Hopkin Instrumentarium: Squiggly Amejewar – Buzzing Zither for Kontakt

The instrument has four strings about seven feet long, played with a flat-sided slide. That slide changes how the flat side contacts the strings, which adds to the buzz and makes the sound complex and varied over time.

Soundiron sampled the zither in three stereo mic positions: Close, Pickups and Contact. Plucks, glisses and FX are available in all four layers, so you can mix and match them. The library provides up to 8x round robin and 6 velocity layers per note.

The developer describes the tone as distinct from the sitar and obokano, with a sustained, variegated character.

The instruments include an adaptable LFO system with selectable shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo sync and fade-in time. You can apply 12 lowpass, highpass and FX filters with assignable targets such as velocity, mod wheel, expression, aftertouch, key position and step-sequencer table control.

A customizable arpeggiator provides a velocity table and control over direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. A key and scale lock constrains notes to common scales and keys for melodic composition and live performance.