Bizarre Sitar: Lush, Full-bodied Half Size Sitar

The “Bizarre Sitar” may not seem so strange at first glance. It has most of the elements found on any other sitar, but at just over 24″ in length, however, this little beauty is barely half the size of a standard sitar. Simply being small isn’t bizarre by any means, but what is bizarre is how it can achieve such a lush, full-bodied sound while being so small. Intended as more decoration than instrument, Soundiron felt that this little guy had been highly underestimated. All this “baby” sitar needed was someone to listen closely. And they did. Very closely.

At the heart of the Bizarre Sitar library are the strumming patches. Two main strumming tunings are included, a fifth and an octave/unison. An onboard “Speed” knob (MIDI assignable and defaulted to the modwheel) allows you to sculpt the speed of the individual strum from very tight, fast strums to slower, plucky strums.

This library allows you to create realistic sounding strums by adjusting the speed in real-time. The strums are tuned and spread across the entire keyboard, providing deep, droning sounds in the low end and sharp, mandolin-like plucks in the high end.

In addition, Soundiron have also included individual string plucks for lead lines and accents. Special combo patches give you both plucks in the high end and strums in the low-end for easy playability. Also included are a number of effects (fret scrapes, mutes, etc.).

Though not traditionally bowed, there are also several bonus patches of bowed sitar: sustain, staccato, and tremolo. The tremolo patch features an “intensity” knob to adjust through three different intensity layers and a “Speed” knob to adjust the playback speed of the tremolo samples. This allows you to more closely match a specific tempo or crank it up and go crazy.

Content

Bowed (staccato, tremolo and sustains)

Plucked (10x rr, 5-6 velocities)

Strummed (10x rr, 4-8 velocities)

FX (includes mutes, scrapes and other special effects)

This library also includes a bonus collection of custom sound-designed ambiences, drones and special FX presets, custom convolution reverb impulses and an advanced Kontakt user interface with full automation support.

Note: Requires the Full Retail version of Kontakt 3.5 or later (NOT compatible with the free Kontakt Player)

Want to learn more? Read the Manual