Kloo Mandolin

[cameron]

Anyone here used the Kloo Mandolin samples for Kontakt? Looks like they've been around awhile (since 2004) but $49 is pretty reasonable if they're any good. Otherwise, any recommendations on mandolin or banjo samples that I can play via midi would be appreciated. I already have the Kontakt sample player, so anything in the Kontakt format would work for me.

Thanks!

Cam

[mazz]

I'm not familiar with the library, but just a head's up: Not all libraries out there will work with the sample player version of Kontakt, many 3rd party libraries will only work with the full version of Kontakt. I suggest checking with the vendor before breaking out yoru credit card.

Mazz

[Len911]

Well, Cam if you like free, here is a site that actually has banjo and mandolin samples. If you don't have any file conversion software, they even have a free sample player to play them with. The samples are in mp3 format, but they sound really quite good.


http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/thesounde ... s/library/

[jdhogg]

for demos I use these

http://www.boldersounds.net/bob-american-folk-p-8.html

$19

But you will have to check if they work witht the free kontakt player.

[cameron]

Thanks everyone! Great help, and especially good to know about the Kontakt "player".

Cam

[musicalweather]

I have the Kloo Mandolin from Precision Sounds... Decent enough; comes with picked, tremelo and various noises. I'd also suggest taking a look at the Best of Bolder American Folk library -- quite a bargain. It includes various kinds of mandolins as well as banjo and guitar. Not sure if any of these would work with the Kontakt player, though. I strongly suspect you'd need the full Kontakt program.

[Len911]

The Kloo mandolin only works with the full version of Kontakt, it's in the faq. The boldersounds work with the full version of Kontakt, but also apple esx, or you can download the free linux sampler for windows and use the giga samples if you have a windows computer.

[kevinmathie]

Yes, I've used the Kloo Mandolin, too. I was in a bind one night -- big deadline looming the next day -- and I needed a mandolin STAT. So, I found the Kloo Mandolin online, downloaded it, and it ended up working out very nicely. I'm not sure if it's just my ears, but this mandolin sounds like it would best fit in some sort of Eastern European music rather than American country music, although, the first use I had for it was for a country music type piece I was recording. But it was used in the background, rather than very prominent up-front.

The second piece I used it for was in a cue that was to evoke an ancient Roman feel. I used the Kloo Mandolin very prominently in the intro, and again it worked out very nice. For that piece, the instrument definitely established an exotic type sound.

So, depending on what you're using it for, I'd definitely recommend the Kloo Mandolin. I've been happy with it. The one big limitation I felt it had was with the tremolos. There is no way to speed up the tremolo or slow it down. So, you sort of have to write the music to the sample, so to speak. What I'd prefer is to have a patch or a keyswitch, or whatever, that would give me a "down" pluck sample when a key is pressed, and a corresponding "up" pluck sample when the key is released (with a multiple-sample round robin thing, of course, to avoid the machine gun effect) so I could control the speed of the tremolo myself. But, hey, for $49, wishing for extensive programming options isn't very realistic. And it's definitely worth the $49, imho.

[cameron]

Thanks for the detailed response Kevin!

Cam