una conga

Cuba in a computer? Not really, but it is a conga. There are already too many sampled congas out there, so we’ve taken a different approach with this release. We sampled the usual ways that a conga is hit with fingers, palms, and mallets, but we also captured a whole library of unusual, but highly useful articulations to make this the tastiest tumbadora ever.

We set out to capture a “quinto” sized conga tuned to an E, with some subtle warmth, sheen and extra detail. We captured it through our most open sounding microphone preamplifier, our favourite ribbon mic, and then some API EQ and light vintage LA-2A compression to get our ‘perfect’ sound. We pushed the limits of normal expression with just a single “lead” conga by recording so many different types of hits, with up to 3 velocity layers, and 6 random round robins for each velocity, 

After listening to the thousands of hits captured, we narrowed our selection down to 328 samples. Next we tweaked the playing feel we wanted for each key to make things sound right. We needed a sampler instrument that was easy to play, and as real feeling in the dynamics as it was in the succession of hits. Luckily, the new “round robin” feature in Ableton 12’s updated sampler instrument allowed us to realize the conga for Ableton we wanted to make (which is why this release is an Ableton 12 Suite only release). We ended up with 4 Ableton 12 sampler instruments running in parallel to facilitate the expression of the conga. With the drag strokes, you’re able to control the length of your drag and release by holding down the note/hit for a longer period of time. 

Use the 10 macro conga controls to tune it, soften it , shorten it, drive it, room it, spread it, bend it, and filter it as you see fit.  We’ve included 32 sound presets with these controls to get you started, but you can crate your own, or automate them in your productions for even more expression. If that’s still not enough, feel free to use or abuse the 32 MIDI loops and a demo song session we included to get things started.

“If you want to do the conga, you've got to listen to the beat.”