Tbilat

The Tbilat is a traditional Moroccan hand percussion instrument comprised of a pair of large and small clay pot drums bound together, with goat skin drum heads and sinew wrappings. It’s also often referred to as a “Tamtam” or simply “clay pot drums”. Tbilats generally have a tight, crisp sound similar to bongos, but with a raspier and deeper tonality.

The Kingdom of Morocco is located in North-Western Africa, just across the strait of Gibraltar from Spain. Known for its coastlines, mountains, and deserts, it has a population of nearly 34 million, of primarily Berber and Arabian descent, and has been continuously inhabited for the last 100,000–200,000 years or more, with deep cultural, artistic, and musical roots that span the entirety of known human history. The intricate designs of the pots and wrappings and the versatility of these drums is an excellent example of this long and rich creative heritage.

We recorded our large tbilat pair in a dry studio environment with bare hands and fingers. We recorded each articulation with an average of 6 or more dynamic velocity layers and 10 round-robin variations per note. We then recorded a second session with the instrument in a large reverberant tile and stone hall from close and far distances. The close position retains strong presence, but offers an open and live atmosphere, while the far position provides a feeling of lush, cavernous space and distance. Both of these “wet” hall options are ideal for orchestral arrangements and more atmospheric songwriting.

In addition, we also manipulated our tbilat source recordings into 12 unique sound banks, each with velocity layering and plenty of robin variations per note. These stylized impacts, stingers, boomers, and atmospheric hits are excellent for cinematic scoring, video game and multimedia sound design, EDM music, and hybrid compositions. All of these articulations and sound sets are available within.

Key Features:

• 1 master NKI instrument banks: Open Kontakt format
• 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets: For versatile sound design
• Multi-sampled acoustic articulations and designed atmospheric impacts: 3481 stereo samples
• High-Quality Samples: 24-bit, 48 kHz Stereo PCM Wav Format
• Flexible User Interface: With LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator controls
• Full FX Rack: Including convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers, and FX environments