Special ReservesNashville Banjo
Special Reserves
Nashville Banjo
The quintessential American instrument. Super expressive and easy-to-play.
The quintessential American instrument. Super expressive and easy-to-play.
$20
$20
Hear Special Reserves: Nashville Banjo In Action
Hear Special Reserves: Nashville Banjo In Action
- Amazing Grace Andrew Aversa
- Cripple Creek Jeremy Waters
- Banjo Rock Shane Roberts
- River In The Sky Michael Macasiano
- Cooperating Banjos Charlotte Trapasso
- Running Free Hew Wagner
- Heart Of The Brightest Michael H. Lee
- Overgrown Farmstead Arthur Vyncke
- Redgrass Jon R Mohr
- Micro Town Charlotte McMillan
- Superhero Cowboy Showdown Sean Secret
- The Old Dirt Road Tim Corpus
- In The Snowy Mountains HappyHappyCloudMusic
- Banjo On The Loose Filip Jonathan
- Amazing Grace (Library Only) Andrew Aversa
- Cripple Creek (Library Only) Jeremy Waters
- Banjo Rock (Library Only) Shane Roberts
- River In The Sky (Library Only) Michael Macasiano
- Running Free (Library Only) Hew Wagner
- Overgrown Farmstead (Library Only) Arthur Vyncke
- Redgrass (Library Only) Jon R Mohr
- In The Snowy Mountains (Library Only) HappyHappyCloudMusic
- Heart Of The Brightest (Library Only) Michael H. Lee
- Micro Town (Library Only) Charlotte McMillan
- Superhero Cowboy Showdown (Library Only) Sean Secret
- Banjo On The Loose (Library Only) Filip Jonathan
- The Old Dirt Road (Library Only) Tim Corpus
Audio Demos
- Amazing Grace Andrew Aversa
- Cripple Creek Jeremy Waters
- Banjo Rock Shane Roberts
- River In The Sky Michael Macasiano
- Cooperating Banjos Charlotte Trapasso
- Running Free Hew Wagner
- Heart Of The Brightest Michael H. Lee
- Overgrown Farmstead Arthur Vyncke
- Redgrass Jon R Mohr
- Micro Town Charlotte McMillan
- Superhero Cowboy Showdown Sean Secret
- The Old Dirt Road Tim Corpus
- In The Snowy Mountains HappyHappyCloudMusic
- Banjo On The Loose Filip Jonathan
- Amazing Grace (Library Only) Andrew Aversa
- Cripple Creek (Library Only) Jeremy Waters
- Banjo Rock (Library Only) Shane Roberts
- River In The Sky (Library Only) Michael Macasiano
- Running Free (Library Only) Hew Wagner
- Overgrown Farmstead (Library Only) Arthur Vyncke
- Redgrass (Library Only) Jon R Mohr
- In The Snowy Mountains (Library Only) HappyHappyCloudMusic
- Heart Of The Brightest (Library Only) Michael H. Lee
- Micro Town (Library Only) Charlotte McMillan
- Superhero Cowboy Showdown (Library Only) Sean Secret
- Banjo On The Loose (Library Only) Filip Jonathan
- The Old Dirt Road (Library Only) Tim Corpus
Overview
Lay down realistic banjo parts fast, whether you’re creating an intricate picking part or writing a solo line. Create full-blown country or bluegrass tracks, or bring a folk flavor to a pop song or video game score, with the stunning realism and authenticity of Special Reserves: Nashville Banjo. Like all Special Reserves, it offers a streamlined interface, affordable price, and Kontakt Player compatibility!
Lay down realistic banjo parts fast, whether you’re creating an intricate picking part or writing a solo line. Create full-blown country or bluegrass tracks, or bring a folk flavor to a pop song or video game score, with the stunning realism and authenticity of Special Reserves: Nashville Banjo. Like all Special Reserves, it offers a streamlined interface, affordable price, and Kontakt Player compatibility!
Product Info
Authentic bluegrass performance
Featuring a performer who won Banjo Player of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Impeccable realism and variation
Features a huge number of round robins, including multiple additional sample sets for rapid playing to avoid the “machine-gun” effect, plus three distinct dynamic layers.
From twangy to tight
Simple controls make it easy to dial in the performance you want, with as much or as little realistic noise (plucks, releases) as you choose.
Includes fifth (drone) string
A unique component of traditional bluegrass-style banjo playing, the drone string provides harmony and can be controlled separately.
