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Hopkin Instrumentarium: Rumba Boxes Black Friday pricing is 50% off, which puts this Soundiron Kontakt library of two large wooden bass kalimbas at $19.50 until Dec 6, 2026.
The instruments come from Bart Hopkin, a master instrument inventor. Soundiron sampled both of them for Kontakt and added pads, drones and sound-design textures built from the raw acoustic recordings.
It is a Kontakt instrument built around two handcrafted instruments with distinctive shapes and mechanics. Soundiron says they have a richly acoustic character that rings brightly through every note.
"Rumba Box" is the English-speaking Caribbean name for a bass kalimba. The player usually sits on the box and plucks the tines, which are mostly chromatic and made from spring-tempered steel rods or bars.
Some tines are reshaped so the most prominent overtone sits better against the fundamental, which gives a more coherent tone. Some carry rattles that bring out that retuned overtone and add an edge.
The Rumba Box covers plucks, picks and percussion. The second instrument, Arby McCone, combines a rumba box, a cajón and a pile of percussion gadgetry.
It started as a plain rumba box and turned out to work as a cajón too. Sympathetic resonance in the tines enriches certain hand-percussion strokes.
Hopkin went on to include metallic sources on springs, claves, beaded shekere-style gourds, a variety of shakers, rattletines, plus two or so bells. Arby McCone includes plucks, mallets, taps, knocks, slaps and aux percussion.
Soundiron sampled every interesting sound it could get from both instruments, with two stereo mic positions each.
The library ships with a set of automation-ready controls. You get swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, coarse and fine pitch, articulation switching, cross-fading and layering.
The reverb in the rack uses convolution impulse responses: 99 rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor spaces, plus 40 custom FX impulses for heavier transformation.
The audio is 24-bit, 48 kHz stereo lossless NCW, 13,719 stereo samples in all, and it takes 7.13 GB installed. It runs in the free Kontakt Player (version 6+) or the full Kontakt (5.6.8 or later) as VST, AU or AAX.
It also supports Komplete Kontrol, S-Series keyboards and NKS hardware and software. Registration happens online through the Native Instruments Service Center app, and the library appears in the Kontakt Libraries browser.
Yes. The Black Friday deal takes 50% off this Soundiron Kontakt library, bringing it to $19.50. The offer ends Dec 6, 2026.
Two handcrafted bass kalimba instruments, each sampled at two mic positions: plucks, picks, hand percussion and aux percussion. You also get 4 master presets, 20 sound-designed FX and ambient presets, and a modular FX rack with 18 modules.
No. The library is licensed for the free Kontakt Player (version 6+) and also works in full Kontakt 5.6.8 or later, as VST, AU or AAX. It needs online serial registration through the Native Instruments Service Center app.
Plucked tines, picks, mallets, taps, knocks, slaps, shakers, bells and cajón-style hand percussion. Soundiron also made pads, drones and ambient textures from the raw recordings, and the LFO, filters, arpeggiator and FX rack let you reshape them.
Prices and end dates are checked at publishing time and can change, so confirm them at the store before you buy.