THE BALALAIKA

The Balalaika is a small string instrument which most likely originates from central Asian lute instruments but is nowadays most closely associated with eastern european, especially Russian music. First mentioned in the 17th Century, it was primarily used for village and folk music whereas the Balalaika also starts to take part in concert performances since the 19th Century. This even lead to the forming of Balalaika orchestras. Additionally the Balalaika acquired its iconic triangular shape in that time.
The Balalaika we have recorded is a three-stringed prima Balalaika which has a typical E-E-A tuning.


In the history of our previous released string instruments we have again set a great focus on creating an instrument with a soft and warm sound which will have an organic and realistic feel. In order to concentrate on the main instrument articulations, we have recorded the Balalaika in the regular „plucking“ articulation in eight times round robin which is well suited for playing melodies but also offers many more uses. It features a „Tremolo-Option“ which is controlled over the Mod Wheel and is capable of creating a very tragic and dramatic but also extremely natural tremolo sound, which fits perfectly in a lot of different music styles and genres. The other articulation which we have captured is the „Strumming“. This is great for accompanying and creating a good backing for your music. Along with these samples we have additionally recorded strummed deadnotes. You can play these notes manually or with a tiny but very powerful "Pattern" engine which lets you create patterns in an easy and self explaining way. Furthermore the Balalaika is equipped with different options to enhance the entire sound with three types of reverb, some fx features and editing possibilities.

Overall the Balalaika is an instrument which is easy to use while still offering loads of capabilities to augment your sound with its soft and organic feel and extremely versatile uses.