Dr. Ellie Mannette’s life’s work lives on with this comprehensive digital collection of his steelpan instruments.
Since its inception, the steelpan instrument has been turning heads and gaining enthusiasts daily all over the world. As one of the biggest contributors to the instrument’s success, the late Dr. Ellie Mannette innovated and pushed the boundaries of pan for over 70 years. Since his passing, the only ways to hear his life’s work were to listen to a recording or attend a concert featuring his instruments — until now.
World-renowned steelpan artist and composer, Andy Narell has released a digital sample library featuring some of Mannette’s best pans. Narell traveled to various cities internationally, including Paris, France, Morgantown, W.V. and San Mateo, Calif. to record and sample the instruments, with stunning results.
Free Sample
The Andy Narell Steel Pans – The Ellie Mannette Collection, released by Ilio, is a Kontact Player plugin that offers musicians and recording engineers something they’ve never had – access to perhaps the most realistic and high-quality steelpan samples ever created. Seriously, these pan samples are so good, it’s nearly impossible for anyone hearing them for the first time to tell that they are digital samples. If you need proof, check out Narell’s latest album, “Like a Child”, recorded using all sampled steelpans from this library.
What sets this sample library apart from other steelpan sample libraries is both the quality of the sampled instruments and the chosen tools within the GUI that Narell chose to include. Other libraries include things like distortion effects, mallet selection options and microphone types. The Andy Narell Steel Pans appear to focus effects to allow for more practical use of things that can’t be replicated by other external effects or plugins.
Orchestra of Sounds
The library consists of 22 individual instruments, spanning the entire steel orchestra, including tenor pan (soprano voice), double seconds (alto voice), triple guitars (tenor voice), tenor bass (bass voice) and six bass (lower bass voice). The instruments are grouped to individual faders on the GUI (Graphic User Interface) console. Instruments can be selected as solo instrument or as ensemble combinations which can be adjusted manually.
The ensemble presets offer 16 slots, with 11 presets included at the start. The ensemble presets include Full Band, Melody, Pairs, Singles and Orch. Bass. If you prefer, you can create your own presets with the available instruments, which include a bonus vintage early 1960’s tenor pan, called OLD PAN.
Aside from presets, you can control which instruments are muted or select specific instruments to play solo. There are also built-in effects like reverb, delay, chorus and a compressor for users to create their own sounds with the pans based on their needs. You can also control the dynamic range of the instruments with button controls, letting you set the dynamics from pp (pianissimo) up to ff (fortissimo).
Feature and Application
The rolls and harmony functions offer another level of depth so all you need to do is turn them on and you have each function enabled for your need. The rolls function lets you press and hold a note on your MIDI controller for a roll and lets you adjust the speed, delay and smoothing for different types of rolls as needed. The harmony function lets you select intervals to harmonize with single notes played, so that when you play one note, it harmonizes to the selected interval. This is handy if you’re in a hurry and want to harmonize faster with just one finger at a time. You start by setting the key then selecting the interval, which includes thirds, fourths, fifths, 6ths and octaves, either going up or going down.
There are plenty of things to love about the sample library, aside from its ease of use. The features are simple and effective, but made even more impressive given the quality of the pans themselves. This library truly captures the essence of what Mannette worked to achieve with pan — creating a fully-functioning orchestra. Applications are seemingly limitless for the library, from hip hop and rock to reggae, soul and even country. The only thing missing is the imagination of the user. That’s for you to bring to the table.
Learn more below from Narell himself:
