Spitfire Audio Originals Cimbalom
Cimbalom Virtual Instrument
The Sound of Suspense
A shimmering, spine-tingling tuned percussion instrument, used in Hollywood scores for its mysterious, sinister sound.
Cuts through an orchestra with its distinctly metallic tone. Performed by renowned percussionist, Greg Knowles (The Hunger Games).
Captured at AIR Studios, London. Five presets. Three controls. Close, Tree & Pitched signals.
What is a Cimbalom?
A cimbalom is a concert hammered dulcimer: a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box with metal strings stretched across its top, played by striking two beaters against the strings.
Dulcimers are an ancestor of the piano dating back to Babylonian times; a family of stringed instruments known for Eastern European sound.
Widely used in Hollywood orchestral scores, this is the perfect addition to your symphony orchestra, whether as an extra textural element, or the main instrument.
What Can I Use the Cimbalom For?
The cimbalom has been widely used in Hollywood orchestral scores for its mysterious, sinister sound - in particular spy thrillers, with its recognisable tremolo.
This is the perfect addition to your symphony orchestra, whether as the main instrument or an additional textural element, cutting through the orchestra with its distinctly metallic tone.
The cimbalom has featured in many orchestral scores for notable films and TV productions, from The Grand Budapest Hotel (Alexandre Desplat) to Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams) and Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer).
Composer Lalo Schifrin also used the cimbalom in several scores for the original Mission: Impossible television series.
One of these cues was famously sampled by Portishead in their 1994 track, Sour Times.
Presets
- Performance
- Sustained
- Damped
- Tremolo
- Warp
Signals
- Close - A close option, adds definition to the Tree signal.
- Tree - A decca tree microphone array, giving a spacious and enveloping sound.
- Pitched - The Cimbalom patch pitched one octave down to create a deep and frozen atmosphere.
System Requirements
- MacOS 10.15 Catalina and above
- Officially supported up to MacOS 13 Ventura
- Windows 10 and above (64-bit only)
- Intel, AMD, or Apple Silicon CPU
- 8GB RAM or more (16GB or more recommended)
- 1.8GB free storage space
- Includes 2 activations per license
Plugin Formats
AAX Native, AU, VST2, and VST3
User Manual
