Welcome to Tonehammer’s Riq Drum collection!
The traditional family of Middle Eastern (Arabic) hand percussion instruments is generally deï¬ned as an open shell frame drum drum with large cymbals or jingle – aka Riq Drums. It is similar in appearance and origin to a tambourine, but this broad family of specialized drums is treated as a very serious and deeply nuanced instrument class in both traditional and modern Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern European music. Rather than simply being an accompaniment or backing instrument, the Rik family of drums can often take a lead or solo role. The jingles, rattles or rings are often played as a discreet component of the drum, along with a broad range of unique head and rim ï¬nger and hand articulations.
For our Riq Drum multi-sample library, we captured a pair of full-sized drums, one larger 15-inch “daf” drum from Greece with metal rings and bearings (actually called a daf) and one smaller 13” riq drum from Egypt with wide tin “cymbals”. We also captured a toy frame drum that we’ve modiï¬ed into a miniature riq, by adding a series of ï¬ne sand-ï¬lled rattles. We’ve also included a very large collection of ambient droning and “synth” percussion instruments, created entirely through heavily manipulating the source recordings for this library.
Tonehammer Riq Drum Facts:
- $49
- 3 professional Riq drums recorded in dry studio environment.
- 10 round-robin variations on all major articulations
- Up to 8 velocity layers per articulation
- Core articulations:
- Riq bone mallet strikes (center, edge) 6-8 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Riq felt mallet strikes (center) 8 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Riq wooden dowel "hotrods" (center, edge) 6-8 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Riq brushes (center, edge, mute) 6-8 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Riq finger strikes (center, edge, mute) 5-8 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Riq hand strikes (center, mute) 5-6 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Riq shake singles – 5 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Riq shake rolls (slow, medium & fast rolls, grooves) 19 variations w/ release trigger samples and swell control.
- Riq "tabla-style" bass bends – 4 speed, intensity and positional variations, 10X RR each
- Daf bone mallet strikes (center, edge, rim) 5-7 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Daf felt mallet strikes (center, edge) 8 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Daf brushes (center, edge, rim, mute) 6-7 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Daf finger strikes (center, edge, mute) 6-7 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Daf hand strikes – 8 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Daf shake singles – 5 velocity layers, 10X RR per layer
- Daf shake rolls (slow, medium & fast rolls, grooves) 9 variations w/ release samples and swell control.
- Daf "tabla-style" bass bends – 6 speed, intensity and positional variations, 10X RR each
- Baby Riq finger strikes (center, edge) 5 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Baby Riq finger strikes w/ rattle (center, edge) 5 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Baby Riq sand shake singles (5 speeds/intensities) 3 velocity layers, 10X variations per layer
- Baby Riq sand shake roll loops – 3 speeds w/ release samples and swell control.
- Baby Riq sand shake roll crecendo effect – 4 variations w/ start/duration control.
- 74 Bonus Ambient Drones and "Synth" drums, w/ round-robin & modwheel filter control
- Bonus: Custom Convolution Reverb Impulses
- Extensive read me (.pdf) install, patch and hint documentation
- 36 Kontakt patches, including one patch with everything / 2.310 samples
- 1.38 GB installed, 806MB .rar download
- Sample resolution: 44.1Khz / 24Bit stereo .wav format
- Format(s): Kontakt and .wav
- Note: Native Instruments Kontakt 3 / 4 full retail versions required for all Kontakt instruments.
- Note: Free Kontakt Player will only work for 30 minutes with this product. Full version of Kontakt is required to remove this restriction.
Riq Drum Demo 1 (naked) by T. B. Folmann
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(Featuring Tonehammer: Riq Drum and reverb)
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Riq Drum Demo 2 (dressed) by T. B. Folmann
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(Featuring Tonehammer: Riq Drum, Bamblong, Francesca and Zitherette. Additional reverb, strings, synths and berimbau)
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Riq Drum Demo 2 (naked) by T. B. Folmann
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(Featuring Tonehammer: Riq Drum and reverb)
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Additional information about the Riq Drum (source: Wiki)
The riq (Arabic: رق) (also spelled riqq or rik) is a type of tambourine used as a traditional instrument in Arabic music. It is an important instrument in both folk and classical music throughout the Arabic-speaking world. It traditionally has a wooden frame (although in the modern era it may also be made of metal), jingles, and a thin, translucent head made of fish or goat skin (or, more recently, a synthetic material). Although in the West the tambourine is undeservedly considered to be a simple rhythm instrument suited for unskilled performers, riq players are capable of great subtlety and virtuosity.
The riq is used in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, and Syria; in Libya, where it is rare, it is called mriq. It is between 20 and 25 cm in diameter and is now effectively a man's instrument. Descended from the duff (see Daff), like the tar, the riq acquired its name in the 19th century so that it could be differentiated.Essentially an instrument of music for the connoisseur, the riq, which is also called daff al-zinjari in Iraq, is played in takht ensembles (Egypt, Syria) or shalghi ensembles (Iraq) where it has a particularly clearcut role, going beyond the simple rhythmic requirements of the daff, tar, or mazhar, and exploding in a burst of imaginative freedom to colour the orchestra with gleaming sounds: this is quite unlike the role of the daff. In Sudan, where it seems to have been introduced recently, the riq is also related to worship, as in upper Egypt.
The frame of the riq can be covered on both the inner and outer sides with inlay such as mother-of-pearl, ivory or decorative wood, like apricot or lemon. It has ten pairs of small cymbals (about 4 cm in diameter), mounted in five pairs of slits. The skin of a fish or goat is glued on and tightened over the frame, which is about 6 cm deep. In Egypt the riq is usually 20 cm wide; in Iraq it is slightly larger.
Traditionally, frame drums have been used to support the voices of singers, who manipulate them themselves; but the player of the riq, like that of the doira of Uzbekistan, plays without singing. While the daff and the mazhar are held relatively still, at chest or face height, with the player seated, the riq, because of the use of different tone-colours, may be violently shaken above the head, then roughly lowered to the knee, and played vertically as well as horizontally. The player alternates between striking the membrane and shaking the jingles, and his need for freedom of movement necessitates that he stand up. Students of the instrument are required to master the technical problems imposed by the timbre of the membrane and the jingles, both separately and in combination; aside from developing a virtuoso technique they also need to learn the many rhythmic cycles and the techniques of modifying them through creative invention.