DAN T’RUNG

VIETNAMESE XYLOPHONE

$39

Please note: requires the full version of NI Kontakt 6 or later.

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THE SOUND OF THE MOUNTAINS

The T’rung is a centuries old mallet instrument from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Made from bamboo, it’s a sound deeply rooted in ancient rituals and nature. Over time, the instrument has become synonymous with Vietnamese music, and is used in everything from pop to traditional performances. Strangely though, it has never been available as a sample library. Until now…

While the early T’rungs where tuned to the pentatonic scale like their ancient sister instrument the Vietnamese Lithophone from the same area, the modern version is unique in that it is completely chromatic and has an impressive range of over 3 octaves. It’s a bright and punchy sound that will cut through dense mixes, but it can also sound gentle and earthy. Bunker Samples version was of course sampled chromatically in great detail to give you everything this unique instrument has to offer right in your DAW. It features bright hits and rolls with butter smooth crossfading, and you can fully customise how you switch between the hits and rolls on the fly . It’s a sound that instantly conjures up nature and ancient cultures, but can just as easily add some unique drive to arpeggiated synthesiser lines. Or you could swap out your orchestral xylophone for a T’rung, if you’re really crazy…

Audio demos

Mountain mornings (naked)

by Nicolaj M Nielsen | Dan T'rung

Canada goose (contextual)

by Aleks Schürmer | Dan T'rung + Sticks & Stones

Second door on the left (contextual)

by Aleks Schürmer | Dan T'rung + Sticks & Stones

Tactile (contextual)

by Tom Bellingham | Dan T'rung + Sticks & Stones

VERSATILE BAMBOO

Bamboo plays a significant role in Vietnamese culture, so it’s not surprising that instruments have been made from this versatile wood for centuries, and the T’rung is perhaps the most significant of these. It’s made from bamboo tubes, naturally sealed at one end and beveled at the other to produce the correct pitch. The tubes are suspended with rubber bands from strings in a wooden frame and struck with some rather unique double headed mallets: these mallets span exactly one octave to allow for octave doubling for extra power and fast octave tremolo. The earliest versions originated from the indigenous tribes of the Central Highlands, and were pentatonic only, but the T’rung of today is fully chromatic and used in many different styles of music all across Vietnam.

The T’rung we sampled for this library was built by a master T’rung maker, and sampled at Bunker Samples second home: Zebra Studios in the heart of Hanoi. The performer is Phan Thuy, a dear friend and long standing collaborator of Bunker Samples and one of Vietnams finest musicians. We are both very proud to be the first to sample this fascinating instrument and make it available to composers and musicians around the world.

BRIGHT HITS

The mallet heads are made from a hard wood covered with rubber bands, and produces a bright and well defined attack, while letting the unique resonance of the bamboo tubes shine. It’s very agile and playable, and when needed it can get very loud and powerful. We sampled 4 dynamic layers and 4 round robins chromatically across the entire three octave plus range.

SMOOTH ROLLS

Rolls is an important and expressive technique when playing the T’rung, and we spend a lot of time editing the dynamic layers of the rolls to ensure butter smooth crossfading between them. They span the dynamic range from a shimmering whisper to a full tilt fortissimo.

BESPOKE SWITCHING

Constantly switching between hits and rolls is a natural part of playing the T’rung, and whatever method you prefer, we’ve got you covered. Use traditional keyswitches, a momentary key switch or a MID CC of your choice – so you could for example use the sustain pedal to switch to a roll.

EASY TO USE

Spend your time writing music, not trying to figure out what all the knobs and sliders do. The interface of Dan T’rung is simple and intuitive to use. The flexible articulation switching system makes it easy to perform realistic lines on the fly, jumping between hits and rolls the way a real player would. You can have individual ADSR controls for hits and rolls, and even choose to accent the rolls with a velocity sensitive hit. The rolls themselves have been carefully edited to allow buttery smooth crossfading between the three dynamic layers, for ultimate expressivity and realism.

ARTICULATIONS

Hits (4 rr and 4 dynamic layers)
Rolls (3 dynamic layers)Resonant rubs (3 speeds)
11 different glissandoes (Time Machine PRO)

SIGNALS

Close – 2 x Neumann KM184 (Behind player)
Mid – 2 x AKG414 + 1 Neumann U87
Far – 2 x Telefunkem M60

PATCHES

Main (Hits and rolls)
Glisses (Time Machine Pro)

Good to know

2370 samples
2.11 GB uncompressed samples
998 MB Lossless compressed size (installed size)
2 patches
REQUIRES THE FULL VERSION OF KONTAKT 6.7.1 OR LATER – NOT THE FREE KONTAKT PLAYER.

Additional features

Independent ADSR controls for hits, rolls and rubs
Accent rolls or rubs with automatic hit overlay
Flexible articulation switching system: use keyswitches, temporary hotkey or MIDI CC.
Per signal stereo width control.
Per signal Delay and Reverb sends.
Route each signal directly to Kontakt’s discrete outputs, so you can process them individually in your DAW.

The Vietnam bundle

The sound of bamboo and stones crafted into musical instruments centuries ago, performed by some of Vietnams finest young musicians and sampled by Bunker Samples in a top Hanoi studio. A collection that speaks of nature and ancient rituals and is sure to inspiring your writing - now together in a bundle at a great price.