This instrument came about as one of those completely unexpected experiences that comes to us as Pianobook Samplists – a wonderful surprise. In our house we use a very large metal mixing bowl for preparing meals that feature things like large salads and at Christmas, it’s used to prepare the dressing prior to stuffing for the Christmas dinner for eleven. I am the keeper of the kitchen which means that I do the clean-up and since I am an incessant “tapper” see my “Coffee Can Gamelan” sample pack, on the way back to return the bowl to storage, I discovered a wonderfully warm sound when tapping the bottom of the bowl. Naturally, it screamed to be “Sampled”. What I didn’t expect was that a simple tap would deliver several layers of harmonics – and not just ANY harmonics. When you play a single note in this sample pack you’ll hear overtones which actually make a single note sound like a diminished chord! And if you play a diminished chord, that resonance even grows stronger! I’ve setup the pre-formatted “verb” control in Decent Sampler but I would also sincerely recommend that you use additional VERB. There’s a plugin in Logic called CHROMAVERB that’s a lot of fun although I don’t have Kontakt, I’m sure there’s a similar plugin. Here are the settings as you hear them in my video demo. SELECT Chomaverb which is also really fun and hypnotic to watch using the setting “Cathedral” located in “Spaces” in the dropdown. Here’s the setting I used in the demo included in this posting: ATTACK 0% / SIZE 75% / DENSITY 70% / DECAY 3.5s / DISTANCE 80% / DRY 100% / WET 100% – of course, the more reverb the better when it comes to this sample. It does have pitch so it can be used in a demented melody but slow the attack and it provides an interesting pad sound. I hope you enjoy ROB’S MAGICAL MIXING BOWL MARIMBA!