Stroh Violin
A quirky, self-amplified "violin" with a resonating metal body and horn.
Suggested Price: US$5
Hear The Stroh Violin In Action
- Aviation (Dressed) Ian Dorsch 1:02
- Dirty Strohgeige (Dressed) Richie Albert 0:49
- Fault Line (Dressed) Blake Ewing 1:11
- Luminous Path Compound (Dressed) Henning Nugel 1:51
- An Undercover Brotherhood (Dressed) Nicolas Felix 1:51
- Under the Lake (Dressed) Nabeel Ansari 1:12
- Herr Feistenpantzen's Tiny Mystery Kurt M. Landre 0:54
- Dirty Strohgeige (Naked) Richie Albert 0:39
- Fault Line (Naked) Blake Ewing 1:06
Reviews
Simon Franglen
Titanic, Skyfall, Spectre, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water
Impact Soundworks make detailed, emotive instruments. I’ve happily bought over two dozen of their libraries which should say everything. They get used every day.
Mark Portmann
Ariana Grande, Luis Fonsi, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones
"[ISW]'s instruments consistently deliver the sound, feel, and reliability I need to do my best work. Thank you for raising the bar and making tools that inspire."
Neal Acree
World of WarCraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Overwatch
"Impact Soundworks has some of the most creative and innovative libraries out there. From world instruments to the insanely deep sampled Shreddage guitar series the Impact catalog is full of must-haves and unexpected and inspiring surprises. Highly recommended!
Stewart Winter
Co-founder, VideoHelper
"I'm a keyboard player -- I can't even make a REAL guitar sound convincing. But Telos and Rosette are my go-to guitars because they sound incredible, sit well in a mix and are so easy to configure to my personal playing habits. I'm constantly discovering new ways to play them and they've saved my ass more times than I can count. And the pedal Steel is still my favorite library of its kind for Country, Folk and organic layering behind synths."
Brian Pickett
PAW Patrol, Lucas the Spider, Daniel Tiger
"I never would have thought that sampled guitars could sound as good as ISW's do. The fact that I can use them to lay down a realistic solo is unprecedented. They’ve pushed the boundaries of realism."
Rosette Mandolin – Sound on Sound
Rosette Mandolin review
"The sound of the library is very pleasing...the more I used the library the more I felt I was learning how to write idiomatically for the instrument." "Rosette Mandolin provides a good sound that could have many applications, with versatile input options that cater to writing realistic mandolin lines, impossible 5+ note chords and everything in between." Thomas Field, September 2024
Richard Jacques
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Overwatch 2, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
"I'm a huge fan of the Ventus Winds series. They feature rare instruments deep-sampled to an incredibly high level of detail. It's so liberating to have such a wide range of articulations & phrases that perfectly capture the nuances and performance style of these instruments... from beautiful to haunting, celebratory to sorrowful. Each is expertly recorded and the sound quality is superb, sitting in the mix with ease. If you want to add authentic world winds to your palette, then look no further."
Kevin Manthei
Angry Birds Mystery Island, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Villainous, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online
"ISW creates some of the most inspiring & realistic guitar sample libraries. I had to write a bunch of really gritty, angry heavy metal & sports action rock cues. I used Shreddage 3 Serpent for leads and was blown away by its onboard processing, programming, and amazing live-sounding leads. I also created a signature sound based on the lead guitar in David Lynch's Twin Peaks series, originally played on baritone guitar. [Serpent] built a convincing replica of that sound just using on-board FX. It was so fun and easy to do!"
Audio Demos
- Aviation (Dressed) Ian Dorsch 1:02
- Dirty Strohgeige (Dressed) Richie Albert 0:49
- Fault Line (Dressed) Blake Ewing 1:11
- Luminous Path Compound (Dressed) Henning Nugel 1:51
- An Undercover Brotherhood (Dressed) Nicolas Felix 1:51
- Under the Lake (Dressed) Nabeel Ansari 1:12
- Herr Feistenpantzen's Tiny Mystery Kurt M. Landre 0:54
- Dirty Strohgeige (Naked) Richie Albert 0:39
- Fault Line (Naked) Blake Ewing 1:06
Overview
The Stroh violin is a self-amplified instrument based on a traditional violin, but instead of the usual wooden body, it features a resonating metal body and horn. We’ve thoroughly sampled this fascinating instrument with three custom-mapped articulations and a delightful rhythmic sequencer — perfect for adding character to everything from rhythmic underscore ostinato to comical pizzicato, folk mockups, and more!
