Best Middle East Instruments for Kontakt & Best Service VST plugin

In this article, we will tell you about our top picks for the best Kontakt libraries for composing and producing middle eastern music. These libraries will help you get authentic sounds of the middle east.

A little bit about the middle eastern music

In middle eastern music, quarter-tone(50 cents) is more prominent. Although there are many different music styles and scales in Middle Eastern music, there are 3 most used categories, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian.

In Arabic music, The octave is divided into 24 tones, as opposed to the European system where we have 12 tones. Each tone in the Arabic scale has its own name and identity. Turkish music has 53 tones known as Commas(Koma).

The Persian Scale follows Half Step, Whole and a half step, Half Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole and a half step, and Half Step. In Piano roll, it looks something like this.

You can dive very deep into the Middle Eastern music culture. But that's not something we will discuss in this article. This section was simply a brief introduction to some important scales and tones in the Middle Eastern Music Style. Now let us look at some of the best Middle eastern Virtual Instruments.

Spotlight Collection - Middle East by Native Instruments

The Middle East Library of the Native Instrument's Spotlight Collection is arguably the best virtual library for anyone who wants to compose Middle Eastern music. This library features a wide range of String, Precrussive, and Full Ensembles as well as individual instruments.

The individual instruments include

Percussion

• Daf
• Daire
• Darbuka
• Davul
• Frame Drum
• Kadum
• Riq
• Tombak

Melodic Instruments

• Kanun
• Kemence
• Ney
• Oud
• Saz
• Tanbur
• Zurna

Each Ensemble and the individual instrument comes with a series of realistic articulations, Scales and Sound presets. The Library also has the Spotlight Series's signature Phrase and Scale Editing window. It allows users to load and edit the pre-save melodies and export them to midi files.

There are 7 sound presets in every nki patch - Ambient, Relaxed, Mono, Vintage, Hyped, Modern, and Classic.

Learn more about Spotlight collection Middle East

World Percussion Middle East 2.0 by Evolution Sound

World Percussion Middle east is another amazing Kontakt library for Middle East sounds. This library is particularly oriented towards percussive sounds. The library works on the full version of Kontakt 5 or above.

There are 10 instruments worth 3.85GB included in the library. All instruments are recorded with different mic positions and velocities to give absolute realism. However, there are no Musical instruments included in this library.

There are 10 different percussive instruments in the library.

• Bass Darabuka
• Darabuka 1
• Darabuka 2
• Duff
• Finger Bells
• Muzhar
• Riq
• Tabal 1
• Tabal 2
• Tupan

Learn more about World Percussion Middle East 2.0

Ancient Era Persia by Best Service

Ancient Era Persia is one of the most popular virtual instruments for composing Middle Eastern music. The library features 28 instruments. The library is created by Eduardo Tarilonte. The Middle East 2.0 library includes Wind, Percussive, and string instruments.

Although the library works on the Best Service Engine instead of Kontakt, it has one of the best articulations and expression controls. The Ancient  Era Persia also includes various melodic phrases and loops, recorded at different tempos and rhythms.

Ancient ERA Persia contains 17 GB of samples that includes:

• Percussion: Bendhir, Daf, Darbuka, Davul, Dayre, Riq, Riq plastic and Tombak

• Wind: Turkish Mey High, Turkish Mey Low (combined in a single instrument), Turkish Clarinet, Kaval, Turkish Ney, Persian Ney, Zourna, & Duduk

• Strings bowed: Turkish Violin, Lyra 1, Lyra 2

• Strings plucked: Kopuz, Dutar, Santur, Oud, Baglama Big, Baglama Small, Tambur, Rabab & Tar

Learn more about Ancient ERA Persia

KORON by Impact Soundworks

KORON by Impact Soundworks contains 10 Iranian instruments; with samples and 1200+ performances.

The library includes 5 melodic and 5 percussive instruments.

The samples are recorded at 2 mic positions. The library requires Kontakt 5.5.2 and above version, 11 GB installation space, and a minimum of 4 GB RAM.

Learn more about KORON

Summery

Thanks for reading! We hope that this list of the best library for middle eastern music will help you with your composition projects.