European Historical Instruments: Dulcitone Celesta - NEW

Sample CD

At that time, it was inspiring to those looking for a new sound - Pjotr Tschaikowsky wrote some parts of his Nutcracker for a celesta like the dulcitone. Being a rather quiet instrument, it seemed inappropriate for orchestral use, so its parts were often played by a glockenspiel instead - luckily, this is not a problem in a sampler.

Back then, no one had ever dreamt that a celesta would be as relevant today as ever - being the acoustic ancestor of the most popular vintage electric pianos, which share the same basic sound principles.

Providing a warm and full bass, it carries more weight than a toy piano and is great for any track demanding an unconsumed yet familiar sound.

An original Dulcitone celesta is very hard to play, offering a very rough-running and tight dynamic response. Capturing the dynamic shades of the instrument, we recorded every note with eight different samples.

The Dyson & Sons owes a huge part of its character and life to the unique release sounds of its keys - hence we recorded these sounds as well, providing 4 variations of each key release sound to complete the Dulcitone experience. Breathe life into your sampler!

For the recording of this marvelous little fellow, we employed vintage Neumann™ TLM-170® microphones in conjunction with Crane Song™ preamps and Universal Audio™ 2192® converters. The library contains two versions of the instrument recorded with different stereo settings. For maximum sound quality, we recorded in 192 khz/24 bits, down sampled to the resolution of your choice.

The sample library contains nearly 1500 single samples.

Furthermore, the Dulcitone Celesta sample library contains an essay in German from Professor Andreas E. Beurmann himself, explaining both the historical and musical background of the instrument.

"It's mind-boggling. Ever since I first heard it, I gotta have more Dulcitone," says Nicolay Ketterer, head of realsamples, who led the sample recording sessions at the Hasselburg estate.

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