QANUN

Qanun - characteristic plucked instrument from the Orient

Qanun is an instrument that reflects the sound of the Orient like no other. Conceived as a  wooden psaltery and strung with 63 to 84 strings, it has influenced the music of the Orient since the 10th century. In any case, the first illustrations in Hassan Bar Bahlul's Syrian lexicon date from this period. Even today, the characteristic sound of the qanun still plays an important role in traditional and modern oriental music.

The native Syrian and multi-instrumentalist  Bassam Ayoub has managed to make the Qanun playable in the virtual world. His extensive experience in recording oriental instruments, coupled with a deep understanding of the history and the playability of this, has already been demonstrated with libraries such as "Arabic Oud"  and  "Arabic E-Oud" .

Qanun impresses with its unsurpassed  authenticity in terms of playability and realism . With a total of 22 articulations , several velocity layers and up to 16 round robins, the virtual image of the traditional psaltery includes all the important timbres that have made this wonderful instrument one of the most famous plucked instruments in the world.

The main goal was to achieve an authentic sound with the best possible playability, therefore the articulations are divided into recorded performances and freely playable articulations. The integrated microtunings make the heart of every professional maqam interpreter beat faster.

Music creators have never been able to fall back on such a wide range of virtual instruments and  combine influences from the traditional and the modern so easily to create something new. The Qanun's versatile sound spectrum is also extremely interesting for current productions in the fields of EDM, hip-hop and pop music as well as other genres.

The engine

With the virtual Qanun, the beautiful sounds of the Middle East are transported into the DAW-supported production environment. The carefully programmed and clear interface of the Engine Player makes working with the library easier for you. Let your creativity run free and be inspired by the sound of the Qanun.

The user interface gives you access to the most important and most widely used microtunings of oriental music: Bayati, Rast, Saba and Seka . Each tuning offers two variants (Normal and Syriac Church) and the free choice of root.

The keyswitches allow you to switch between the game types in order to create incredibly realistic performances . A distinction must be made here between latch and hold keyswitches. While latch keyswitches remain activated after the key has been released, hold keyswitches only remain activated as long as they are pressed and held by the player - after releasing the key, the game mode changes to the last selected latch keyswitch.

The green MIDI song keys above the play area play short MIDI sequences that demonstrate the many ways the Qanun can play.

Born in Syria, Bassam Ayoub , a musician and singer, toured many Arab countries and Europe with various bands. As the head of his recording studio in Wiesbaden, he worked with countless artists and well-known manufacturers of oriental keyboards and expanders such as Korg, Farfisa and Limex. After "Arabic Oud" and "Arabic E-Oud", Qanun is now the next step in his hunt for the perfect virtual Qanun that captures the unique sound of this instrument, but also gives it a special feel.

Works with engine version 2.7.2.43 or higher!

Registered users who own "Arabic Oud" or "E-Oud" have the opportunity to purchase a discounted crossgrade .