I wanted to single out and transport every audible element of the real instrument into the digital world as best as I could, including:

– The plucking sound of the steel tongues
– The stopping sound of the steel tongues (only audible when sustain pedal isn’t pressed)
– The main tone
– The resonance of the other tongues
– The thumb sticking to the surface of the kalimba when played more forceful
– The finger holes on the body acting like a high pass filter (playable with mod wheel, but not extremely practical. But it works when overdubbing the motion on a second recording pass)

What I didn’t achieve to do:

– The sound of putting the fingers on and off the finger holes when using the mod wheel
(There was something in the sfz language that played a sample when a CC was below or above
a number, but it just became too complicated for me)
– record more interesting round robin variations (The ones I’ve used are kind of too similar I think)
– more sustain
– having every steel tongue in a realistic position in the stereo field

Have fun making music!
David

Contributors

Cnokner