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Bizarre Sitar Black Friday pricing is 50% off, which puts this Soundiron Kontakt instrument at $19.50 until Dec 6, 2026.
It's a sampled sitar, and a small one. The instrument is just over 24" long, about half the size of a standard sitar, with a traditional gourd body and hand-painted orange accents.
It carries 5 main strings and 6 sympathetic strings, plus parda, kunti, dandi and ghoraj. Soundiron says it was meant more as decoration than instrument, and that it sounds far fuller than its size suggests.
The maker describes the sound as lush and full-bodied. Articulations cover chromatic plucks, strumming and bowing, plus an FX set with mutes, scrapes and other special effects.
Strums come in two tunings. The unison tuning has strings in unison and several octaves. The fifth tuning pairs unison and fifths, similar to the Pancham-Kharaj tuning popularized by Ravi Shankar.
An onboard Speed slider shapes each strum, from tight, fast strums to slower, plucky ones. It defaults to the mod wheel and can be assigned to any MIDI control. Several strum speeds were recorded for both tunings, so changing speed in real time gives realistic strums.
The interface has automation-ready controls for swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, coarse and fine pitch, articulation switching, cross-fading and layering. There are 20 custom sound-designed FX and ambient presets.
The LFO system has selectable shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo sync and fade-in time. You can pick from 12 low-pass, high-pass and FX filters. Modulation targets include velocity, mod wheel, expression, aftertouch, key position and step-sequencer table control.
The arpeggiator has a velocity table and controls for direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. A key and scale lock keeps notes inside common scales and keys, which helps with melodic writing and live playing.
The FX rack offers 18 DSP modules across 10 slots, in any order. Expect phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ and a rotator. The convolution reverb ships with 99 rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor spaces, plus 40 custom FX impulses.
The library is an open-format Kontakt instrument in one master NKI bank. It holds 603 stereo samples, 24 bit / 48 kHz uncompressed PCM wav, at 1.86 GB installed.
It needs the full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or later. The free Kontakt Player only runs it in a limited demo mode. The Libraries tab doesn't support it, so load it through the File browser tab or the Quickload window.
The Kontakt presets and wav samples are unlocked, so you can use the samples in other wav-compatible samplers and synths.
System requirements: Windows 7 or higher, or Mac OSX 10.9 or higher. A dual core CPU and 2 GB of RAM are listed, with a SATA or SSD drive recommended.
Yes. The Bizarre Sitar Black Friday deal takes 50% off, so the Soundiron Kontakt library costs $19.50. The offer runs until Dec 6, 2026.
One master NKI instrument bank with 603 stereo samples, 1.86 GB installed at 24 bit / 48 kHz. It has plucked, bowed and multi-speed strummed articulations, FX sounds like mutes and scrapes, and 20 custom FX and ambient presets.
Not fully. It's an open-format Kontakt library, so the free Player runs it only in a limited demo mode. You need the full retail Kontakt 5.5 or later. The wav samples are unlocked for use in other wav-compatible samplers.
Strumming comes in two tunings: a fifth and an octave/unison. A Speed slider, mapped to the mod wheel by default, sets how fast each strum is. Several strum speeds were recorded, so you can change the feel in real time.
Prices and end dates are checked at publishing time and can change, so confirm them at the store before you buy.