Recording Balinese Gamelan in Ubud, Bali

This is my 5th time living in Bali in the last 3 years and if you planning on going don’t go July and August. I never experienced such a huge amount of traffic and tourists. Seriously it’s crazy and also quite “cold” around this time.

We normally go in March or at the end of September. If you ever planning on going don’t go now. Everybody talks about Sidemen now and I am going to check out this little town here in Bali and see what is the magic behind. I bring my recorder and see if I can grab some cool sounds from there as well.

About the Gamelan

First Note for some of you who wonder about the release. Yes, I got the permission to record and release these recordings. If you use these recordings credits goes to “Nangun Semita Liang” Ubud and if you need permission for commercial use contact Wayan Nugraha ([email protected])!

I drove on my motorbike down the Hanoman road and I could already hear some traditional music from the distance.

After I came closer I looked to the right and saw a group of young men sitting in this open house and playing traditional Balinese music. I came to the right time because they just did the warm-up.

A group with at least 25 people so I stopped my motorbike turn around and walked up to them and asked them friendly if I could record this music. I think many people outside of Bali might be very interested in the music and how it sounds like.

How I recorded the Gamelan?

Everybody was super friendly and happy that somebody shows interested in the traditional music. I placed my recorder and the microphone closer to the musicians with the Bonang, the Kethuk, the Kendank and one of my favorite instrument, the Gong.

The Gong is insane. You can listen to the gong in several warm-up tracks ( I just called them that way ) but in the main tracks 01 and 02 you can really feel the power and the vibration of it.

The musician sits in the middle between 3 of these gongs and if I am correct these gongs are made of bronze. He hits the gongs with the shoulders left and right and with a huge drumstick. I can only imagine how intense these vibrations sounds like for the person inside the circle.

I recorded for one hour and the group stopped at 10 pm.

We had a nice chat about the music after the play and I showed them my website and promised to send them all the audio files. After editing these sounds I had almost 35 minutes of usable sounds recorded and created 22 different soundtracks.

The warm-up tracks are short versions. The group started playing and stopped immediately after several seconds or minutes and I kept the best parts of it in the recordings.

The main tracks 01 and 02 are my favorites ( Bandcamp Album Track 18 & 19). Super powerful and I personally just love the gong sound effects.

Location on Google Maps where I recorded the Gamelan

Download Gamelan from Bali from my Bandcamp Account

To download the album click on “Download”. Type in “0” if you want it for free or any price you want. Very important is that you choose “WAV” and not mp3 if you want the high-quality files. If you have already access to the “Complete Library” this album is in the Bandcamp Category!!

NOTE: If you can’t see the media player down below make sure to turn off your adblocker or use a different browser. Please don’t use a Download Manager.

More traditional music from Bali. Listen to the “New Moon Ceremony!