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Hopkin Instrumentarium: Chordophones Black Friday pricing is $99.50, 50% off, until Dec 6, 2026, on Soundiron's sample library of 10 experimental stringed instruments for Kontakt.
The instruments come from inventor Bart Hopkin. Soundiron gathered every Hopkin string instrument it has released so far and added one that exists only in this product: the Stroked Zither.
The builds use wood, steel, bass strings, styrofoam, water and rubber. The maker says each one has its own organic tone, with multiple microphone positions and hundreds of ambient soundscapes made from the source recordings.
The ten instruments are:
The maker says each has its own sonic character, and that they suit blending together or doubling a melody.
The library holds 169 NKI instrument banks. Content covers plucks, staccatos, bowed sustains, glisses, percussion and FX. It is 44,365 stereo samples at 24-bit, 48 kHz, in locked NCW format, and takes 58.3 GB installed.
The GUI is modular and has 4 layers. Automation-ready controls cover swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, coarse and fine pitch, articulation switching, cross-fading and layering.
The LFO system lets you pick the shape, the modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo sync and fade-in time. There are 12 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters. You can route modulation from note velocity, the mod wheel, an expression pedal, channel pressure, where a key sits on the keyboard, or values stored in the step sequencer's table.
The arpeggiator has a velocity table plus control over direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. A key and scale lock keeps notes inside common scales and keys.
The FX rack has 27 DSP modules, which you can load into any of 8 slots in any order. Modules include phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ and rotator.
The convolution reverb has 99 impulse responses of rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor spaces. Another 40 custom FX impulses are there for pushing the sound far from a natural space.
The library ships with over 150 custom FX presets and a bank of FX rack chain factory presets.
The library runs in the free Kontakt Player or full Kontakt, version 8.1 or later, as VST, AU or AAX. You add it through the Libraries browser, and registration is online through Native Access. It also works with Komplete Kontrol and all Native Instruments S-Series keyboards.
On the system side, you need Windows 7 or higher, or Mac OSX 10.12 or higher. The maker lists a dual-core CPU, 3+ GB of RAM and a SATA or SSD drive as recommended. It is a digital download, so you need a broadband connection.
Yes. The Hopkin Instrumentarium: Chordophones Black Friday deal takes 50% off, bringing it to $99.50. The offer ends Dec 6, 2026. It is a download library for Kontakt Player, delivered digitally.
It has 10 experimental stringed instruments by Bart Hopkin, including the Stroked Zither, which is exclusive to this product. You get 169 NKI banks, over 150 custom FX presets, 27 FX modules, an arpeggiator, an LFO system and 44,365 stereo samples.
No. It is licensed for the free Kontakt Player, and it also runs in full Kontakt version 8.1 or later. Plugin formats are VST, AU and AAX. Registration goes through Native Access, and it appears in the Libraries browser.
It takes 58.3 GB installed. The content is 44,365 stereo samples at 24-bit, 48 kHz in lossless NCW format. The maker recommends an SSD or SATA drive, a dual-core CPU and 3+ GB of RAM.
Prices and end dates are checked at publishing time and can change, so confirm them at the store before you buy.