Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars
Handcrafted Audio take the marimba and the vibraphone to the max in their new release, Handcrafted Mallets. Combining acoustic samples and a synth built using said samples, the developers have put three distinct instruments, namely Handcrafted Marimba, Handcrafted Vibraphone and Handcrafted Mallet Synth, under one roof to meet all your mallet needs. The first two cover the acoustic possibilities of the instruments, with over 30,000 samples that capture tone and character in pristine detail. Each instrument features multiple articulations, three mic positions, and signals sent through two legendary reverbs — the Lexicon 960 and Bricasti M7 — with the flexibility to dial in each signal to achieve your sound of choice.
The creative possibilities of moving beyond traditional mallet instrument sounds begin right from the main page, with two sliders that control timbre and distance. Timbre controls the hardness of the mallet, while the Distance fader moves smoothly from an intimate close sound to exaggerated distant tones, suggesting landscapes bordering on surreal at the extreme. Even in the default presets, just playing around with the two sliders instantly adds movement and depth, propelling your composition forward based on the feedback from the changing sound. It’s very satisfying to play and the multitude of random combinations ensures that you won’t tire quickly from even this very basic manipulation of the sounds.
An important note about setting up the Handcrafted Vibraphone: a sustained tone is one of the defining characteristics of a vibraphone, but to access that straight out of the box, you need a sustain pedal; without it, the sound triggered is short and percussive. For those working without a pedal, one fairly simple solution is to assign a knob on your keyboard to CC64 (Sustain). You now have access to the pedal features of the vibraphone, adjustable further via speed and depth sliders in the instrument.
The synth is where the experimental side of this instrument really kicks in. The original mallet recordings were used to create over 500 presets resulting in a palette of gritty basses, granular soundscapes, shimmering pads and sound‑design elements. With the flexibility to shape these sounds even further, it is really quite remarkable how much raw material you have to play with.
I wondered how to achieve the sounds of more traditional techniques, like a one‑handed roll on the marimba for example, since my hands on a keyboard are not nearly as light and dexterous as I would like. It took a mix of finding the right patch, adjusting the attack, and practising a lighter touch on the keys to emulate the sound. No prizes for authenticity, but it evoked the same feeling as the sound I was going for, so it will have to do.
The instrument, available for both the free and full versions of Kontakt, is very easy to get started with. The patches are rich and expressive, and the synth sounds are full of inspiring textures, truly expanding the box inside which your composition lives.
A minor suggestion on the usability of the arpeggiator/sequencer — I wish there was a way to manually input values for parameters like note length and velocity, as opposed to dragging the mouse up and down to increase or decrease the values. The icons, while beautiful, are rather small and it becomes especially tricky with something like velocity where you’re relying on accurately matching the opacity of several glowing white circles to adjust the intensity of each note. Things do get a bit fuzzy.
Handcrafted Audio have a wonderful instrument on their hands that puts the mallet instrument in the spotlight.
All in all, Handcrafted Audio have a wonderful instrument on their hands that puts the mallet instrument in the spotlight, rather than have it sit back within a larger ensemble (although it can most certainly do that). Highly recommended.