In today's postmodern age, embracing and reliving the ways of the old is sometimes perceived as something new. On the contrary, this concept has existed as early as the 1920s when some German folks thought of the ancient psaltery and playing it with a bow. Reliving the relived experience of antiquity, the Cinematique Instruments Bowed Psaltery provides a somewhat German antiquated instrument into a German sample player called Kontakt.

The Bowed Psaltery is a sample library from the instrument of the same name from the zither family. This sample library has been recorded in different modes: sustained notes as separate up-bow and down-bow stroke variations, short (about three seconds) as well as staccato bowed notes in four times round robin as well as tremolo notes. Going above that, Cinematique Instruments also recorded "slow tremolo" loops and noises and scratches made with the bow. The modulation wheel on the surface of Kontakt also provides for additional expressive options.

Bowed Psaltery contains the following instruments:

• Bowed Psaltery MW (sustain notes as separate up and downbow stroke variations, looped, additional release notes, modwheel controls dynamic)
• Bowed Psaltery Shrt (Short notes in 4 times Round Robin)
• Bowed Psaltery Stacc MW: (Staccato notes in 4 times Round Robin, modwheel affects the dynamic from gentle to hard staccato)
• Bowed Psaltery Stacc MW Arp: (see above, arpeggiator script with 12 presets)
• Bowed Psaltery Tremolo: (Tremolo notes, looped, additional release notes, modwheel controls dynamic, controlling amount of reverb)
• Bowed Psaltery FX: (processed long notes, pad-like)
• Bowed Psaltery KEY (multi patch contains sustain, short and staccato notes, switchable by key)
• Bowed Psaltery Loops: (”slow – tremolo” (ostinato) loops, noises and scratches made with the bow, tempo-synced, controlling

If you're already tired of today's orchestral string family or you're leaning towards a more authentic performance angle in an electronic way (this seems kind of an odd concept), Cinematique Instruments Bowed Psaltery will provide you with a new string flavor for your compositions. Bowed Psaltery can be availed from the Cinematique Instruments website, costs 19.00 EUR (about 27.8 USD), and can be paid for via PayPal.