Hollow Sun has released St David’s Harp, a Celtic harp instrument for Native Instruments Kontakt.
This is not a big orchestral harp but a smaller thing with a more subtle tone. I used to know a chap who made them – hand built them from scratch, a real artisan and they really were quite beautiful to behold and listen to (and horribly expensive to buy). Lovely bloke – lived across the road to me in a former residence … and he let me sample one of his beautiful creations.
It’s quite extensively multi-sampled but no multiple velocity layers or ’round robins’ but that doesn’t detract from the sound which is eminently usable in any number of situations … and it’s £4!
The sound library costs £4 GBP. Requires full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or higher.
Time+Space has announced the release of Garritan Harps, an innovative collection capturing the sweet, pure and powerful sound of this enchanting instrument.
Garritan kicked off the virtual harp revolution more than 12 years ago with GigaHarp and today Make Music has announced the release of Garritan Harps, which utilises the power of today’s technology to deliver a pristine sound and authentic playing experience.
This virtual instrument features a variety of harps including Salvi Pedal, Venus Concert Grand and Lyon & Healy as well as a host of special features that deliver an unprecedented level of realism. Encompassing advanced glissando emulation, sampled acoustic spaces, and much more, Garritan Harps gives musicians, composers and producers the tools to easily recreate the enchanting sound of the harp in their music.
Special features include full-ranged harp articulations – traditional angelic-sounding harp plucks, harmonics, Pres de la table, picked, dampened, and other types of playing techniques. Through a variety of options, Garritan Harps also makes playing glisses accessible to any musician.
Harps features
Pure, pristine sounds
Each string was sampled for the entire life of its natural decay.
The sound of each string is sweet, pure, powerful, and dynamic with minimum crosstalk.
Full range of harp articulations
Traditional angelic-sounding harp plucks (gentle, soft, medium, and loud).
Special effects include harmonics, Pres de la table and damping.
You can also perform chords, arpeggios, trills, tremolos, and bisbigliando.
Heavenly Glisses
Unique built-in keymapping emulates the pedals of a harp so you can play realistic harp glissandi and arpeggios that can be performed in real time and customised to your music.
Glisses are easily played in Garritan Harps by running one’s fingers up and down the keyboard.
Compatible with both Mac and PC and all the major sequencers, Garritan Harps ships with the acclaimed ARIA player, which includes Ambience Reverb and Convolution Sampled Reverb. With this technology, the sound of specific performance spaces can be captured and shared – Garritan Harps offers more space perspectives and flexibility than any other professional harp instrument.
The standalone ARIA Player also allows anyone to load and play back MIDI files and produce audio recordings of the MIDI file or live performances, without additional software.
The Harps library is available from Time+Space, priced RRP £74.95 GBP / €86.95 EUR (Download), £89.95 GBP / €105 EUR (DVD).
Impact Soundworks has released Highland Harps, a new Plectra Series sample library featuring a collection of stringed instruments.
Continuing our Plectra Series of plucked, picked and strummed string instruments from around the world comes this collection of traditional folk harps!
Featuring the lyre, lap harp, and celtic harp, this KONTAKT 4 sample library evokes images of the Irish countryside, Appalachian splendor, tall tales and a heart mug of mead beside a crackling fire. The intimate, close-miced sound is ideal for traditional, folk, medieval and Renaissance music as well as modern scores in any number of styles.
Highland Harps features
Lyre, celtic harp and lap harp recorded across 14 ‘Natural’ patches.
2.28gb of NCW-compressed samples.
Dry, intimate recordings suitable for a variety of styles.
Plucks, hammered playing, harmonics.
Traditional bow and ebowed, percussion and glissandi.
10 ‘Designed’ patches with pads/ambiance and plucked-style sounds.
Scripted interface for easy tweaking, effects and humanization.
Kontakt 4+ format.
The sample library is available to purchase for $49 USD. A bundle of Plectra Series 1 (8-string Acoustic Bouzouki) and 2 costs $79 USD.
Loopmasters has introduced Celtic Harp, a “World String Series” sample library by EarthMoments.
Enchanting and magical, this beautiful multi-stringed instrument can sound sweet or powerful depending on the strings used. Today, most harpers prefer nylon strings instead of wire.
Without any digital inputs, the Celtic Harp Bundle is a boutique collection of acoustic samples performed by master harper Tomer Bahar.
Celtic Harp features
778 MB content, 24-bit quality.
Includes 117 Celtic Harp Chords, 41 120BPM Cm Loops, 30 65BPM Dm Loops, 23 65BPM Gm Loops, 57 FreeTempo Eb Loops, 21 90BPM FX Loops, 5 120BPM FX Loops, 22 90BPM D Melodyline Harmonic Minor Loops, 27 90BPM Dm Melodyline Loop.
The royalty free recordings are optimised with the closest attention to detail and have been recorded using tube Pre-Amps and Mics on 96kHz.
The sample pack is available to purchase for £24.95 GBP.
Sonokinetic has announced Nevel, a Biblical Harp sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.
This instrument has been around for centuries. It is, without a doubt, one of the first instruments crafted by human beings. Built as an instrument to inspire and devote people to their God, this is one of the truly mystical instruments. It’s sounds will teleport you to ancient times, to the cradle of the first civilizations where music was part of the ‘divine’.
Nevel features
1.2 GB sample pool, 600+ samples.
Chromatic and Historical biblical tuning.
4 Articulations selectable from UI or keyswitch: plucked, fingered, tempo-synced runs and FX.
3 band EQ adjustment.
Custom Impulse Response reverb setting with adjustable size and wet/dry.
Multiple velocity layers (up to 9 for each string).
The Producers Choice has announced the release of Infectious Harp Loops, a new sample library.
The Producers Choice have released a mini-collection of harp loops, aimed at music producers who are lacking inspiration and want a quick creative injection.
Infectious Harp Loops features
17 radio ready harp loops, crystal clear and worked with vintage audio gear.
Inspiration right out of the box to make a hit record.
BPM info included – just adjust your tempo, add your loop and you are set.
Info on what ‘key’ the loop was recorded in – so you can easily add extra instrumentation and stay in key.
WAV format – for use with virtually ANY music software, sampler or workstation.
From beautiful, soft R&B loops, to gritty processed hard hip hop harp loops – it is all in here…
Infectious Harp Loops is available to purchase for the introductory price of $15 USD for the first week (50% off regular).
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