The story
Back in 2019 I did a three week long Interrail trip (traveling by train) from Germany through the Balkans, all the way down to Greece. In Athens I found a shop selling Bouzoukis (https://www.thebouzoukishop.com/).
As I travelled with only a backpack and I wanted to bring a souvenir home, I bought a Baglamas, which is a small version of a Bouzouki, and it fit perfectly into my luggage. Back home I played it a few times, but I always wanted to try sampling an instrument myself, so I went for the Baglamas for my first sampled instrument. It has a quite high and aggressive sound, even when played softly, because of the small size and resonance room. I hope people enjoy playing it, the sound reminds me always of my travels in Greece. Feel free to mangle it to your taste! 😉
The samples were recorded chromatically with a plectrum in two velocity layers (although there is no huge difference in sound between the two layers) with two RR per note and layer. Denoise was applied.
The controls are pretty straight forward, despite the names: From left to right you have controls over reverb („Tsatsiki“), Low Pass Filter („Sirtaki“) and ADSR (“α,δ,σ,ρ”).
Enjoy!
Interface
Reviews for Baglamas – Greek Mini Bouzouki
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Mediterranean flavour
A wonderful opportunity to get to play an instrument I would not otherwise come in contact with! I use it to add a mediterranean flavour to tracks that I am working on.
Thanks to Alex for teaching us all how to pronounce tzatziki, I have apparently been saying it wrong all my life! :)
Picky Greek guy approves!
Baglamas has a special place in my heart because it was my first instrument! And I have to say, this is a very nicely sampled one, and it has retained the nice unique character to it. It also has this "weird" rattling noise in some notes, which is honestly very impressive and realistic.
It comes in its full 2.5 octaves (it's a VERY small instrument), and "correctly" includes the lower double notes after the lower A (the top string constist of two strings, which is a combination of one thin and one thick strings).
The GUI is a custom ultra-stereotypical greek one, and it comes with full ADSR settings, a filter and a reverb. I'm not quite sure why the effects are Tzatziki and Sirtaki, since the one is a food and the other one is a type of dance, but it's funny and it rhymes.
Also, it's tzatziki, not tsatsiki, which for the curious, tz is pronounced with a J sound! :P
Sounds great
I once saw someone play a bouzouki at a place and i have been dreaming of getting one someday. This library really hot the sweet spot with the instrument. Greatly sampled. Good at have the Adsr control over. This definitely fulfilled my needs for the instrument. Stellar job
Great authentic Baglamas
I own a very similar instrument to this one, which I had plans of sampling. I can probably focus on other instruments now because I think this does a very good job of capturing the character of the instrument. It's deep sampled with every chromatic note individually sampled with multiple RRs, and range extended at the top end. You can extend the range at least an octave in the bass without it sounding bad, but the current set-up replicates the true range of the instrument. As Alex points out, the octaved strings at the low end are also true to the instrument. As mentioned in the description, there is little noticeable difference between the velocity layers, so these kind of function as an extra pair of RRs. If I was trying to justify sampling my own instrument when this already exists, I would probably try to do more with the dynamic range and maybe some extra features like chord/drone capabilities, though this is still very functional without those extras. The UI has a nice Greek theme, though for me the colour coding of the knobs is counterintuitive - I guess I want more white as I fill up my tsatsiki bar? But regardless, this is a great replication of a real Baglamas which will save you having to travel to Athens to buy your own (but definitely go to Athens anyway).
Greek strings
It is good to know that the typical instruments of some regions are not being left aside. The sound of this pack is good and conveys that Greek touch that is usually sought after. The interface is simple and nice, and the integrated controls are more than enough.
