[David Fox]

We have just released a series of new download files taken from our Atsiã - West African Dancing Drums CD-ROM, in Gigasampler, Kontakt, and Soundfont formats. These unique drum and percussion instruments will add a unique African spice to your music, at prices ranging from only $19.95 to $29.95. Or you can get the entire collection on CD, for a new reduced price of only $179.95.

Sorry, no EXS version right now, but the programming is fairly straightforward, so importing the Giga format should work pretty well. To hear MP3 demos of the new download files, click on links for each product:

• Bass Drums - Dunumba, Sangban, Kenkeni, Gungon, Macana Surdo
• Bells - Gankogui, Iron Castanet, Kenken, Toke
• Dance Grooves - 4/4 and 6/8 grooves on 20 different instruments
• Floor Drums - Hand - Apentema, Djembe, Kpanlogo
• Floor Drums - Stick - Kaganu, Kidi, Kloboto, Kpegisu, Totodzi
• Floor Drums - Hand & Stick - Atsimevu, Boba, Sogo
• Frame Drums - Gome & Tamalin (this demo also features the Nigerian Log Drum, available as a free download for Soundfonts)
• Shakers & Snaps - Afoxe, Axatse, Caxixi, Finger Snaps, Frog Eggs, Ganza, Maracas, Shekere
• Talking Drums - Dundun, Lunga, Tama

For more details, please see our Percussion and World Implants pages for your chosen format - Gigasampler, Kontakt, and Soundfont.

[copal]

david,

as an almost rabid fanatic of your company's "drum series 1", i would love to see the atsia collection available in EXS format...and you happened to say the magic word ("yet")...does this mean that this is forthcoming?

[copal]

ok ok - you said "right now"...not "yet"...didn't mean to mis-quote you.

[Tim York]

David
The Dundun isn't a talking drum. It is normally played alongside the sangban and kenkeni and Djembes in West African rhythms. All three of these drums are played with sticks. The Dundun is the lowest of the three, with Sangban next highest, and Kenkeni the highest. I guess all three could be described as bass drums.

Here's an awesome site of just about every West African rhythm in the book - beautifully notated, and I'm told, very accurate.

WAP Pages

You'll see parts for Dundun, Sangban, Kenkeni, Djembes and Bells in most of these rhythms.

[Donnie]

Just a quick point of clarification... the djembe is played with the hands and not with sticks...

dc

[David Fox]

Quote

The Dundun isn't a talking drum. It is normally played alongside the sangban and kenkeni and Djembes in West African rhythms. All three of these drums are played with sticks. The Dundun is the lowest of the three, with Sangban next highest, and Kenkeni the highest. I guess all three could be described as bass drums.

Actually this is not quite correct. Based on what I learned from Joe Galeota (who played the drums and is an expert on them), as well as what I learned from research on the web, there is some confusion because the name dundun is used to describe more than one thing.

Djun-Djun (typically prononounced as either dunun or dundun) is the name for a group of drums, carved from solid Dembu log and using cow skin membranes. The Djun-djun is found throughout South America and West Africa. Djun-djun are worn over the shoulder and played with two sticks: one for the bass tones and the other for a bell tied to the side of the drum. Often the player also has a whistle with which to blow calls and breaks to dancers.

You are correct in saying that the Kenkeni is the highest pitch, and the Sangban the next lower one. But the lowest drum is actually called a Dunumba . (Of course, all three can be referred to as dundun drums, since that is the name of that category of drums.)

The word Dundun is ALSO the name for a talking drum from Nigeria (as well as Benin), and that is the drum that is included in the Talking Drums file. It is a classic hour-glass shaped tension drum that people recognize as a talking drum.

[David Fox]

Quote

Just a quick point of clarification... the djembe is played with the hands and not with sticks...

Yes, and it is, in fact, included inour Floor Drums - Hand file.

[David Fox]

Quote

as an almost rabid fanatic of your company's "drum series 1", i would love to see the atsia collection available in EXS format...and you happened to say the magic word ("yet")...does this mean that this is forthcoming?

Well, we aren't currently working on it, and are quite busy right now working on our woodwind recordings (the next in our Symphonic Collection series).

I would like to see us release more of our products in EXS format, but so far we have found our EXS format sales to be quite small compared to the other formats. I'm not sure why that is, since before we started to create the EXS stuff, we had many requests. If we started seing a lot more EXS format sales, that would of course make it a higher priority to spend the time doing the conversions for the other products.

[Tim York]

Quote

Djun-Djun (typically prononounced as either dunun or dundun) is the name for a group of drums, carved from solid Dembu log and using cow skin membranes. The Djun-djun is found throughout South America and West Africa. Djun-djun are worn over the shoulder and played with two sticks: one for the bass tones and the other for a bell tied to the side of the drum. Often the player also has a whistle with which to blow calls and breaks to dancers.

You are correct in saying that the Kenkeni is the highest pitch, and the Sangban the next lower one. But the lowest drum is actually called a Dunumba . (Of course, all three can be referred to as dundun drums, since that is the name of that category of drums.)

The word Dundun is ALSO the name for a talking drum from Nigeria (as well as Benin), and that is the drum that is included in the Talking Drums file. It is a classic hour-glass shaped tension drum that people recognize as a talking drum.

Thanks for that in depth explanation, David.

I didn't realise the dundun was the name for a talking drum.