“Space Island” Toy Steel Drum

A Solaris-esque stereo steel drum recorded with a 414.

ByJoshua Meltzer

The story

I recorded a few notes from an old toy steel drum I had lying around. I used my trusty 414 to record it. I loaded to instances of the instrument, then reversed on and slightly panned them. (Pun regretfully intended πŸ™‚

It is a super simple instrument and took about a half hour to make, but I am surprisingly finding it inspiring. P.S. Don’t tell Cliff Martinez. Ha!

Reviews

  • Really nice, go well with many libraries

    I love this steel drum! Another pad like sound. It has a nice delay and gives an interesting effect.

    β€” Asuka Amane on 16 October 2021
  • Definitely not a toy anymore!

    This is a wonderful idea, executed very well. I simply love the sound of it and it makes me have good thoughts, which is something important to me. Anyway, you will only find a multi-patch that contains two instruments that can't be control and have no GUI at all. The reverse idea is magnificent but sadly you can't control the speed of it. Once you press a key, at some point it gets back to you. Weirdly enough, the samples are put at -4 semitones in order to match the correct pitch, so keep that in mind!

    β€” Alex Raptakis on 14 October 2021
  • Unique but Nuanced sound

    This is a cool sounding instrument and a unique one. I can't see myself using this very often but if i ever wanted a steel drum sound it sound work well. The reverses are especially cool. I would maybe get rid of the transient and just let those reverses fade in. It would also be nice to have some control over the reverb if you wanted a drier sound

    β€” septemberwalk on 25 October 2021
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