Latest DIY-cromatic marimba

[Mbira]

Had a custom order for a Zimbabwean style marimba (wide thick keys and buzzers on the resonators) but she wanted it tuned to A=440.  Took a long time, but I'm quite happy with it.  Delivered it to her in Santa Fe.  There are a few other marimba builders out there, and we set hers up and it was about twice as loud as the other Zim. style ones.  We think that the tubes and keys must just be tuned to match each other much better-the only explanation we can think of. 

Here's some pics:

 

[clintrubber]

Looks nice !

Perhaps made a soundclip before it went out ?

 

[Mbira]

eh...they all sound the same. ;D

 

[clintrubber]

eh...they all sound the same. ;D

Haha, wish we could say that of mics, guitars, basses, then only the need for one of each 

BTW, do you happen to know of a nice'n'free sampleset somewhere on the net? Would be fun to toy around with
something like this; for starters in a DAW + MIDI-trigger setup (forgive me the approach  )

Bye,

  Peter

 

[Mbira]

Actually, that's what I do for my arranging.  I use Reason->Cubase and I have sampled each note of each marimba in my band (two soprano, one tenor, baritone, and bass) and then I can just compose for the whole band without having to have five people in my house.  My marimbas aren't in western tuning though and so would be limited use for others. 

 

[guavatone]

Very nice, my jaw dropped when I saw this.

 

[Rob Flinn]

Joel

That looks really cool.

I have been looking for a DIY vibraphone page for years !  Know of any ??????

I keep having Milt Jackson & Lionel Hampton listening urges !

 

[CroatianSensation]

Joel...I don't play marimba but now I want one!

Sweet! 

 

[Rob Flinn]

Found this site

http://www.makeamarimba.com/

 

[clintrubber]

Actually, that's what I do for my arranging.  I use Reason->Cubase and I have sampled each note of each marimba in my band (two soprano, one tenor, baritone, and bass) and then I can just compose for the whole band without having to have five people in my house.   

Good to hear my intentions weren't too blasphemous 

My marimbas aren't in western tuning though and so would be limited use for others.

(Showing my even bigger lack of knowledge w.r.t. non-western music,) is that because of another kind of chromatic scale ?
Note I'm not asking for distributing your samples (!), but simply try to understand what tuning of samples couldn't solve here.

All the best,

  Peter

 

[Mbira]

The chromatic marimba above is in Western tuning (A=440), but the marimbas I use-and the marimbas I have sampled- are diatonic and tuned to the matepe.  Matepe is a type of Zimbabwean mbira.  It's 'kinda' close' to a G major scale, but is not based on a Western scale.  You certainly could retune the samples to fit a western scale, but where's the fun in that? 8)

In case you're interested in hearing the marimba group that I lead so you can hear what I'm talking about, here's a link to our website:
http://www.rattletree.com

 

[Mbira]

Here's a link to a couple of tracks from my sampled marimbas (and a drum machine).  This isn't meant for distribution on a recording or anything, just purely for composing all the parts to see how they sound together:

http://rattletree.com/Parts/Mixdowns_of_marimbas/Muchenjedza_Mutonga/All_Parts.mp3

http://www.rattletree.com/Parts/Mixdowns_of_marimbas/Todzungaira/All_parts.mp3

 

[pucho812]

in my best chief wiggum

that's a fine looking marimba you got there