Rusty Banjo
A banjo + a banjo with an eBow
ByJoshua Meltzer
The story
Banjobook anyone? Ok, maybe not. Nonetheless I thought I’d throw this little library out there. I sampled an older banjo with a resonator up close. I used a 57 through an Avalon pre and captured it pretty purely.
Funny thing is that Christian made a comment on Youtube about some unknown composer out there who is using an E-bow on a banjo. Well, I’m that guy apparently, as I had already done that with all my folk instruments lying around. I included the Banjo E bow in this entry. Try the multi I included “Banjo With E-bow Pad”. I like using pads made from the instrument I’m featuring as it brings out the natural resonant tones in a way that’s subtle and organic. Hope you find it useful!
Reviews
Nostalgic sound, and beautiful harmonics
My first Banjo instrument. It has a very nice nostalgic sound and I instantly loved it. Sound quality is excellent as well. It's worth noting that the high range contains such a beautiful harmonics that you can't miss.
So pleased with this
As a guitar player of often not very impressed with these kind of instruments. I find the articulation to be very sudden and piano sounding and unrealistic. This is the best sampled banjo ive heard. It really has some mid range warmth, alot of banjos ive tried have been too bright. It also has a nice pluckiness at the beginning that gives it a more realistic feeling than all the other ones ive tried. I think this will be awesome to layer ontop of acoustic guitar for me. The ebow path is also of course awesome. More round robins would be nice but its still a great instrument
A Rainbow Connection
Great banjo sounds here. There are no round robins or dynamic layers, so you have to be a little careful about playing lots of repeated notes, but this library is well recorded and edited, and very playable. There are a few notes which are rather different in terms of their sustain and timbre, but overall this is a very lovely instrument.