Tbilat Drum

About

The Tbilat is a traditional Moroccan hand percussion instrument comprised of a pair of large and small clay pot drums bound together, with goat skin drum heads and sinew wrappings. It’s also often referred to as a “Tamtam” or simply “clay pot drums”. Tbilats generally have a tight, crisp sound similar to bongos, but with a raspier, rounder and deeper tonality. The Kingdom of Morocco is located in Northern Africa, just across the strait of Gibraltar from Spain. Known for its coastlines, mountain and vast deserts, it's been continuously inhabited for well over 100,000 years, with deep cultural, artistic and musical roots that span the entirety of known human history. The intricate designs of the pots and wrappings and tonal versatility of these instruments are an excellent example of this long and rich creative heritage.

Contents

We recorded our large tbilat pair in a dry studio environment with bare hands and fingers. We recorded each articulation with an average of 6 or more dynamic velocity layers and 10 round-robin variations per note. We then recorded a second session with the instrument in a large reverberant tile and stone hall from close and far distances. The close position retains strong presence, but offers an open and live atmosphere, while the far position provides a feeling of lush, cavernous space and distance. Both of these “wet” hall options are ideal for orchestral arrangements and more atmospheric songwriting. In addition, we also manipulated our tbilat source recordings into 12 unique sound banks, each with velocity layering and plenty of robin variations per note. These stylized impacts, stingers, boomers and atmospheric hits are excellent for cinematic scoring, video game and multimedia sound design, EDM music and hybrid compositions. All of these articulations and sound sets are available within the master preset, with independent articulation layering, blending and switching right at your fingertips.

• Low Drum Fingers: Center, Edge, Rim, Poke, Poke Mute
• Low Drum Slaps: Center, Center Mute, Edge, Edge Mute
• High Drum Fingers: Fingertap, Poke, Tap Rim, Poke Mute
• High Drum Slaps: Center, Edge, Palm
• Ceramic Side Slaps: High & Low
• Special Effects: Pull-Off, Sweep, Swipe, Rub, Scratch, Drag and Dig

Product Specs