Special Reserves
Nashville Banjo
The quintessential American instrument. Super expressive and easy-to-play.
$39
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!
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.
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
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
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!"
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!
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.