Whale Drum: Tongue Drum Kontakt Instrument by Soundiron

The core sets are recorded at both the center and the edge of each tongue. Soundiron notes an average of 10 dynamic velocity layers and 10 round-robin variations per note, which helps keep repeated notes from sounding identical. Mallet, wooden stick and brush articulations are included, and the stick and brush sounds were also played over different edges and surfaces around the drum.

The Wet Hall set captures the same drum with mallets and sticks in a tiled stone hall, placed a short distance from the instrument. The library also includes a Dry Whale Drum set for close, direct sounds. Together, the dry and wet sets let you choose between a direct percussive sound and a more spacious, orchestral one.

The interface offers swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, coarse and fine pitch, articulation switching, and cross-fading and layering between sets. The Advanced Control window adds an LFO with shape, target, speed, intensity, tempo sync and fade-in. You can choose from 12 low-pass, high-pass and FX filters, with modulation targets such as velocity, mod wheel, expression, key position and a step-sequencer table.

An arpeggiator includes a velocity sequencer, direction, note timing, swing, randomization and duration controls. A key and scale lock is available for melodic playing. An FX rack with 10 slots can hold any of 18 DSP modules in any order, including phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors and EQ.