Rinascimento Lutes

Among the prime loot you get with Rinascimento is this set of seven medieval Lutes along with four open string variants. This is quite a collection which should bring a smile to the lips of any aspiring bard. There are four round robins, three mic positions, two chords, fast and slow, and one really nice auto-strummer with lots of twisty knobs and eight patterns that you can adjust at will. The only thing not included are velocity layers except for the Theorbo.

The tone is quite good all the way around on these instruments. The mics are well placed and everything is recorded in high quality. The only thing to note with the mics is that the Close mics are significantly loud than the other two. With the Close setting you definitely get the feeling that you are plucking the strings yourself or else have your ear a couple inches away from the instrument and are likely to get swatted away by an annoyed Lutist. The Far setting sounds like the Lute is being played across the fairgrounds and being wafted to your ears by the cool breeze. While the Middle Mic puts you somewhere in the adoring (possibly) crowd. I think mics get overlooked sometimes, but they can make or break a sampling session.

Now on with the Lutes. Starting with the Archlute. How does a Lute become an Archlute?

The Archlute has a wildly different sound across its long range. The top half from A5 to F3 is generally a plink and a pleasant fade away across a couple seconds like a mild guitar. By the time you get below C3, the Archlute has turned into a low growl. Across four and a half octaves you can do everything from supporting the lead lute to taking over the lead for yourself. Of course Renaissance Chet Atkins would play both the bass and the lead himself. Maybe the rhythm to for all I know.

Let me mention the Auto-Strummer here. It comes with 8 preset strums and you can easily roll your own. It has twiddly knobs for Tempo Rate, Number of Steps, Humanize and Swing. Then there are sliders for Acceleration, Decay, Notes and Speed. Someday I need to figure out what they all do. I do know if you use the Strummer and hold down a chord, it makes cool strumming sounds using the lower strings. If you play with the knobs and sliders, the strumming changes pretty dramatically. You smart folks will figure it out pretty quick. Us novice Luters might take a while longer.

I'm never going to get this review done if I don't stop having fun and start writing. Too many toys with twisty knobs. On to the Baroque Guitar. This sounds like a early Classical guitar to me on the Sustain and Slow Strum articulations in particular, it has that sweet twinkly feel on single played notes. When you do a fast chord or strum it has a more standard guitar feel. This Guitar has a single strum articulation as well as the Auto-Strummer.

The Chitarrino is something like a modern 12 string guitar but with only 8 strings.


The Colascione brings us back to a more traditional Lute sound. There is a distinct plink and then a pleasant string vibration sound fading away. The Mid and Far mic positions soften the plink.

The Gallichon is a very different kind of Lute with 12 strings and a wide body. It looks like a Lute that needs to go on a serious diet. It goes down to E2 and at its lower range has a nice bass sound, well bass for era anyway. You can really hear the individual strings sounding down low even when a chord or arp isn't being played. On the mid to higher end it sounds like a warm guitar.

The Plectrum Lute surprised me. According to the handy text description that comes as part of the GUI on all these instruments, this lute isn't plucked but uses a Plectrum made from a quill, feather or bone or the like. So it is played with something like a modern guitar pick. If you use the auto-strummer is does kind of sound like strumming a guitar with a pick. I never knew there was so much variety in Lutes.

The Theorbo is a man's man's Lute. The thing is massive. The Bass strings go all the way down to G1 which in the Renaissance world was LOW indeed. The higher strings go all the way up to C5 and have a lot of power even at the highest octave. This is essentially a massive bass lute stuck on top of a good sized regular lute. And since I've been known to complain about velocity layers, let me add that this does have two velocity layers. The softer layer has a nice mellow feel, while the louder layers has some good punch. I think I'm gonna have some fun playing with this. And I'm grateful it is a digital version as I'm nut sure I could lug the real deal around with me. The next time a Double Bass Player complains show him a picture of a man playing a Theorbo.

There are Lots of good lutes in Rinascimento verging on guitars and even acoustic bass guitars. Amazing variety and good sound. Well done Fluffy Audio. I'm liking this loot. (Insert pirate laughing and saying Aurgh here please.)

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