Versilian Studios Fretless Zither

The Fretless Zither is a simple “parlor instrument” consisting of a sound box with strings going across the top and a soundhole in the middle, popular in the early 20th Century. Our first sampled instrument ever, it’s a little outdated, but still has a unique sound.

Quick Facts

• c. 4 Octaves of melody strings (extended with harmony strings).
• Effects (knocks, chromatic gliss.)
• Harmony (five chords- Bb Maj, F Maj, D Min, C Maj, and G Min).

Not-so-Quick Facts
To the left is generally a section of “chord” strings, which, when a set of these is strummed with the finger, will play a certain chord. To the right is a chromatic scale, generally two octaves, which consist of the “melody” half. A friend showed me this one while I was visiting and I was instantly enthralled by the instrument despite its poor shape and complete lack of tuning. I spent a day tuning it and afterwards ended up recording some samples of the notes in a semi-studio setup.

This product was our first virtual instrument release, from approximately one year ago. We are still certainly proud of it, but it is clear it is aged in quality and design and is lacking compared to our more recent products. We have plans to revisit the world of zithers soon and create a higher quality sampling of fretless zithers.

System Requirements:

• At least 2 GB of RAM suggested
• 525 MB of HD space (Windows)
• 278 MB of HD space (Mac)
• DAW supporting VSTi or Audio Units
• HD speed of 7200 RPM or higher suggested