Strezov Sampling – Darbuka X3M

For years the Darbuka has been a constant colour in soundtracks and music productions all over the world. Applying our sampling philosophy to the various instruments of the Darbuka branch yielded some very organic and fresh sounding results, which combined with our X3M percussion engine are simply a joy to play.

One of our main goals was to have consistent Round Robins captured for as many playing techniques as possible to allow writing fast, but at the same time smooth and realistic sounding percussion arrangements. To achieve that we carefully edited every single sample of our 9 Round Robins manually and did as many iterations as needed after extensively testing the articulations in a real life composing environment.

The recordings took place in the Sofia Session Studio where we also recorded the previous X3M libraries to allow smooth and easy layering.

The concept behind this engine is fairly simple – the keyboard range is divided into 12 zones that you are able to assign different sounds to. After creating a template of your choosing just plug in and play – nothing else needed!

In addition to that the engine also allows you to tweak individual zones, as well as the whole mapped ensemble patch with various effects and mic positions. Combining these with the natural and organic recordings you have maximum flexibility when it comes to sound.

Once you load up the X3M Ensemble Builder you automatically load all samples inside the “Samples” directory. However, the instrument is built in such a way that it actually keeps all samples purged, unless you load them up into a zone. This means that not only do you have a single patch with all types of percussion you might need, but it is also optimized and doesn’t hurt your RAM ressources in any way!

The recently updated X3M Engine also features Round Robin Selection as well as Stereo Spread control for each microphone position.