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A Psaltered Zither By MODWHEEL Released with Intro special

David Donaldson

Active Member
I'm sure you've all been wondering "Where's MODWHEEL, what have they been up to lately, they've been very quiet?" Well we've been heads down, with the most wondrous metallic tones ringing in our ears...and it's time to spread that wondrous ringing far and wide. Today we are launching the A PSALTERED ZITHER. It's a virtual instrument sample library of zithers, psaltery and un-fretted folk instruments from the far corners of the earth.
There are six instruments that make up the library.
Zither (Handcrafted here in New Zealand)
Psaltery (German folk instrument)
Zithereens ( A more dulcimer like zither)
African Lute ( A six stringed instrument with a metal sound board)
Kachapi (A 2 string Sumatran guitar)
Can Bau ( MODWHEEL's take on a vietnamese Dan Bau)

Plus percussive patches created from each instrument.



All the instruments have been plucked, bowed, struck, caressed and distressed to give the widest possible sonic possibilities. They were also retuned to give the widest possible amount of sampled notes. The lowest and highest notes have also been extended to give all the instruments a 5 octave range.
Each instrument has up to six articulations. Each articulation has their own pan, envelope and transpose (+/- one octave) control. The articulations are available via faders so the sounds can be mixed and matched giving huge sonic possibilities.

A Psaltered Zither also features MODWHEEL's newest development "Scatter Box"
Scatter Box is made up of four folders of handcrafted, sync'd, non sync'd. reversed and atmospheric IRs. The sync'd IRs will sync to the users DAW.

A Psaltered Zither is now available at the intro price of US$65 (reg US$89) until the end of March.......But wait....there's more. It also comes with MODWHEEL's Kalimba while the intro deal is in place.

For more info, purchase and download go to
www.modwheel.co.nz
Where you can hear demos for the A Psaltered Zither as well as the Kalimba.

Here is a promo vid to give you a taste of the sound and where it was created.
 
Where's MODWHEEL?!? What have they been up to? They're so quiet... even these zithers seem quiet. The zither video seems TOO quiet.
Where is my black-and-white footage of physical culture junkies on trampolines? I mean, yes, I will buy these, but I hope everyone's okay.
 
Holy Dark Lord of the Zith! I had, quite literally, just exhausted myself on the internet watching demos of bowed psalteries from various developers and asked myself if psalteries could even possibly be worth this amount of time subtracted from anyone’s life when I happened upon this thread. I decided to track down the tutorial. I mean, after all, I had come this far. I couldn’t tear my ears away from the patch/snapshot walkthrough. Yes. I’m happy to have lost another 32 minutes and 19 seconds of my life. That is, until somebody tries to rush to my deathbed to say goodbye and misses it by five minutes. But I won’t be around, then, will I? So who cares.


I need to go to sleep now.
 
Holy Dark Lord of the Zith! I had, quite literally, just exhausted myself on the internet watching demos of bowed psalteries from various developers and asked myself if psalteries could even possibly be worth this amount of time subtracted from anyone’s life when I happened upon this thread. I decided to track down the tutorial. I mean, after all, I had come this far. I couldn’t tear my ears away from the patch/snapshot walkthrough. Yes. I’m happy to have lost another 32 minutes and 19 seconds of my life. That is, until somebody tries to rush to my deathbed to say goodbye and misses it by five minutes. But I won’t be around, then, will I? So who cares.


I need to go to sleep now.
Yep, it's gripping stuff alright.We're hoping Netflix will pick it up as a series.
 
@ David
While downloading the Psaltered Zither, I scrolled thru the products on your web site, and realized that the Perc+ Redux library was not available anymore... Or is it my mistake?... I got the original PercPlus library, then upgraded to the Modwheel version when it was released, and I couldn't believe the difference!... In fact, this is when you got my respect as programmer. Is it really out of the market? If it is, what a waste.

I really love your Timphonia library, and I think Humdrum is the perfect companion to Eduardo's latest release Dark ERA.

I love you guys.
 
@ David
While downloading the Psaltered Zither, I scrolled thru the products on your web site, and realized that the Perc+ Redux library was not available anymore... Or is it my mistake?... I got the original PercPlus library, then upgraded to the Modwheel version when it was released, and I couldn't believe the difference!... In fact, this is when you got my respect as programmer. Is it really out of the market? If it is, what a waste.

I really love your Timphonia library, and I think Humdrum is the perfect companion to Eduardo's latest release Dark ERA.

I love you guys.
Looks like it is indeed no more. Here's a quote from their site:

The offer of PERC+ Redux as donation ware has expired and is no longer be available.
After almost 2 years donations towards PERC+ Redux have raised more than NZ $8700
for Tironui Music Trust. Excellent!
 
It's a shame. Since it started as a donation, they could offer it for free to music students.
Too bad. I'd always had it in the back of my lil' punkin head to pick this up someday. A damned, dirty procrastinator I am.

Otoh, seems like they'd leave it up forever, seeing as it was having the desired effect. Well, DD is a lot smarter than me, I'm sure there's a good reason, even if it is upside-down Kiwi thinking.
 
Looks like it is indeed no more. Here's a quote from their site:

The offer of PERC+ Redux as donation ware has expired and is no longer be available.
After almost 2 years donations towards PERC+ Redux have raised more than NZ $8700
for Tironui Music Trust. Excellent!

I'd like to step in as the one who originally coordinated the transfer of PERC+ from Lux Nox Audio to Modwheel. I'm working closely with Modwheel to come up with a solution that will keep this library available to the community. I can't go into anymore detail than that, but please be patient as we are doing our best to bring this library back. Thanks!
 
I'd like to step in as the one who originally coordinated the transfer of PERC+ from Lux Nox Audio to Modwheel. I'm working closely with Modwheel to come up with a solution that will keep this library available to the community. I can't go into anymore detail than that, but please be patient as we are doing our best to bring this library back. Thanks!
Why don't you just keep on donating to the Tironui Music trust?... We musicians buy the library, and the trust gets more money for the kids to grow?...
 
Just to clarify re Perc+, the Givealittle page expired and here in New Zealand there were tax implications and it was quite complicated for our small business. We are just in the process of figuring out the best way forward. We will make it available again very shortly and as always,it will still be donation ware. We'll keep you updated....or better still, when you buy A Psaltered Zither make sure to tick the subscribe button. We won't deluge you with unwanted crap......only the gold!
 
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Always a happy day when a MODWheel email pops into my inbox so I had to try this one out. What a lovely sound - and I really appreciate the different harmonics / articulations that can be dialled in with the sliders. This team always makes quality stuff!
 
If you haven't got 32 minutes and 19 seconds to spare, to watch the tutorial above, here is a short teaser which will give you a brief overview...although, we highly recommend you find the 32 minutes and 19 seconds, it's quite a journey, there's laughter, joy, sadness, pathos, friendship, resolution, Arctic exploration, the mystic east and how to use A plastered Zither.
This one is just how to use A plastered Zither
 
If you haven't got 32 minutes and 19 seconds to spare, to watch the tutorial above, here is a short teaser which will give you a brief overview...although, we highly recommend you find the 32 minutes and 19 seconds, it's quite a journey, there's laughter, joy, sadness, pathos, friendship, resolution, Arctic exploration, the mystic east and how to use A plastered Zither.
This one is just how to use A plastered Zither


Dammit - I thought I was well covered for zither type instruments until I saw this!
 
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