Soundpaint has introduced Bazantar, a new virtual instrument, based on a one-of-a-kind acoustic instrument that’s part bass, part sitar.

The original Bazantar is a custom five-string acoustic bass, fitted with an additional twenty-nine sympathetic strings and four drone strings, created by Mark Deutsch. The instrument possesses a melodic range of over five octaves, while its sympathetic range spans four octaves. This results in a rich interplay between melodic, sympathetic, and drone strings.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

“Soundpaint’s Bazantar instrument is crafted from thousands of individual samples, including plucked, bowed, tapped and percussive articulations, played with virtuosity by Mark Deutsch, the instrument’s creator. Through his performances we’ve captured four different types of emotionally expressive arcs for composing moving melodic phrases at any length or tempo.

This Deep-Sampled library features traditional plucked bass notes with 8 round robins, and a highly versatile selection of tapped samples at 10 round robins per note, resulting in the most realistic representation possible. Choose from traditional sustains with and without vibrato, and varied dynamic movements and swells, phrase-sampled from Mark Deutsch’s skillful plucking and bowing styles.”

Topics covered in the intro video, embedded above:

0:00 Intro
2:02 Meet Mark Deutsch & Bazantar
3:51 Parts
15:24 Program – Bazantap
17:14 Live Demo with Sherri Chung
18:53 Program – Bazantar & Bowed Piano (Hidden Gem)
20:20 Program – Bazantar and Prayers
22:30 Program – Bazantar Cinematic Ensemble
23:50 Program – Bazantar Gate Distort
24:49 Program – Bazantar Good Dreams
26:04 Program – Guðnadóttir
27:17 Live Demo with Sherri Chung
29:33 Program – Bazantar Percussive Drone
31:03 Program – Bazantar Plucked Rev
32:45 Program – Bazantar Renaissance Times
33:45 Program – Banaztar Sultry
35:30 Program – Bazantar Upright Stick Slap (Hidden Gem)
37:11 Live Demo with Nick Semrad
38:30 Sound From Scratch with Chimy
56:29 Outro
57:14 Live Demo with Nick Semrad

Pricing and Availability

Bazantar is available now for $20 USD.