The story
History :
Saraswati Veena is an Indian plucked instrument. There are 4 types of Veena Instruments considered by scholars now-a-days and they are the Tanjavur (Saraswati) Veena, Rudra Veena, Vichitra Veena, and Gottuvadhyam (Chitra) Veena. While the Saraswati veena is considered in the Lute genealogy, other North Indian Veenas such as the Rudra Veena and Vichitra Veena are technically Zithers.
The Veena has a recorded history that dates back to the approximately 1700 BCE.
About Saraswati Veena Instrument :
Basically, it is mostly used in Carnatic Music, a form of South Indian Classical Music. The current form of the Saraswati Veena with 24 fixed frets evolved in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, during the reign of Raghunatha Nayak and it is for this reason sometimes called the Tanjore Veena or the Raghunatha Veena.The Saraswati Veena contains 4 lead strings to play the solo lead part of the music and 3 drone strings played to provide the tempo informations.
Pitampura in East Godavari District and Bobbili in Vijayanagara District of Andhra Pradesh State in India is famous for Veena makers.
Audio Production :
The Author / Samplist Girish Patro recorded Saraswati Veena played by Ch. Ramakrishna who is an Ophthalmologist by profession and one of the students of Late Gosto Chandra Patro (passed away on 12-02-2022), who used to learn Carnatic Music (a South Indian Classic Music) on Veena Instrument. Since 2006, Girish used to accompany Ramakrishna on Tabla (an Indian Percussion Instrument) in many Katcheris (an assembly of musicians and audience in the context of Carnatic Music).
For Sound Recording, the author/samplist has used Shure SM7B and Audix OM2 moving coil microphones. Though it is an indoor recording setup, he took off the windshield of Shure SM7B and also took off the grill of Audix OM2. he has used Apollo Twin MKII Duo manufactured by Universal Audio. The whole audio production is completed using Logic Pro X and Mixbus 5 Digital Audio Workstations. He has completed the audio signal processing by taking advantage of emulated plugins manufactured by Universal Audio and Harrison Consoles. He has also done audio post-production of the recorded audio samples.
His grandfather Late Bhakta bachhala Patro, was a Veena Artist (Vainika) at All India Radio situated at Cuttack town in Odisha State of India. He have two of his grand father’s Saraswati Veenas with a better maintenance. Please note that Indian Musicians really care for their respective musical instruments.
His father Late Gosto Chandra Patro (passed away on 12-02-2022) was popular among the students for training Carnatic Music on Vocals, Veena, Bansuri, Harmonium. He was a Music Therapist and an Ayurvedic Doctor. He also did business in trading the musical instruments such as Veena, Bansuri (Indian Origin of Flute) and Harmonium.
In the “Saraswati Veena Spatial” EXS24 Instrument Package, Girish has included
1. the instruments “Saraswati Veena Spatial” and “Saraswati Veena Pad” and their Channel Strip Settings
2. a TEST project ready to play and demo your music on Saraswati Veena
3. a Logic Pro X demo project named as “Morning Inspiration” that make you understand the Playing Techniques and Spatial Mix of Saraswati Veena
4. Impulse Response Audio Sample collections and Space Designer presets for the included impulse response audio sample collections
About the Author :
The Author, Girish Patro, is an accomplished Sound Engineer and a well known Trainer in Sound Engineering and Music Production.
He also worked as a Sound Engineer Assistant for Mrs.Sona Mohapatra (Singer) and Mr. Ram Sampath (Record Producer) at Omgrown Music Studio (Mumbai) who provide Music Production services to Ad Agencies and Film Production Companies. His work and workflow of each assigned task are appreciated by Music Performers and Record Producers.
He has trained many more sound engineers, music performers, music educators at “Sound Engineering Academy” (Trivandrum), “Centurion University” (Bhubaneswar) and “Mumbai Audio & Music Academy” (Lucknow), who are currently working at the Music Industry in India and abroad and published books about Sound Engineering, Music Production and Music Business.
For more details about the author/samplist, please visit
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishpatro/
Pianobook Profile: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/profile/girishpatro
Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/author/girishpatro
Reviews for Saraswati Veena
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Great Indian sounds!
This is a well played and well recorded Veena. It sounds great, is in tune, and the samples are really well edited in Kontakt. It plays beautifully, and is instantly inspiring and evocative. I love that you can eliminate all of the reverb with a single click. this is perfect. This samplist did an amazing job with this instrument. I can't imagine this being better in any way. This is a pro level instrument. I love it. Thank you so much for this awesome contribution to PB!
A unique and near perfect instrument!
This is a fantastic and very unique instrument that has been sampled near-perfectly. You can clearly identify the indian characer and it plays really well. It has a very big range, and fortunately the notes doesn't seem to be stretched, though the lower you go, the more the chance of you noticing some white noise. On the highs though, after A5, the rest of the notes are multi-strummed ones, so it would be much better so those were coloured differently, at least in Kontakt. To me they sound very stretched out the higher I go, so keep that in mind.
Another note: Like many others, this is another insturment that there is no Kontakt label on the thumbnail...
Really great work
It seems like alot of work was put into this library which we are all grateful for. This has an unmistakably middle eastern sound. It won't work in all contexts but when it does i think its a really great choice. Its always exiting when we get more rare instruments on pianobook that aren't often sampled. This instrument can get very bright without being harsh. It can definitely cut through a mix which is awesome. I agree with others that the chord keys could have been more clearly separated from the melodic ones but this is still a really fantastic instrument with alot of character.
One of my favourite sample instruments
This instrument has a really lovely, clear sound, especially in the higher register. Despite being a 'solo instrument' I find it sits pretty easily into a mix with orchestrals or other instruments. The placement of the 'chord' keys immediately above the top of the melodic register is a little jarring - very easy to suddenly drop several octaves and hit a chord if you're ad-libbing a melody. I'd prefer to have these either below the lowest range or a few keys higher so it didn't merge into the melody. But otherwise the instrument is very nice and easy to use.
A must Have if you're into ethnic music
the minute i heard the sound and how he played it, i just knew that this is a must have, the recording could've been better but honestly it doesn't matter that much cause of the texture this instrument have
