The story
I have lived in Vietnam on an off since 2013, and have always had a deep fascination with traditional Vietnamese instruments. I have an ever growing collection of Vietnamese instruments, and the Dan Bau is my favourite of them all. It’s a monochord, and is traditionally played by plucking the string with a long bamboo pick, while stopping it at a natural harmonic with the palm of your hand. It’s very difficult to play it “properly” since only the notes of the harmonic series are available, and all other notes are produced by changing the tension in the string with a flexible bamboo handle. This handle is all used for vibrato and intricate ornaments. Being a string player, and the founder of Bunker Samples, my natural instinct was to bow the string rather than pluck it, and thus began a long exploration of what is now slowly becoming a commercial sample library to be released soon. Along the way I experimented with using and eBow, which uses electro magnetism to vibrate the string. That experiment turned into this simple pad, which is a single sample processed with delays and reverbs. It has a beautiful, slow natural attack, but I have included the option of cutting into the sample and setting your own attack time. It’s a simple, but beautiful pad and I hope it will be useful to the Pianobook community.
There is a walkthrough video available here:
Reviews for Dan Bau Pad
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
A magnificent pad instrument
There is not much to say, other than this is a great instrument. I loved the fact that you have complete control of the Attack and Release, along with a Sample Start Offset control. With these three you can go from a full ambient experience to a poppy, synth-like lead. I have no complains whatsoever, but from a more serious perspective, it is "just another pad" - but greatly executed nonetheless.
Beautiful eerie pad
A lovely, smooth, mellow, haunting pad. Seems good for sci-fi or something reflective.
Pads done right!
This library is one of my favorites on PB because it does a few things exceedingly well that almost all the others miss: First and foremost, there's a long attack in the actual sample. This is usually a deal breaker for me, because even when adjusting the attack time to zero within Kontakt, you can't shorten the attack. This instrument includes a sample start offset slider in the GUI! That's so perfect! I love it! There's also attack and release controls, so you can lengthen or shorten both to your heart's content. I appreciate that this library isn't drenched in reverb that I can't eliminate. It ticks all of the boxes for me, and that's why it's one of my go-to pads. Love it!
Almost sounds like a Chior
This pad is really beautiful, simple and almost sounds like a choir. I love the way it subtly modulated and stays interesting. The GUI is really simple but clean. I also like the way the sample start time is right on the GUI. The instrument also isn't muddy even when stacking notes in the lower ranges which is cool
Eno called, he wants his pad back
A very simple and pure pad. Has a clean synth like sound but with s lightly organic quality about it. Very Eno. Classy stuff from Bunker sounds.
