Raga

The rhythmic soul of Hindustani classical music — a pair of drums whose vocabulary of strokes, called bols, forms a complete spoken language of rhythm. Tabla captures each articulation across multiple velocity layers, with taal presets covering the most important rhythmic cycles from the 16-beat teentaal to the 7-beat rupak.

Carved from a single piece of bamboo, the bansuri is one of the oldest instruments in the world. Its power lies in what happens between the notes: the meend (glide), the gamak vibrato, and the breathy overblowing that adds wind to every phrase. Bansuri models breath pressure and bamboo resonance with microtuning for authentic raga scales.

Called "the instrument closest to the human voice" — its thick gut strings, played with the cuticles rather than fingertips, produce a sliding, singing tone. Up to 36 sympathetic strings create a shimmering halo of harmonics around every note. The word sarangi derives from "sau rangi," meaning a hundred colors.

A hammered dulcimer from the Kashmir Valley, its trapezoidal body strung with up to 100 strings struck by lightweight walnut mallets. When multiple strings are struck in rapid succession, overlapping resonances create a shimmering, harp-like wash that became the sound of sunrise in countless Bollywood scores.

The most iconic Indian stringed instrument, with its distinctive buzzing jawari bridge and up to 20 sympathetic strings creating a shimmering drone beneath every melody. The sitar is the supreme voice of Hindustani raga, made world-famous by Ravi Shankar and carried into rock by George Harrison. Physical modeling captures the jawari buzz, meend bends, and gamak ornaments that define the instrument.