The story
This set of wonderfully recorded harp harmonics is a personal project more so than anything else. I recently had to move away from my beloved harp, and naturally wanted some of its beautiful sound and character. Every since learning how to play harmonics, I’ve been rather obsessed with them. Hence this library.
The harp itself is a Lyon and Healy, model 201, produced in the 80’s. The harp is technically a “semi grand,” but has the tone of a full grand minus some of the hefty bass end found in newer grand harps. I find the tone of this harp outmatches most modern harps built today with a wonderful, crisp character.
Now onto the library. The harp rests in my house in the living room, so that is naturally where it sounds best and where it was recorded. It features every string recorded chromatically (as chromatic as one can get with the harp) , with 2 dynamic layers and 2 round robins per note. It was also exported as 24-bit wave files. So naturally it has a large download size. Again, only one rather decent microphone was used.
It plays in the full version of Kontakt 5.6.1 and higher. Please see the video in the link provided which features a demo, other key details, and a comparison with another harp library.
Enjoy the ethereal sounds of a semi-grand harp.
Kalen Smith
P.S.
Don’t tell anyone, but it’s absolutely wonderful with a large hall reverb.
Reviews for Harp Harmonics
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Nice sound, with more tweak better!
Nice concept and delicate sound of harp. But I think the dynamics is a little weak, and it makes a little difficult to play with.
Harp with playability issues
This harp library has a lot to offer. The instrument being recorded is a fine instrument, and it is well played. There's a little noise in the recording, but not much. There are some inconsistencies in tone, attack, and volume between the round robins. Sometimes, those inconsistencies are o.k. and bring life to samples. In this case, they're noticeable enough that I felt they detracted from what I was trying to play. A far bigger issue is that the sample editing in Kontakt isn't consistent. Many notes do not have the start time trimmed tightly, and so timing is inconsistent, even if you quantize to 100%. Some notes are edited too tightly, and the attack transient of the note is cut off. These samples were all recorded really really quietly, and you have to zoom in quite a lot in the waveform editor in Kontakt to even see that there is a wave. I suspect that these samples might have been edited by ear in Kontakt, hence the rather random differences in start times from note to note. So, if you are willing to put some time into editing this instrument, it could be a very playable and lovely instrument. I have enough other harp libraries that it's probably not worth it to me, but this is still a worthy download and one of the few great harp libraries on the PB site.
Eerie Tones
Great potential when added with other sound elements. It defiantly does come to life when splashed with Reverb!!
Warm harmonics that get held back!
Cool idea, not that good in terms of executioning it. There are 3 patches, Full, Left and Right, and there is some character to them!
Every single one of them though seems to be panned 75% or more to the right side, not sure why. There is also some white noise that will build up fairly quickly, especially if you turn the volume up - which you will because everything is very quiet at first. Without Reverb, everything sounds kind of weak and super dry, but that is great for sound and fx additions. Between the 'left' and 'right' patches there is some tonal difference that has potential for a nice soundscape, but that's just an idea that you will have to explore yourself, along with many others
To access the settings you will need to click an extra button, which I find completely unnecessary.
Drench in Verb
The sound of the Harmonics is pretty cool but in most cases i find it pretty uninteresting without reverb. There is also a-lot of noise buildup in this instrument which most of the time could be a problem. There is also some occasional clicking. The dynamic range is nice. This is a good start and its a really cool idea for a library but I'm just not that fond of it in its current state. I think its cool though, i might find a use for it sometime
