Impact Soundworks has announced the release of The Stroh Violin, a free (for a limited time only) Native Instruments Kontakt sample library featuring the sounds of a rare Stroh violin acoustic instrument.
So, what on earth is a Stroh violin? I had that same question earlier today when I spotted this brand new (and rather steampunk-ish looking) freebie by Impact Soundworks. It turns out that the Stroh violin is an interesting variation of the classic violin design, invented and patented by electrical engineer John Matthias Augustus Stroh back in 1899. It never became quite as popular as the classic violin, however it’s apparently often used by folk music players and street performers in Europe.
The instrument itself looks like some sort of a weird crossover between a violin and a trumpet (or some other brass instrument) and, at least as far as I’m concerned, its looks aren’t really all that promising. It’s the sound that counts though, and sound-wise it is quite similar to the classic violin, but with this really cool brassy ring to it. I wasn’t expecting much prior to launching the sound library provided by Impact Soundworks, but I was pretty much blown away after playing the first few notes.
The download pack contains a single NKI patch, however the patch comes with three different articulations (legato, spiccato, pizzicato) and a surprisingly well implemented sequencer module. The included samples sound absolutely great and there are enough round robin variations and velocity layers inside to make it easy to create natural sounding performances. I simply loved the pizzicato samples and those samples alone are more than enough of a reason for me to keep this library. The other two articulations are also very good though, especially when combined with the sequencer which turns this sample library into an almost synth-like instrument.
According to the info provided by Impact Soundworks, The Stroh Violin will be offered as a free download for a limited time only, however I couldn’t figure out a specific end date for this offer. I’ll update the article once (and if) I manage to get this piece of information. It’s also worth noting that the email which contains the download link (you’ll need to go through the standard checkout procedure in order to get your free copy of the library) also contains a 20% discount code which can be applied to any purchase in the Impact Soundworks shop.
Since I don’t have enough time to write another article today, I’ll add a little note here that Karoryfer Samples (creators of the awesome free double bass for SFZ) have released Blackheart and Merry Orks, two really cool free sound libraries in SFZ format. Definitely check them out if you’re a fan of Karoryfer’s previous work.
Audio Demo
Check out The Stroh Violin audio demo:
Download
The Stroh Violin is available for free download via Impact Soundworks (115 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 1 instrument patch in NKI format for NI Kontakt).
