With a little bit of this and Thaat, Precisionsound put together and released Indian Surmandal, a new sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt, Steinberg HALion, and Apple Logic's EXS24.

Also known as the Swarmandal, the Surmandal is a small Indian harp that is generally used to accompany vocalists who play arpeggios and notes on the instrument with the right thumb in Hindustani classical music. Examples of the Surmandal in Western music include "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "Within You Without You" by The Beatles, where the instrument was plucked with a guitar pick. Precisionsound's Indian Surmandal sample library features the same type of playing -- plucked with a pick.

All in all, Indian Surmandal includes 867 24-bit WAV files and 16 programs for all versions of HALion, EXS24, and Kontakt versions 1 and 2, plus 2 programs for Kontakt versions 3 and 4.

The Surmandal Plectrum programs are the plectrum-picked Surmandal from C1 to G4 with all notes and half notes sampled. The mappings are E2 to G5, the G5 is stretched to C6, and E2 is stretched down to C2. According to Precisionsound, every note has been sampled in four Velocity layers and has four samples for every layer; these have been programmed as round robins for Kontakt and EXS24. The HALion programs have all samples mapped as Velocity layers instead, for a total of 16 Velocity layers.

In addition to Plectrum programs, the sample library includes Surmandal Thaats. What's that? A Thaat is a musical mode in Hindustani music that always has seven notes (excluding the repeated tonic) and is considered the basis for the system of organizing and classifying ragas in North Indian classical music. There are ten generally accepted Thaats, all of which are included in the Indian Surmandal sample collection: Bilawal, Khamaj, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Bhairav, Kalyan, Marwa, Purvi, and Todi. These Thaats are strummed up or down in different speeds.

Indian Surmandal is now available a downloadable library for $69. For $11 more, you can get the same library as a hardcopy DVD. For more information, please visit Precisionsound's Web site at precisionsound.net.