Uncle John's Banjo (Decent Sampler instrument, VST/AAX/AU)

20 ratings

Uncle John's Banjo was sampled from the banjo that my Uncle John owned. It's been my main 5-string banjo for more than 20 years. It's a Hondo made in the late 70s with a fiberskyn head. I keep a towel in the back to help darken the sound. I recorded these samples with my AKG Perception 420 large diaphragm microphone. I did minimal processing in Logic Pro 11 before building the instrument for Decent Sampler.

You can get an authentic 5-string banjo sound right out of the box. The on-board effects help to elevate the sound to a different world. Here's a breakdown of what is included:

Low Pass Filter (LPF): Turn this knob counterclockwise to mellow out the sound. The knob will go all the way down to 500 Hz.

Chorus: This is a fairly slow, moderately deep chorus effect. Turn it up slowly to achieve a pseudo-doubling effect in stereo.

Delay: Turn this knob clockwise to bring up the delay effect. Notes will repeat somewhat quickly which can send this banjo pretty far up into the mountains.

Reverb: Turn this knob clockwise to send this banjo into a very large room.

Attack: Increase the attack time to hear the samples fade in rather than start immediately at full volume. This can cut off the initial transient of the plucked string and achieve a somewhat eerie, bowed string-like effect.

Release: Shorten the release time to make extra snappy and extra dry banjo sounds. Increase the release time to let the notes linger around longer, much like holding down the damper pedal. (Those should work on this instrument too!)

Tremolo: Turn the knob clockwise to increase the tremolo speed. Tremolo is when the note repeats several times. Turning the knob to about 30-40% will achieve a traditional tremolo style found in lots of tenor banjo music. Turn the tremolo on about 25% and the attack time up past 50% to create some otherworldly pads!