New Instrument That's Otherworldly - The Yaybahar

Hello wonderful fellow ATSers, I came across this amazing new instrument just now and thought you might enjoy giving it a listen while you have your morning cuppa. This thing sounds quite incredible, almost electric or synthetic. Yet it is warm, eager, blissful and delicate. It's design of long springs and strings onto a round resonant dish, create a wonderfully atmospheric and room filling aura that is soaked in natural reverb.



Give it a listen with a bit of volume, and it will be the weirdest thing you'll hear all day.
Cheers,
Qumulys

a reply to: Qumulys

I don't even understand what is making the sound and where it's coming from, but it's some seriously cool stuff, eery, melodic, makes me think of underwater, whale sounds, other marine wildlife...especially the first 2 minutes.
i can totally see a "leviathan" type movie using this along for it's soundtrack.

Wow that's beautiful, sound engineers dream about making those sounds with twiddling their nobs ( on the machine nobs) . I really like the music he is making and what a beautiful and amazing sound room he has to play in and what a view. Thanks for sharing I will share it too to those not in the know. I'm going to listen to it over again now.a reply to: Qumulys

That is amazing!

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

I'm not really 100% sure either! But from what I can make out, he seems to have a set of strings on the upright fingerboard, but instead of say a double bass resonant chamber, he has those long wood beams. The beams hold the drum (metal dish?) so the sound waves are amplified via that connection. The stroke of genius is those long springs which also span the beam length, carrying some of the sound waves he creates, but also overtones and secondary vibrations from the drum. Kind of like a delay pedal, it's taking the sound up and down the spring. That's as much as I can make out anyway Glad you liked it.

I'd love to see some more detailed close ups, hopefully he posts some more music

a reply to: Cloudbuster
Certainly does have a synthesizer type soundscape going on, perfect for sci-fi! I spend hours twiddling my knobs in my DAW, but his effort is so much more...alive
Also, that room is incredible! Look out the window for instant inspiration

When I'm rich ill have a house with a view like that, probably ill die of old age 10 minutes after getting it due to the time it will take getting rich but i will have a view like that.

Apocalyptica needs four Yaybahar as soon as possible

Looks and sounds like something out of MYST.

a reply to: Qumulys

Thanks for sharing OP, it really is a crazy instrument... I love it! It reminds me of the kind of music I go napping with sometimes lol... at least the ambient parts, it induces really otherworldly dreams.

I want to build one.
That would be great for movie and game soundtracks.
Probably the coolest thing I will see today.

a reply to: skunkape23

I'd love to build one too, but alas as far as I can find there is very little extra info I can add on it's construction.

I'm sure the builder is being inundated with requests for further details, I've found a few websites talking about it - but none of them are able to add much in the way of construction details, or different angles etc. Seems (so far) we only have the video to go on. So our similar plans to build one might be a ways off yet Maybe the builder is tooling up to sell them and keeping his cards close to his chest?


a reply to: Shuye
I fully agree! I also like to listen to ambient type music/sounds as I nod off, what a wonderful world we share

If anyone can find some more details on the Yaybahar I'd greatly appreciate if you can add it in here

Hey... now that's a pretty cool new sound thing!
As for how to make it, or what it is - I'll give it a go -

The (bowed) stringed part sounds vaguely like some sort of violin, but more Indian or Hindu... that much is clear to my ears. Googling around leads me to believe that it could be based on a Ravanahatha (sp?) which does have a similar sound methinks.

Also ran across a very short article while looking into this Yayhabar, and it had a link to this youtube Ted talk:
I'll try and embed this, as it does seem like it could tell us more about it, I will note that it's not in English... so I don't understand what the dialogue is about - it does have a few interesting angles of the sound-maker I noted.



It looks to only have two strings on the fretboard, which is probably why we see the two long springs that are connected to the drums. In this case, it looks like the drums being used are regular "upper toms" from a basic drumset, and not the the later frame drum looking ones in the OP's video.

I'd venture to guess that the springs are connected to the drum heads, and that function is a part of what could be seen as a "resonator" of sorts, kinda like the old Dobro guitar resonators... similar idea, just used on a very different level here - also adding a sort of reverb and delay, and the wacky sounds.
Brilliant!


Sounds like old Brian Eno works (ambient series) mixed with a little ethnic soul.


T-