Origins Vol.10: Contrabass Panduri & Tanbur

The deep sonority of the Contrabass Panduri perfectly complements the twangy drones of the Tanbur. Though the two instruments come from neighboring regions, the Contrabass Panduri is so rare that this excellent pairing has perhaps never occurred. Until now.

Contrabass Panduri

A modern innovation, the Contrabass Panduri was modified from the traditional Panduri to answer the need Georgians had for a low-registry instrument for concert folk performances. It’s a true rarity of an instrument with perhaps only 10 existing in the country of Georgia itself.

Tanbur

The Tanbur is an ancient Middle-Eastern, long-necked lute-like instrument whose drones and picks have graced musical tradition from the Balkans, Turkey, and Arabia to Persia, India, and Central Asia. It goes by as many names as countries that claim it in their traditions, and is a definite classic instrument to add that “Eastern” sound.

Best Practice Tip #1

Transpose the Contrabass Panduri down 12 to use it just like a standard contrabass, with long, low plucks to emphasize the progression, while the more twangy Tanbur can sparkle across the upper reaches of the fret board.

Best Practice Tip #2

Use a note from the Tanbur as a drone and the other notes, along with the Contrabass Panduri, to play the melodic structure. 

Presets

The presets were designed with a certain realism in mind, reflecting how they would be played, to truly showcase the inspirational beauty of the two instruments. They are divided into two main categories: Normal and Odd. Normal provides 4/4 arpeggios where Odd explores then such diverse time signatures as 5/8, 7/8, 3/4, and more.

Customize

Explore the world from rhythmic stylings of the Middle East and the Caucasus. Carve out the exact sound you need with the custom arpeggiators and effects grids.

Colors Menu

The 12 individual color-presets provide even more possibilities to sculpt your sound. All colors are radically different in character and incorporate various effect settings and multiple impulse responses. While each MAD-Preset has an assigned color, you can combine everything at will, resulting in over 1000 predefined combinations.

Multi-Areppgio-Designer

The Multi-Arpeggio-Designer is the centerpiece of every ORIGINS instrument. Two fully customizable arpeggiators create interlocking patterns and broad soundscapes by combining the unique timbres of the two ethnic strings instruments. The engine is designed to convey a musically meaningful, human performance, instead of a computer randomly aligning notes.
Load up one of 80+ inspiring presets or create your own arpeggios in as much detail as you like. The MAD provides a variety of different features and controls to realize your musical vision.

Copy Arpeggio Designs Between Different Origins Instruments

Have you created your own ingenious arpeggio design and want to use it with another ORIGINS product? Simply copy and paste your design to use it on-the-fly in any other instrument of the ORIGINS series.

Features

• Two individually playable instruments
• Innovative Multi-Arpeggio-Designer (MAD)
• 80 rhythm presets
• 12 unique color settings
• Full customization of all controls

System Requirements

• FULL VERSION of Native Instruments’ KONTAKT Version 6.7.1 or higher
• Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11 or 12 (latest update)
• Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11 or 12 (latest update)
• Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack), Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU, 2 GB RAM
• Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher
• 4 GB RAM (6 GB recommended for large KONTAKT Instruments)
• At least 610 MB of free hard disc space