I LOVE the sound of these two instruments and would really like to add them to my arsenal.
But, I’m wondering what digital options there are out there - and I include USB instruments like Lottie Canto’s Colour Palette (which looks amazing but is expensive and difficult to get hold of)?
What VST’s do you recommend? What are the best options for a bedroom producer?
Have you considered an electric kalimba to record/sample? Hokema make some that are much more affordable than the Colour Palette. I have one, I’m not very good at it but it sounds lovely!
Nice one - the B9 looks fun!
Modartt has a “Celeste” model for Pianoteq that also includes fantastic kalimba and glockenspiel. And because they’re modeled, they’re quite expressive. The problem is Pianoteq itself is rather pricy if that’s the only thing you’re getting it for — but I believe the initial cost includes three packs of your choice or something like that.
Hardware-wise, both glockenspiel and kalimba are a part of the general MIDI sound set, so most ROMplers have them. And very decent SoundCanvases are cheap as chips used these days, to say nothing of the various JVs.
+1 for Hokema, they make beautiful sounding kalimbas that are also very playable. Sonodrum also makes a nice kalimba (effectively a rebrand of the better kalimbas one can find on amazon) and comes with an included clip-on mic.
EDIT: I’d go mic’ed over VST, Kalimbas can be surprisingly versatile in the sounds they can create.
You might want to check out decent sampler and the associated pianobook site. Free multisample player VST and free sample sets for it including kalimba and glockenspiel.
