Native Instruments Discovery Series: India

Discovery Series: India is said to include a comprehensive library of playable sampled percussion and melodic instruments from North and South India with extensive performance control. The instrument is aimed at composers needing score-ready traditional Indian instrumentation in their work, as well as producers of contemporary music looking to add new rhythmic and tonal color to their music.

India features the irregular time signatures and typical melodic structures of the Indian musical tradition. Each of its nine individual percussion and six melodic instruments are playable individually or as a full ensemble. An onboard groove player provides immediate control and editing of the rhythmic patterns, called 'talas’. 96 scales – known as 'ragas’ – are also included and can be mapped to a keyboard in a number of ways, and modified to fit different harmonic contexts.

According to NI, Discovery Series: India features a modern interface that allows deep sound customization. Easy-to-use mixer and effects sections are said to deliver control over instrument levels and space in a mix. Groove, Feel, and Intensity controls allow instant changes to the performance depth, rhythmic tightness, and dynamics of percussion instruments, and NI’s drag-and-drop MIDI feature lets producers fine-tune and use the more than 950 MIDI drum files with other software instruments in their contemporary productions.

This new sound bank is fully-integrated into NI’s Komplete Kontrol S-Series keyboards. Native Browser allows instant preset recall. Light Guide shows melodic ornamentations on the left hand and notes of a scale on the right hand and more – color-coded on the keyboard and ready to play. Additionally, both Komplete Kontrol S-Series and Maschine hardware feature automatic parameter mapping for instant hands-on control, while users of Maschine can also perform one-shots from the sample set on Maschine’s 16 sensitive pads.

Discovery Series: India runs in Kontakt 5 and the free Kontakt 5 Player.

It is available now at the NI Online Shop for $99 / 99 € / ¥ 12,800 / £89 / AU$149
Additional information and audio demos are available at Native Instruments’ website.