Production-ready sound out-of-the-box
No special mixing, EQ, or reverb required. This is the ideal studio banjo tone, right out of the box.
Authentic bluegrass performance
Featuring a performer who won Banjo Player of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Impeccable realism and variation
Features a huge number of round robins, including multiple additional sample sets for rapid playing to avoid the “machine-gun” effect, plus three distinct dynamic layers.
From twangy to tight
Simple controls make it easy to dial in the performance you want, with as much or as little realistic noise (plucks, releases) as you choose.
Includes fifth (drone) string
A unique component of traditional bluegrass-style banjo playing, the drone string provides harmony and can be controlled separately.
Production-ready sound out-of-the-box
No special mixing, EQ, or reverb required. This is the ideal studio banjo tone, right out of the box.
Features
Designed around a clear, inspiring sonic concept
Beautiful and inspiring high-res UI
Eight automatable controls as easy-to-use as possible
Customize your pick and release noise
Choose a hand position to control performance and tone
Designed around a clear, inspiring sonic concept
Beautiful and inspiring high-res UI
Eight automatable controls as easy-to-use as possible
Customize your pick and release noise
Choose a hand position to control performance and tone
Requirements
2GB of disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
4GB of RAM
Higher amounts of memory let you load more instruments.
Kontakt 7.8+ Player compatible
This library IS compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OS
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 11, 12, or 13 (latest update)
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11, 12 or 13 (latest update).
Kontakt Requirements - Windows
Windows: Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack), Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU, 2 GB RAM. Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher.
Tutorials
Overview and Walkthrough
Amazing Grace Playthrough
Featured Artists & Composers
Ben Prunty
FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach, Subnautica: Below Zero
“I’ve been using ISW since 2015, and their instruments have shown up in Into the Breach and Subnautica Below Zero, and in nearly all of my solo albums. Shreddage helped me fill in the gaps around my own guitar performances. Super Audio Cart provided some great raw synth sounds for parts of Below Zero. Impact Soundworks is often the first place I go to when I’m shopping for a new project. Everything they make works and sounds great.”
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)
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.”
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.”
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!
Jimmy Hinson
Black Ops 4, Mass Effect 2, There Came An Echo, Borderlands 2
“Between Shreddage, Super Audio Cart, Juggernaut, and Mega Brass I don’t remember the last time I haven’t used an Impact Soundworks instrument in a track. The attention to detail is astonishing and it’s all so easy to use out of the box, which is a big deal.”
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!”
ShadyCicada
“Impact Soundworks software is an absolute mainstay in my work when it comes to Video Game and Anime-inspired tracks! The amount of ease and wonderful sounds these plugins offer allows me to get straight into writing and brainstorming.”
Jeff Broadbent
Assassin’s Creed Identity, Call of Duty Mobile, Resident Evil, Diablo Immortal, Transformers: Dark of the Moon
“ISW creates amazing, creative, and intuitive virtual instruments! I’ve enjoyed using them for over a decade, and they have found their way into many of my music scores. Their wonderfully realistic world instruments showed up in a recent Nexon video game, Shreddage 3 Stratus on the score for Grid, and Super Audio Boy is a favorite for retro sounds, effects, and fun nostalgia. Highly recommended!”
Matthew Carl Earl
Overwatch 2, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Arknights
“Impact Soundworks creates easy-to-use, great-sounding virtual instruments right out of the box. Highland Harps, Emotional Mallets, and Shreddage 3 are in my daily toolkit.”
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.”
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!
Mike Reagan
Invincible Fight Girl, Powerpuff Girls, Trials Evolution, God of War, Twisted Metal
“A big thanks to the team at Impact Soundworks for putting inspiration at my fingertips! Your sample libraries are in heavy use in my Orchestral, Rock and Pop templates, and always visible in my top-tier Cue-specific Kontakt. Layering your Shreddage libraries on top of my live guitar tracks creates so much depth, and I get so much out of so many of your other libraries – too many to name. A+ programming and sonic goodness gang!”
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.
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.”
Christopher Gordon
Ladies in Black, Mao’s Last Dancer, Salem’s Lot, Master and Commander
“Impact Soundworks’ range of guitars and fretted instruments sound amazing and are crafted and nuanced with expert detail. Intuitively set up to get straight to composing. And I have a real soft spot for the juicy, screaming Shreddage 3 Hydra!”
