The Sound Board

Orange Tree Samples has released Evolution 10 String Stick, a sampled Chapman Stick.

"Evolution 10 String Stick recreates the unique sound of a Chapman Stick. We sampled each of the instrument's ten strings individually, all the way up the instrument's fretboard for a total playing range of over five octaves. Evolution 10 String Stick automatically determines which strings and frets to use based on adjustable positions for both hands. You can also select where the split point is between the treble and bass ranges. Evolution 10 String Stick was developed in collaboration with Rosewood Recording Company in Utah. Guy Randle, the owner and recording engineer at Rosewood Recording Company, incorporated analog audio equipment to emphasize desirable tonal qualities of the instrument. Evolution 10 String Stick includes both the as-recorded signal as well as an enhanced signal."

Three demos:
- Baliset Hero
- Amazing Grace
- Stick with This Jam (Andrea Bellucci)

Key features:
- Over 10,500 samples totaling 14.5 GB of uncompressed samples.
- Articulations such as sustains, muted notes, natural harmonics, plus special effects like string slaps and divebombs.
- Legato samples for slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs.

Intro Price: $139 until May 26th, 2023 (Reg. $179).
Evolution 10 String Stick is powered by the free Kontakt Player.



Here are a few video of the real thing in action:





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I could not be more excited about a library!! I have an Ironwood 10 string Stick, bought in in the late 80s, and I still stink, but it sounds so cool!

Can't wait to get my hands on it!!

a couple related (??) notes:

If you've been to a NAMM convention in LA in the last 30 years you've seen stick players, usually by the dozen. In 2000 you literally could not swing the proverbial cat without hitting one. And they were all pretty darned good.

There was a magazine (sorta) in the late 1970s, called "Musicians Guide". It was distributed through music stores - well "hip" music stores. I don't think they charged for it, which might explain why it is no longer here? There were always a couple of articles that were more than worth the read - often that was the entire issue. I thought I had rescued my copies, if I did they are lost now.

I bring this up because that is where I first heard about the Chapman Stick. Interviews with Mr. Chapman (yes, he exists) were fascinating, and the ads were all really cool - at least to a high school musician wannabe.

It would be almost ten years later that I finally got my hands on one. I was building my first studio and a friend of a friend of mine was liquidating his studio. I picked up several microphones, and a loaded Valley People Rack. After the deal was cut we started chatting about music and studios and instruments... he mentioned he had a Chapman Stick. I mentioned I'd been looking for one. You can guess the outcome.

Yes, I still have it, and no, I am still not proficient, but I am stubborn! At the moment I am awaiting a new set of strings, only the second or third set I've put on in almost 40 years - I have no idea why they seem to last forever, but they do.

It is a marvelous instrument that can take you in directions you never imagined. It also seems to lend itself to sampling, and if Greg has done half as good a job with this as he has with others (a safe bet) it will be a great addition to my tool kit. I doubt I'll sell the instrument, but I'll likely use the library more often<G>.

I like the tone of Trilian’s Chapman well enough, but this clearly sounds much more realistic for fluid playing.

That said, what I’ve been pointlessly yearning for for years is a sampled Tony Levin Chapman Stick. No-one else makes it sound like that, and it is always the tone I associate with the instrument.

Mr. Levin does a fine job regardless of the instrument in his hands. And it has more to do with those hands (and that mind) than the instrument itself.

The Trillian Stick is fun, but, at least with the factory patches, it is not all that expressive.

Now I gotta go find me a couple of Tony Levin plays the Stick videos...

Well excuse my complete ignorance - while Tony Levin is a celebrated master of the Chapman Stick (and it doesn't sound like anyone else's Stick):



It turns out that some of his stuff I thought was the Stick was in fact not. Here he is playing a little Sledgehammer in all of its glorious glory - using a fretless, a pick and and octaver. Hearing this clean makes me absurdly happy.