Paper Stone Instruments Marimba

The PSI Marimba is a 52 note, 10,221 sample, 6.2 GB (3.2 compressed) virtual Instrument, playable in the full version of Kontakt 4.2.2 and above.

The phase alignment of the audio was essential to the sound to ensure a focused tone, this had to be done for each note.

The end result represents a forensic, audiophile yet characterful recreation of a world class instrument.

Microphones

To do justice to this 6 foot long Marimba we felt it was necessary to capture its sound using 5 microphone positions.

Only this would convey its full tone and feel and also allow for endless acoustic possibilities in the mix.

Using the faders on the GUI the user can create the optimal blend of "Center" "Stereo", "Wide", "Ribbon", and "Room" mics for their purposes.

Close Mics

• Center (Neumann TLM 103)
• Stereo (Neumann KM184 pair)
• Wide (AKG C414 B-ULS pair)

Ambient Mics

• Ribbon (Coles 4038 pair)
• Room (Neumann u87 pair)

Robert Van Sice Artist Marimba

Each note of a Robert Van Sice Artist Series 4 & 1/3 Octave Rosewood Marimba was intensively sampled in our cinematic live room to recreate the authentic sound of this beautiful instrument, using 9 microphones and with up to 23 velocity levels.

Instruments

There are 2 main instruments:

"Main" with felt beaters (contains rolls and straight hits)
"Soft" with softer beater (contains rolls and straight hits)

There are also 2 patches which contain the rolls without the standard hits, for times when you need just the roll.

The Main instruments also have have a 'Less Stereo Width' version with a narrower stereo field- for situations where the natural width of the instrument needs to be reduced.

There are also 5 bonus patches which have a a hard rubber beater, drag strokes with a felt beater and 5th, Minor 3rd, and Major 3rd intervals also with the standard felt beater.

Beaters

Paper Stone also wanted to represent the varying tones and effects created by different beaters and hitting techniques, and so have created NKIs featuring Felt beaters, Soft Felt beaters and Rubber beaters, plus straight hits, rolls and drags.