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Hopkin Instrumentarium: Weighted Strings Black Friday pricing is $19.50, 50% off, until Dec 6, 2026, on Soundiron's Kontakt library of two experimental string instruments built by inventor Bart Hopkin.
The library samples the Weighted Lyre and the Weighted Zither. Both are handcrafted from wood and metal, with small weights fixed to the strings to change their overtone relationships.
Soundiron says the result is a richly acoustic sound that rings out brightly on every plucked note.
The Lyre has 17 main strings. Three more strings run over a narrow neck and can be fretted.
Its weights are placed to bring out an octave overtone, so the pitch reads clearly.
The Zither has 34 chromatically tuned main strings. Its weights are not placed to favour any overtone, so each string has its own random, highly inharmonic overtone recipe.
Soundiron sampled every interesting sound it could get out of both instruments, in three stereo mic positions: Close, Room and Contact.
The interface has an LFO system with selectable shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo-sync and fade-in time.
You get 12 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters. You can drive the modulation from how hard you hit a key, the mod wheel, expression, aftertouch, where on the keyboard you play, or a table in the step sequencer.
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 for melodic writing and live playing.
The modular FX rack offers 27 DSP modules across 8 slots, in any order. Modules include phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ and rotator.
The Reverb module carries 99 convolution impulse responses of rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor spaces, plus 40 custom FX impulses for more radical changes. Factory FX rack chain presets are included as starting points.
The free Kontakt Player and the Add Library import process do not support this open-format library.
Yes. The Black Friday deal brings this Soundiron Kontakt library to $19.50, which is 50% off, and it ends Dec 6, 2026. The library covers the Weighted Lyre and Weighted Zither, sampled in three mic positions.
It holds Lyre and Zither plucks, glisses, harmonics and SFX in Close, Room and Contact mic positions, 20 ambient pads and drones, 22.nki presets and 9,204 stereo.WAV samples. Custom FX presets are part of the package too.
No. It needs full retail Kontakt, version 6.2.2 or newer, to load the.nki presets. Soundiron states that the free Kontakt Player and the Add Library import process do not support this open-format library.
The Lyre has 17 main strings plus three fretted ones, with weights placed to bring out an octave overtone. The Zither has 34 chromatic strings, and its weights are not tuned to any overtone, so each string sounds highly inharmonic.
Prices and end dates are checked at publishing time and can change, so confirm them at the store before you buy.