Producer Portfolio: Frank Ricotti Marimba

The Frank Ricotti Marimba collection features one of the finest players in London playing a pristine instrument, each performance displaying a life and character rarely found in sample libraries. The great Jake Jackson supervised the entirety of these sessions at œair studios in a spatially sound environment. Only the finest tube and ribbon mics were used on these sessions, and the signal path includes Bespoke Neve Monserrat pre-amps. The conversion is accomplished with 96k 24bit Digital Prism A/D.

The marimba is a direct descendant of the xylophone and looks very much like its ancestor. Although composers have written extensively for this instrument only since 1950, it has recently started to come into its own as part of the contemporary orchestra. The marimba' rosewood bars, also arranged in the keyboard fashion, are of course graduated, but thinner, longer, and wider than the xylophone', and the resonators have always been part of its construction. The playing technique is identical to the xylophone', but the marimba' mellower, deeper sound has generated a different kind of music. The size and range of the marimba is fairly standard (although the range of some marimbas goes down to A2 or even F2), and there are no transposition problems since it sounds an octave lower. The music can be notated on one or two staffs, in either the treble or bass clef.

The lower register of this instrument is unique and especially beautiful; in the higher registers, the marimba' tone resembles the xylophone'. The most successfully used mallets for the marimba are those made of yarn or soft rubber.