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Kalimba 3.0 Black Friday pricing takes 50% off this Soundiron thumb piano library for Kontakt, which brings it to $9.50 until Dec 6, 2026.
It is a sampled kalimba, the modern descendant of the African mbira. The maker describes the sound as a gentle, melodic pluck with marimba-like warmth and body.
Soundiron says it sits well next to piano and other tuned percussion, where it adds a sharper attack and a playful edge.
Two instruments were sampled: a smaller one covering about an octave and a half, and a larger one running past two octaves. Both are built from wood and coconut shell, with hammered steel tines over the sound holes.
Each tine has up to 11 velocity layers, with up to 10 round-robin variations per layer. That keeps repeated notes from sounding machine-gunned.
The package contains:
The kalimba was recorded in three different environments. One is a close, dry studio take. One is a small, bright chamber at medium distance.
The third is "The Bunker", a deep underground artillery bunker from the First World War, recorded with microphones at 1 meter and at 15 meters.
An integrated Release control shapes the room decay, so the big hall can be pulled into a tight room with one knob turn.
Tonehammer first released the library in 2009. Version 3.0 adds 62 new custom ambiances and atmospheric pads, a redesigned graphical interface with multi-layer sound blending and instrument loading, and a full set of performance, mapping and tuning options.
The controls are automation-ready. You get swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, coarse and fine pitch, articulation switching, crossfading and layering.
An LFO section offers selectable shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo sync and fade-in time. There are also 12 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters, which can be modulated by velocity, mod wheel, expression, aftertouch, key position or step-sequencer table.
The arpeggiator has a velocity table and controls for direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. A key and scale lock keeps your notes inside common scales and keys.
The FX rack holds 18 DSP modules in 10 slots, in any order: phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulation, compression, EQ, rotator and more. The convolution reverb ships with 99 rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor spaces, plus 40 custom FX impulses.
The library runs on Windows 7 or higher and Mac OS X 10.9 or higher. A dual-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM are listed, with an SATA or SSD drive recommended.
You need the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or above. The free Kontakt Player only opens it in demo mode.
Yes. The Kalimba 3.0 Black Friday deal takes 50% off Soundiron's Kontakt library, bringing it to $9.50. The offer ends Dec 6, 2026.
You get one master NKI bank with kalimba plucks and strums in dry, chamber and bunker environments, plus 86 ambience patches. There are also 20 sound-designed FX and ambient presets, and 1,131 stereo WAV files at 24 bit / 48 kHz.
No. It needs the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or above. In the free Kontakt Player it only runs in demo mode. It supports Windows 7 or higher and Mac OS X 10.9 or higher.
There is an FX rack with 18 DSP modules across 10 slots, including a convolution reverb with 99 spaces and 40 FX impulses. It also has an LFO, 12 filters, an arpeggiator, and key and scale lock.
Prices and end dates are checked at publishing time and can change, so confirm them at the store before you buy.