MTN Dulcimer User Guide

Indiginus
Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer

Sample library for Kontakt 3/4 and Akai S5000
Mountain Dulcimer

The mountain dulcimer is a four stringed instrument usually played on the lap, by
strumming or picking with the right hand and fretting with the left. It is normally diatonic, with
the frets creating a major (or its relative minor) scale. The tuning is most often D-A-D, with
the two highest strings close together and in unison. When the instrument is strummed, the
high strings can be used to play melody, while the low strings drone. Or, chords can be
formed and strummed guitar style.
As far as anyone can tell, this type of dulcimer originated with the settlers of the
Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States as far back as the 18th century.
Its cheerful sound and characteristic heart-shaped sound holes must have been a comfort
in what was, for the most part, a hard life. The instrument has enjoyed a revival in recent
decades, and can have a Celtic, Middle Eastern, or Oriental sound.
Our sampled Mountain Dulcimer is presented chromatically, and you will see the in
between notes on the fretboard of the Strummer instruments.
Installation:
Just drag the Mountain Dulcimer folder to your sample drive (or wherever the rest of your
sample library resides), then load as usual using Kontakt's browser window.
There are six Kontakt 3/4 instruments included:
Dulcimer Picked
With slides at high velocities
Dulcimer Fingerpicked
Dulcimer Picked and Fingerpicked

Dulcimer Notes and Drones

Sampled strums with embedded melody notes to approximate
a common playing style. Downstrokes are from D1 to G2, in a D
major scale (with C added). Upstrokes are 2 octaves above,
from D3 to G4. Rock back and forth between upstrokes and
downstrokes and play up and down the D major scale to create
a melody with drones.
Have a little possum stew first for best results.
< Downstrokes >
<
Upstrokes
>
Dulcimer Strummer
The Strummer generates chords as you play single notes on the keyboard.
Downstrokes are from C1 to B1, and upstrokes are one octave higher, from C2 to B2.
Rock back and forth between them to simulate strumming action.
Downstrokes
C1
Continued....
UpStrokes
C2
C3
C4
Heres how this works:

To access a particular chord, just press the corresponding key.
Dont worry, you can now play ANY chord (not limited to the key of D!)
For instance, pressing C1 will cause C to be displayed, and the Chord knob will
indicate the chord variation. If you turn the knob to Dim, the next time you press
C1 you will hear a C diminished chord. This makes it easy to set the Strummer for
playing in different keys.
But what if you need both a D major AND a D minor?
No problem, because you can.....
Create your own chords!

1. Set the Chord knob to User. Each scale note has a User variation, so you can
create a total of 12 custom chords at a time!
2. Select which fret your virtual finger will be pressing on each string by using the pulldown menus on the left. Remember that the first selection will always be the open
string, so you wont see any indicator in that case.
3. The Strummer will remember your custom chords, but remember to save the
instrument if you are running in stand-alone mode. (K3 will do this automatically when
you save your project file in plug-in mode).
So, lets say you need a D major, a D minor, a G major, and a G7 all available
at one time!
1. Play a D note and set the variation to Major.
2. Select another note, preferably one you dont need for this song. For instance, play a D#
note and set the Chord knob to User.
3. Enter the notes for a D minor. Now, when you need that D minor chord, you access it by
playing the D# key.
4. Do the same for the G and G7 or any other chords you need. However, if there is a key
change in the song you might want to open up another Dulcimer Strummer instrument on
another midi channel and set its chords to the new key.
Dulcimer with StrumMaker

The StrumMaker instrument consists of 2 elements that are accessed by the
tabs below.
Strum Sequencer
The Strum Sequencer is a simple sequencer for the creation of automated
strumming patterns. There are several preset patterns, as well as 3 user
memory locations in the Strum Pattern pull-down menu.
The patterns are triggered by playing single notes on the keyboard from C1 to B1.
Patterns
C1
Downstroke Hits
C2
Single Notes
C3
Single chord strums are available for stops.
C4
C5
Single notes for playing melody.
Note: Chord variations (major, minor, 7th, etc.) are selected in the Fret Board screen.

Creating Your Own Patterns
The upper grid is bipolar and controls the velocity of each strum for
each of the 16 available steps (you can vary the number of steps in the
TimeSignature pull-down menu). The center line is zero velocity.
Dragging downward creates a downstroke and dragging upward
creates an upstroke, with velocity increasing as you get farther from
the center. Lower velocity settings will trigger mutes. At left, you can
see a full downstroke at full velocity on beat 1, with a muted upstroke
on beat 2.
The Counter (between the grids) follows the beat when the pattern is
playing, and indicates the number of steps.
The lower grid controls the duration of the strums at each step. The
higher the bar, the longer the note.
Just a few more buttons:
Strum Pattern: Pull down menu for choosing patterns.

TimeSignature: Varies the length of the grid.
Reset Grid:
Sets all steps to zero
Save Pattern:
To one of 3 user locations.

NOTE: Be sure to save the entire instrument if youre
running Kontakt in stand-alone mode.
Clicking on the Fretboard tab will summon the dulcimer

Strummer fretboard, which weve already become familiar with.
This time, though, its under the control of the Strum
Sequencer.
Akai S5000/6000 Programs (16-bit version only)

These Akai programs (.akp) are located in the Dulcimer 16 bit
samples folder:
Dulcimer FngrPicked
Dulcimer Pick+Fngr
Dulcimer Picked
In the Dulcimer Notes and Drones folder:
Dulcimer Notes and Drones
The samples and programming on the Mountain Dulcimer sample library are
the property of Indiginus and are
licensed (not sold) for use in music productions only.
Any unauthorized copying, selling, lending, or re-distribution
of it's contents in ANY WAY is expressly forbidden.
This includes use of these samples in any other sample library.
Indiginus Instruments DOES authorize copying and/or modifying
of the samples and programs in the user's (licencee) own sampling system
and storage devices. This is for the convenience of the user only.
The Mountain Dulcimer sample library is licenced as is. We have created a
product
that we believe sounds great and plays well, but we cannot guarantee that
it will fulfill any particular expectation on the part of the end user.
Copyright 2010 A.Tracy Collins.

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Indiginus

Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer

Dulcimer Picked and Fingerpicked

Dulcimer Notes and Drones

< Downstrokes >

Heres how this works:

Create your own chords!

Dulcimer with StrumMaker

Single chord strums are available for stops.

Single notes for playing melody.

Creating Your Own Patterns

Just a few more buttons:

Strum Pattern: Pull down menu for choosing patterns.

Sets all steps to zero

To one of 3 user locations.

Clicking on the Fretboard tab will summon the dulcimer

Akai S5000/6000 Programs (16-bit version only)

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