Marimba: Sampled Marimba Kontakt Instrument by Loot Audio

Loot Audio captured the instrument with five microphone positions, which the developer says were needed to convey the full tone of this six-foot marimba. Close mics include a Neumann TLM 103 at center, a Neumann KM184 pair for stereo, and an AKG C414 B-ULS pair for width. Ambient mics are a Coles 4038 ribbon pair and a Neumann U87 room pair.

Faders on the interface let you blend the Centre, Stereo, Wide, Ribbon and Room mics to suit your mix. Blending the ambient mics with the close mics changes the sense of space around each note.

The main instruments use felt beaters and include rolls and straight hits. A softer beater version is included as well. Two patches contain rolls only, for when you need just the roll. A Less Stereo Width version of each main instrument narrows the stereo field.

Five bonus patches add a hard rubber beater, felt drag strokes, and 5th, minor 3rd and major 3rd intervals played with felt beaters. The sampled beaters and techniques give you a range of tones within one instrument.