I also expanded the range thanks to pitch shifting, so the lowest note is C3, and the highest note is G6.

Like all my libraries, there’s the famous 3 knobs!
Volume = CC11 (controls the volume)
Wobble = CC1 (messes wit the sound, thats for you to explore)
Reverb = Controls one of 4 convolution verbs which can be selected in the drop down menu.

REVERBS:
Small Room – A Small room convolution. Turn it up to be more noticeable.
Bloom (Default) – A very big reverb, use very little as this one can get a bit overwhelming if you use too much of it…
Presence – A Similar reverb to Small reverb. Turn it up to be more noticeable.
Heavy – A reverb that smacks you in the face, use this one lightly.

EXTRA NOTES:
It is recommended you don’t hold the notes for too long otherwise you will hear a low hum, I can’t get rid of that completely but I have tried to EQ as much of it out as possible without killing the sound, and it was because I had my laptop on charge while recording these.

You can check out the overview here:

As always, have fun.