The Crow Hill Co. have released Vaults – Solo Badhran, available as a FREE download.
The Crow Hill Company is proud to announce availability of VAULTS – SOLO BODHRÁN — acting as a development of one of the world’s most ancient drum designs by bringing the heartbeat of traditional Irish music to its lengthening line of free and accessible instruments arising from company co-founder and composer Christian Henson effectively opening his ‘vaults’ for everyone to enjoy, this time turning to the artistry of Callum Convoy, one of the most sought-after bodhrán players in Scotland, to bring about the authentic sound and expressive spirit of the long-lived frame drum to which the library owes its no-nonsense name — as of February 19…
Instantly Irish-sounding by virtue of its musical roots, the bodhrán is most commonly played in solo contexts. It is shaped like a big tambourine and played on its side with a tipper or beater, while the left hand is placed on the inside of the drum to control pitch and timbre. The bodhrán propels tunes with a vibrant energy and the potential to shine in almost any genre, regardless of the instrument in question’s historically rich roots. And, as The Crow Hill Company’s accompanying artwork for VAULTS – SOLO BODHRÁN helpfully states, YOU PRONOUNCE IT BOR-RAN.
As an inspirational addition to its lengthening line of free and accessible instruments, The Crow Hill Company’s latest library lets anyone experiment with both simple and complex grooves of varying time signatures while also making use of its wild distortion and beautiful multi-band compression controls to twist and shape its authentic sound into something else entirely.
It almost goes without saying that VAULTS – SOLO BODHRÁN’s GUI (Graphical User Interface) is as intuitive as always. Apart from the obvious background colour change to an appropriate Emerald green, it follows a familiar pattern already established by those products previously released as part of The Crow Hill Company’s lengthening line of free and accessible instruments, though Theo Le Derf duly provides a quick guided tour: “The first large dial on SOLO BODHRÁN is called RHYTHM and it contains two grooves that you can alternate like the A- and B-side of a vinyl record — one side is more simple and the other more complex, and it is automatically assigned to MIDI CC1; DISTANCE fades between the close mics and the spot mics further away — mics used were a pair of Neumann TLM103s and a pair of Neumann KLM184s. The small dials are more concentrated effects, the first one being CRUSH, which is a really wild, fun distortion; SQUEEZE is a beautiful multi-band compressor, which really tightens up the sound; ECHO is a stereo ping- pong delay; and SPLOSH is the standard VAULTS… reverb, both of which allow you to add more ambience to the drums.”
As a working musician himself, Theo Le Derf is perfectly positioned to speculate as to what VAULTS – SOLO BODHRÁN’s (many) musical uses could well be: “If you’re a media composer working on a chase scene or something, it could potentially work as a backbeat to that kind of vibe; certainly the bodhrán doesn’t only shine in traditional Irish music, but can be used in anything that has a particular driving force. Indeed, it has the potential to fit into almost any genre.”
VAULTS – SOLO BODHRAN is available to PC and Mac users.
For more information and to download VAULTS – SOLO BODHRÁN, click here:
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