Cosmic Hand Pans is described as your complete steel handpan virtual instrument collection, and its provenance is documented: we've partnered with instrument-maker Grahm Doe of Hapi Drum to capture a classic D minor handpan in exquisite detail, as well as a pair of unusual hybrids that each have an utterly unique sonic flavor you won't hear anywhere else. The instrument-maker partnership and the two hybrids are the substance of the product: a handpan is a steel shell with hammered dimples forming a fixed scale, and the instrument's defining qualities are a long, complex sustain with strong inharmonic partials and a physical layout in which the pitches are arranged around a central "ding" note — and the D minor tuning is the most common handpan scale, which makes the primary instrument immediately usable, while the hybrids supply the unusual content. Its contents are documented in detail: 3 unique, deeply sampled Hand Pans with up to four microphone positions, 1 master and 20 custom FX Kontakt Player .nki instrument presets, 20 custom sound-designed ambiences created from the Hand Pan source, 24-bit, 48 kHz stereo lossless NCW format, 24,327 stereo samples in locked .ncw format, and 12.7 GB installed (24 GB uncompressed). The 24,327 samples across three instruments is the figure that indicates the depth of sampling — a handpan's character lives in how a note decays and how adjacent notes bloom sympathetically, and capturing that requires substantial per-note recording — and the up-to-four microphone positions let a producer choose between a close, focused capture and one that includes the shell's radiating sound. Its control suite is documented in the developer's usual form: an adaptable LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing and fade-in time, and the library is made for the free Kontakt Player (version 6.2.2+), Komplete Kontrol, all S-Series Keyboards and NKS software and hardware by Native Instruments, and works with the Kontakt "Libraries" browser and Native Access. Requirements are OSX 10.12 or later or Windows 7 or later, with the samples in this library losslessly compressed 24 bit 48 kHz NCW files that can only be played by Kontakt or Kontakt Player — and since it is a Kontakt Player library, the free Player runs it, unlike much of Soundiron's open-format catalogue. It is priced at $59, distributed through Best Service and others, and published by Soundiron. It sits within the developer's percussion range alongside its ergo relatives in xylophones, marimbas, vibraphones, tank drums, tongue drums, and bells. It suits ambient production, film and television scoring, yoga and meditation music, singer-songwriter work, and sound design, and the instrument's appeal across contexts rests on the fact that a handpan is immediately recognisable and almost impossible to synthesise convincingly — which makes recorded material the only practical route to it. #CosmicHandPans #Soundiron #HandPan #Handpan #SteelHandpan #HapiDrum #GrahmDoe #TongueDrum #Kontakt #KontaktPlayer #NKS #KompleteKontrol #SSeriesKeyboards #DMinor #MicrophonePositions #Ambiences #LFO #24Bit48kHz #Ambient #FilmScore #Television #SoundDesign #WorldMusic #Meditation #MusicProduction #FLStudio #AbletonLive #LogicPro #Cubase #Reaper