Alongside the classic sound of reggae, nothing conjures images of the Caribbean more than the steel pan drum. Originating from Trinidad and Tobago, originally built from large industrial drums used for liquid transport, the chromatically-tuned pan drum is played with mallets. The instrument has a colourful history and is instantly associated with the sound of the Caribbean carnival. Our Steel Pan library, part of the Elastik Instrument Series, captures the full character of the drum's distinctive sound.
The Steel Pan library contains over 600MB of sample data and a total or over 400 unique loops and phrases. The audio is presented dry (without effects) and ready for your own choice of processing and ambience. As with other libraries in the Instrument Series, the phrases are organized by tempo and into sub-folders containing collections of musically related loops. Original recording tempos ranging from 70 to 120 bpm. Loops are generally 2 bars in length and recorded in the keys of Am and Em. However, with a consistent sound across the entire loop collection, and Elastik's powerful tempo-matching and ReTune features, it is incredibly easy to mix and match phrases between the different folders and to build a full song-based performance.
For music producers or composers looking to create the genuine sound of Caribbean street music, Steel Pan will bring instant results. However, the sound can also be used by songwriters to bring some West Indian spice into cross-over compositions in other genres such as funk, soul, house or mainstream pop. Whatever the musical style, if you are looking to add the sound of an authentic steel drum performance to your next production, Steel Pan delivers all the hits you need.
Attention: The backing loops used in the demo are not part of the library!