Product Info
Authentic multisampled stroh violin
A one-of-a-kind acoustic hybrid instrument that consists of a violin with a metal resonator and horn.
Maximum realism through deep sampling
3x dynamic layers and up to 5x round robins to prevent the machine-gun effect even on repeated notes.
Core playing techniques
Sustain, spiccato, and pizzicato articulations included.
Flexible studio sound
Recorded via warm ribbon mic in a small studio, so you can keep it dry or blend it with any reverb.
Dirt and scratch samples
An entire sample set of atonal/unpitched spiccatos, which can be blended on the Extras tab, allowing for a more percussive and rhythmic sound.
Features
3-layer rhythmic sequencer / gate
Customizable mapping
Quick controls for grit, dirt and vinyl
Three customizable reverbs included
Lightweight and fun to use
Requirements
250MB disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
2GB of RAM
Higher amounts of memory let you load more instruments.
Kontakt 5.4+ Full Version
This library is NOT compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OS
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11 or 12 (latest update).
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11 or 12 (latest update)
Kontakt Requirements - Windows
Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit). Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU. Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher. Windows 10 strongly recommended.
Tutorials
Library First Look
Featured Artists & Composers
Neal Acree
World of WarCraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Overwatch
“Impact Soundworks has some of the most creative and innovative libraries out there. From world instruments to the insanely deep sampled Shreddage guitar series the Impact catalog is full of must-haves and unexpected and inspiring surprises. Highly recommended!
Mike Gonsolin
(Snoop Dogg, T-Pain, Playboi Carti, Migos)
“Impact Soundworks’ libraries are truly in a league of their own. I’ve been a long time user for as long as I can remember and it would take me a whole other producing lifetime to build the depths of these libraries on my own. As a Kontakt enthusiast who owns just about every library out there I can confidently say that Impact Soundworks’ libraries stand in the top 1%, and that’s saying something! No snake oil here. Just meticulously assembled libraries that are overflowing with creative sound design options and inspiration igniting presets.”
Mike Gonsolin (Mike G)
Lena Raine
Celeste, Chicory, Minecraft, Guild Wars 2, Deltarune
Instruments from ISW are a staple of my soundtrack work for games. Vocalisa has been a mainstay vocal aesthetic of nearly every game I’ve worked on including Celeste & Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Shreddage 3 has also given me the confidence to write some really fun guitar riffs & solos despite not being able to play a real one. I’ve started incorporating Tokyo Scoring Strings into the acoustic side of my scoring work, and can’t wait to try out more from ISW in the future!
The Stroh violin is a curious acoustic instrument invented by electrical engineer John Matthias Augustus Stroh in the 1890s. Stroh conceived of a violin constructed with a metal resonator and horn, producing a louder, brighter sound compared to a traditional wood violin.
While this curious modification of the violin never overtook the popularity of the orchestral instrument, the Stroh violin is played by musicians worldwide — particularly in Europe — for folk music. It is beloved for street performance, thanks to its powerful tone that requires no amplification to be heard even in a noisy area.
Stroh Violin captures the titular instrument in a single, elegant, and lightweight Kontakt library with modern trimmings like a sequencer and “grit” effects. The result is a fun and surprisingly versatile virtual instrument, great for everything from rhythmic underscore ostinato to comical pizzicato, folk mockups and more. Special thanks to performer Kalle Ricken and designer Richie Albert!
Stroh Violin includes a fun and powerful rhythmic sequence with three layers: note dynamics, length, and attack offset. Use these to create a wide range of useful pulsing elements for your tracks. On the spiccato and pizzicato articulations, each tempo-synced step will retrigger the played notes, useful for ostinato-type patterns. On the sustain articulation, this sequencer functions as a gate instead, moving the volume up and down.
Articulations can also be mapped and layered using velocity ranges, or soloed via keyswitch — all user-assignable. The interface is rounded out with some extra controls, allowing for quick saturation, dirt, and “vinylization” for an even more lo-fi sound!
Reviews
The Stroh Violin – Composing Gloves
“This is, like, a really viable library; you can create some pretty cool music with this…this is an instrument that’s so good, it really is quite fun to play…this library gets a freakin’ ten out of ten; this is an amazing free thing…I can’t even believe this, like…just wow.”
Composing Gloves (07/16)
The Stroh Violin – Soul Muzic Productions
“It sounds really good for what it does, but it’s limited….but again, you’re not really getting this plug-in for something to be versatile; this is just to get an interesting sound….definitely check this out; this thing is really cool.”
Soul Muzic Productions (06/2020)