LibreWave Mexican Marimba

Prized for its rich, warm sound and distinctive resonating chambers, the marimba is a cornerstone of Mexican musical traditional.\n\nRecorded at Studio Uno in the beautiful hills of Oaxaca, this library preserves the heritage and character of the Mexican marimba.\n\nEach note was sampled four times across three dynamics, with three microphone positions. This detail provides the depth and variation needed to craft convincing performances.\n\nSpecial attention was given to capturing the buzz of the resonators, a feature that sets the Mexican marimba apart. This unique tonal texture is present throughout the library, bringing an unmistakable authenticity to each note.

Playing Techniques

The library was recorded with two playing techniques, sustain and muted. The tonal character doesn’t change between them, the difference is in release of each note. With the sustains, the sound is allowed to fade out naturally. With the muted technique, each bar is dampened by hand shortly after being struck.

We’ve also included two different mallet types, normal and soft. Both techniques and mallets can be selected using key switches.

Round Robins

We recorded four repetitions for each note and through neighbour borrowing scripting this has been extend to provide twelve unique round robins at each of the three dynamic levels.

Microphones

The marimba was captured with three overhead mics, one omni close mic at the level of the resonators, and a pair of stereo room mics. The library includes a built in mixer and you can route the individual channels to separate outputs for finer control.

Resonance

The resonating chambers below the instrument are what make the Mexican marimba unique. However sometimes you might want to tone that resonance down a little. In addition to the softer mallet option the interface includes a resonance knob. This controls a peak filter, tuned to give you some control over the level of buzzing.