The Bandoneon: Kontakt Bandoneón Instrument by Loot Audio

Guillermo Guareschi recorded this Bandoneón in Buenos Aires. Loot Audio describes it as a "Premier" instrument with a sweet, expressive sound.

The left hand, which generates the bass notes, was captured with a Neumann microphone, with an additional ribbon microphone for the very low frequencies. The right hand was recorded with a modified SE A5600 II tube microphone, and a separate microphone captured the natural room ambience. The signal passed through vintage Telefunken preamplifiers.

The samples were recorded at 24 bits and 48 kHz. Each note was sampled at three velocity levels (piano, mezzo-forte and forte) across nine articulations, which you can switch on or off from the interface.

The interface gives direct control over the performance noise that makes a bandoneon sound physical. The air sound layer has three round robin variations, and the keyclick layer has seven, so repeated notes do not play back identically. You can adjust the level of each.

Fine tuning covers -100 to +100 cents. Five convolution reverbs can be selected by dragging and selecting, and the reverb mix runs from dry to fully drenched. A spread control adjusts the stereo width of the instrument.