Tabla Tarang

Extinct Art of India – Tabla Tarang

Please Note : Tabla Tarang Library/Instruments works with Native Instruments Kontakt 5.4.2 or Higher (Full Version).Free Players works for 30 minutes.

Introduction

You already heard the “Magical Sound of Tabla” in our previous release which was performed by master tabla artist ” Jagannath Singh”. we have already discussed the effect of black ink spot on tabla which makes this instrument capable of producing one note higher than the main pitched note (Psyco-acoustic issue).

Magical Sound Of 13 unique hand made “Tablas”

There are many Tuned Percussion Instruments available in the market.We can say market is quite saturated but here is the extinct art of India “Tabla Tarang”. Most of the people in India have heard about this instrument but have not seen any performance happening live. Sadly , Authentic playing is no more seen.

Solo Tabla Tarang

“Tarang” means waves. Many hand made tabla drums are tuned separately by hitting hammer on the rim of tabla according to “Raga” and all tabla drums are placed in semicircular positions covering lower bass tabla from left to higher pitched tabla towards right. Each tabla has its own character and the melodies are produced by hitting hands on the centre of tabla. Black Ink spot produce a unique sound and when artist perform any emotional raga using these different-different tabla it sounds exotic.
Its bit sad to say that this art is almost not seen in India nowadays.Pandit Kamalesh Maitra has some of his performances on youtube which can be searched by his name.

Crypto Cipher Solo Tabla Tarang

Recreating this art was adventurous and fun. We teamed up with tabla artist and tabla makers and discussed the plan and finally we have sampled 13 tabla drums not with just the magical black ink spot sound but also the two other tuned sounds “Ta” and “Tin” ,which are produced by hitting at the rim/chanti and middle portion/maidan of tabla drum.
So we have three main tuned sounds “Ta” “Tin” and “Tun” mapped across the keyboard.
Mixing all three sound make the instrument so special as never heard before.
We recreated this instrument for Modern music composers and recorded almost 15,000 samples with three mic types (Ribbon , Dynamic , Condensor). Also with the powerful scripted technology we pushed the capability of the instrument to next level. We have legato and drum articulation section which will help composers to play the instrument in more advance ways.

Tabla Tarang Authentic Playing Technique

We recommend you to see artwork made by Kirti Taneja for “Tabla Tarang” to understand the instrument( Artist sits in the middle and place tabla in semicircular position creating a keyboard layout). All tabla are tuned manually by hitting hammer on tabla according to Raga which artist is going to perform.
Artist can hit maximum two drums at a time producing one stroke from each hand at once (Human capability).Example : Artist cannot play “Ta and Tin” “Tin or Tun” at the same time on same drum but can hit Ta on one drum and Tin on other drum at same time. Same concept for other strokes.

In other words 
Tabla Tarang artist can produce only two notes harmony at max as again he has two hands and one hand produce one stroke at a time.
Its not like piano . (In piano you can hit 5 notes at a time with one hand and 5 other from other hand maximum).
So, most of the time the arrangement of these tablas are used as solo melodic tuned instrument.
Its not necessary to play Tabla Tarang in authentic way , you can play the instrument in other ways you want .

Applications – Ideas

You can do sound design stuff with these variety of samples and create texture you never created before . This instrument can be layered with other sounds. It can be a part of your main background theme of movie as its character is so unique.
You can try soft samples of tun articulation to create very emotional and heart touching melodies and on the other side you can have aggressive punchiness of “Ta” and “Tin” Sounds.
You can use this instrument into your drum track to create fillers etc. There are many applications just play the instrument and see what inspires you.

UI Controls
Top Rack
 “Tune” and “ADSR” is for each key , which helps fine tuning for each Drum/key

Key-switches
C-2 key (legato on) – You can also put it on from the UI
C#-2 key (legato off) – You can also put it off from the UI
D-2 key ( arp on ) – You can also put it on from the UI (Its details can controlled via switching to other tab)
D#-2 key(arp off) -You can also put it off from the UI

E-2 , F-2 , F#-2 and G-2 keys are drum articulation keyswitches – Press these keys to produce drum articulations and its speed and dynamics can be controlled on the UI itself.

Tabla Tutorials
If you want to understand Tabla in detail – watch this video playlist from our other product “Solo Tabla”

Best Wishes and Love
Crypto Cipher