Featured Artists & Composers
Ben Prunty
FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach, Subnautica: Below Zero
“I’ve been using ISW since 2015, and their instruments have shown up in Into the Breach and Subnautica Below Zero, and in nearly all of my solo albums. Shreddage helped me fill in the gaps around my own guitar performances. Super Audio Cart provided some great raw synth sounds for parts of Below Zero. Impact Soundworks is often the first place I go to when I’m shopping for a new project. Everything they make works and sounds great.”
ShadyCicada
“Impact Soundworks software is an absolute mainstay in my work when it comes to Video Game and Anime-inspired tracks! The amount of ease and wonderful sounds these plugins offer allows me to get straight into writing and brainstorming.”
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.
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)
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.”
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!
Christopher Gordon
Ladies in Black, Mao’s Last Dancer, Salem’s Lot, Master and Commander
“Impact Soundworks’ range of guitars and fretted instruments sound amazing and are crafted and nuanced with expert detail. Intuitively set up to get straight to composing. And I have a real soft spot for the juicy, screaming Shreddage 3 Hydra!”
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!
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.”
Matthew Carl Earl
Overwatch 2, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Arknights
“Impact Soundworks creates easy-to-use, great-sounding virtual instruments right out of the box. Highland Harps, Emotional Mallets, and Shreddage 3 are in my daily toolkit.”
Jimmy Hinson
Black Ops 4, Mass Effect 2, There Came An Echo, Borderlands 2
“Between Shreddage, Super Audio Cart, Juggernaut, and Mega Brass I don’t remember the last time I haven’t used an Impact Soundworks instrument in a track. The attention to detail is astonishing and it’s all so easy to use out of the box, which is a big deal.”
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.”
Mike Reagan
Invincible Fight Girl, Powerpuff Girls, Trials Evolution, God of War, Twisted Metal
“A big thanks to the team at Impact Soundworks for putting inspiration at my fingertips! Your sample libraries are in heavy use in my Orchestral, Rock and Pop templates, and always visible in my top-tier Cue-specific Kontakt. Layering your Shreddage libraries on top of my live guitar tracks creates so much depth, and I get so much out of so many of your other libraries – too many to name. A+ programming and sonic goodness gang!”
Jeff Broadbent
Assassin’s Creed Identity, Call of Duty Mobile, Resident Evil, Diablo Immortal, Transformers: Dark of the Moon
“ISW creates amazing, creative, and intuitive virtual instruments! I’ve enjoyed using them for over a decade, and they have found their way into many of my music scores. Their wonderfully realistic world instruments showed up in a recent Nexon video game, Shreddage 3 Stratus on the score for Grid, and Super Audio Boy is a favorite for retro sounds, effects, and fun nostalgia. Highly recommended!”
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!”
Special Reserves: Nashville Banjo brings you as close as possible to the varied sound and musicality of a live player. We sampled sustains and harmonics with a high number of round robins per note. These include both up and down picking in three dynamics across a large range. During fast playing, an additional set of samples gets triggered for even more variation and nimbleness, so you never have to worry about rapid-fire repetition. For further authenticity, we also sampled the drone string (used to provide harmony) separately.
The production-ready tone fits seamlessly into country, bluegrass, folk and other genres. Tweak the sound and performance easily with eight intuitive controls across the single-page GUI. Want a bold, twangy sound for soloing? Use the release noise and pluck controls to dial in a more raw and realistic sound. Playing a busy picking part? Put it in mono mode to avoid overlapping notes and use the response control to tighten things up for live performances. All controls can be automated and are midi-learnable.
Real banjo players will vary the tone by moving their hands to different fret positions as they play. We fully sampled two hand positions, so you can use the hand position control to get a warmer, rounder sound with the high position or a brighter sound with the low position.
Whether you’re creating country or bluegrass tracks or simply want to bring the distinctive sound of roots music to your video game scores or pop productions, Special Reserves: Nashville Banjo is a realistic, authentic virtual banjo instrument at a budget price.
Ronnie Stewart, a multi-instrumental bluegrass musician, has played with countless bands and on a staggeringly long list of recordings in addition to several of his own solo albums. He won the International Bluegrass Music Association award for Banjo Player of the Year in 2011 and for Fiddle Player of the Year in 2000.
The Special Reserves series delivers production-ready sounds that are streamlined and extremely easy to use. Created by Impact Soundworks co-founder Andrew Aversa, each entry in the series is designed around a single sonic concept, polished to a mirror shine and ready to drop in your next hit soundtrack or record. Sporting just 8 simple controls, these instruments make it as simple as possible to get great results.