I don’t know what a Whirling Dulcimer is, but there is a hammered dulcimer: Kind of like a compact stringed piano/harp, but you use your hands/arms to hit the strings with special hammers. Finger play is also possible. Hitting the different areas produces different sound, even if it’s the same note.
btw, this sounds very nice and I would love to hear Medieval Melody made on those instruments!
The instrument seems to fit the Age of Empires series perfectly, I’d definitely love to hear more like that in any AoE form.
Whirling Dulcimer does have a sort of whirly rhythm to it, seems like a pretty clever name for the track.
There’s a guy on YT who does amazing covers with a Hammered Dulcimer. Great stuff!
@Penelinfi said:
btw, this sounds very nice and I would love to hear Medieval Melody made on those instruments!
There different types of dulcimers played around the world. The Hammered Dulcimer (Santur) is the middle eastern precursor of the western piano
Then there is the Plucked Dulcimer (Kanun) played with little picks on your fingers
Hammered dulcimers are one of the best instruments IMO and for the purposes of AoE - it can achieve that “antiquity sound” so well.
Such an amazing instrument, nothing really beats it.
Bar the hurdy gurdy ofc.
Awesome tune!
I own something called a zither. It’s more of a medieval sounding version of the dulcimer/santur, can be hammered but is usually plucked. I don’t play if often, because it requires constant tuning, and replacing strings is literally a full day’s work. It’s difficult to play but sounds fantastic though. Beautiful instruments.
@PhatFish said:
I own something called a zither. It’s more of a medieval sounding version of the dulcimer/santur, can be hammered but is usually plucked. I don’t play if often, because it requires constant tuning, and replacing strings is literally a full day’s work. It’s difficult to play but sounds fantastic though. Beautiful instruments.
There are also a wide variety of zithers, they are more of a European instrument.
signed up for beta testing… LIstening to dulcifers and zithers.
@SynytsiaStas said:
signed up for beta testing… LIstening to dulcifers and zithers.
You’ll be doing that when the soundtrack is playing anyway 
I’m going to buy a 12 string guitar next week - thinking it’ll fit in nicely to the soundtrack.