Soundiron - Riq Drum (KONTAKT)

The traditional family of Middle Eastern (Arabic) hand percussion instruments is generally defined as an open shell frame drum with large cymbals or jingles - aka Riq Drums. It is similar in appearance and origin to a tambourine, but this broad family of specialized drums is treated as a very serious and deeply nuanced instrument class in both traditional and modern Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern European music. Rather than simply being an accompaniment or backing instrument, the Rik family of drums can often take a lead or solo role. The jingles, rattles or rings are often played as a discreet component of the drum, along with a broad range of unique head and rim finger and hand articulations.

For our Riq Drum multi-sample library, we captured a pair of full-sized drums, one larger 15-inch daf drum from Greece with metal rings and bearings (actually called a daf) and one smaller 13 riq drum from Egypt with wide tin cymbals . We also captured a toy frame drum that we’ve modified into a miniature riq, by adding a series of rattles. We’ve also included a very large collection of ambient droning and synth percussion instruments, created entirely through heavily manipulating the source recordings for this library.