Results for harp

Cinematique Instruments has released Celtic Nylon Harp, a sample library for Kontakt.

The Celtic Nylon Harp is a small-sized harp with a height of nearly 39 inch (98 cm) and is usually designed for traditional music. The wooden instrument ranges in three octaves between C2 and C5 and has got 22 strings which are made of nylon and are plucked with the fingers. The harp has a lever close to the top of each string; when it is engaged, it shortens the string so its pitch is raised a semitone (sharped note if the string was a natural). The warm sound of the nylon strings is inspiring and adorable.

Every second note of the 22 strings of the Celtic Nylon Harp was recorded in several velocity layers and 4 Round Robin variations. We recorded the harp in two different mic positions (firstly very close and secondly at the sound hole at the rear of the harp), giving us different sound variations. We expanded the range from C1-G5 by tuning the strings beyond the intended key. With the ModWheel you can control the length and decay of the strings giving you feeling of damping. Beyond that you have got the possiblity of using the harp in a glissando or an arpeggiator mode.

Celtic Nylon Harp features

Celtic Nylon Harp Close MW damped — sustained notes in several velocity layers and 4 Round Robin variations recorded in a close mic position. MW controls amount of damping, Glissando Script.
Celtic Nylon Harp Close Arp — see above, arpeggiator script with 10 presets.
Celtic Nylon Harp Far MW muted — sustained notes in several velocity layers and 4 Round Robin variations recorded at sound hole in rear position. MW mutes the note, Glissando Script.
Celtic Nylon Harp Deluxe MW Vib — both far and close notes panned in one patch. MW controls amount of vibrato, Glissando Script.

Celtic Nylon Harp is available for Kontakt 3 and higher, priced at 17 EUR.

More information: Cinematique Instruments / Celtic Nylon Harp

Some interesting things I found recently:

# IK Multimedia Rebuts Mag on Free Software; Why They Missed the Point

Freeware vs Commercial software? I know what I prefer… Whatever gets the job done!

Peter Kirn wrote a great article at CDM:

There’s a strange debate going on over the free software (as in freeware, not necessarily open source) issue of Computer Music magazine. After seeing the magazine’s top 10 reasons to use free software, commercial developer IK Multimedia got surprisingly defensive, and issued a rebuttal.

# aeo: DrawSound + Balls
DrawSound is a performance instrument that uses multi-touch input technology to create sound and music from the act of drawing. DrawSound has been used live by The SINE WAVE QUARTET and aeo. It was on display at the Second International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction [Bonn 2008].

# Stanton to Release Touch DJ Controller; Surface One, Thunder, Reborn?

Peter Kirn reports on the Stanton DaScratch

Stanton is teasing a new DJ controller with touch controls, and particularly a circular scratch/control area, with live LED feedback. This allows “virtual” controllers not only for DJs, but (Stanton hopes) VJs, laptop musicians, and the like. (Stanton says “multimedia artist,” to which we suggest “visualists”.) I especially enjoy the “confidential” site, though I’m not sure marking press release with “do not publish / embargoed” has much more impact given a lot of sites these days.

# hiuman – Runaway Harp – As the 1mm water streams are interrupted, the light weakens, fingers find delights in the water harp. Echo is silent, until light returns.

# TENORI-OFF
FUKUCHI Kentaro writes:

TENORI-ON is one of the coolest electric musical device: it is portable, easy to play and good for audio-visual performance. But I have not purchased it yet because it is expensive and a shortage in Japan.

So he built his own version, the Tenori-Off.

Pendle has released Grand Thrift Auto(harp), a cunning hybrid instrument made by mating a plucked grand piano with a lowly autoharp.

Pendle Grand Thrift Auto(harp) for Kontakt

Pendle writes:

This strangely beautiful offspring weighs in at a fairly hefty but graceful 288mb and contains 4 separate and individually adjustable layers of multi-velocity samples from every note of both instruments.

Grand Thrift Auto(harp) includes a plucked autoharp, muted autoharp, plucked binaural grand piano, and a binaural autoharp. It is only available as a Kontakt 2 or Kontakt 3 instrument, and costs £15 GBP.

Visit Pendle @ Virb for more information and a demo mp3.

Some interesting things I found on August 13th, 2008:

# Circuitastrophe Symposium – Cincinnati Sept 4-8th 08. Circuit Bending, Robotics, 8-bit Music, Hacking & Electronic Design

From the anti-theory website:

From September 4 through 9, 2008, Cincinnati, the birthplace of circuit-bending, will host its first circuit-bending festival, Circuitastrophe! The dream child of Professor Mark Shafer and the noise music artist Nebulagirl, Circuitsastrophe! will presents 20+ performers and groups from around the country appearing at some of Cincinnati’s most unusual and historic venues such as Northside’s vintage Masonic Art Damage Lodge. The lineup is included at the end of this press release. Circuitsastrophe! also features workshops and talks, including a rare public appearance by Reed Ghazala on September 6, presenting “The Folk Music of Chance Electronics,” or “How to Start an Art Movement Without Really Trying.”

# The Strangest Synthesizers In The World – You haven’t seen weird, until you’ve seen some of the bizarre synth contraptions that keyboardists and electronic musicians have come up with. In fact, some of these instruments are so weird, we’re not even sure if they are synthesizers! Take a look at this twisted synthfest, and you be the judge.

# Reaktor Inspiration: Visual and Audiovisual Art – Reaktor user sonictwist made a gallery with visual stuff made only with Reaktor 5.

# Ableton Live – Intro to Slicing and Drum Racks – A step by step walk through the process of slicing a loop while giving you an introductory overview of Ableton's Drum Rack features. The video also covers simple sound design ideas for changing your existing slices so you get more mileage out of the loops you've already created!

# How 2.0: Digital Wall Harp – Use infrared sensors to make off-the-wall music!

This is a pretty simple Infrared Harp. The sensors work like on/off switches to trigger various sounds when they are plugged into your computer's music program. With the MidiTron you can use any type of analog or digital input device, from temperature sensors to regular switches, to trigger your sounds. Get creative, it's really fun to think about all the things you could play!

# Hacking a toy guitar to make a “Frets on Fire” controller – Step-by-step instruction on how to hack a standard computer keyboard to build your own Guitar Hero-Like controller for the free, open source Guitar Hero clone "Frets on Fire".

Precisionsound has released Meghan Celtic Harp, a sample library in HALion, Kontakt & SoundFont formats.

The MEGHAN Celtic Harp is the biggest and most resonant Celtic Harp in the “family” with 36 strings and a 5 octave range.

Meghan Celtic Harp features

• 6 octaves and in 4 effective velocity layers and sampled in discrete stereo (retuned harp for more samples).
• 8 programs for HALion, 10 programs (24bit) for NI Kontakt and 5 (16bit) SoundFont programs.
• 207 stereo WAV files.

The SoundFont version is compatible with Gigastudio, EXS24, NN-XT (Reason) and all SoundFont compatible samplers for both MAC and PC.

Meghan Celtic Harp is available as a download for $69 USD (all formats included), or on CD for $80 USD.

Visit Precisionsound for more information and sound demos.

Westgate Studios releases Rare Winds and Harps, two titles in the Modular Series 24 bit sample libraries for Kontakt 2 and Gigastudio.

Rare Winds includes the following instruments:

• Sopranino Recorder
• Soprano Recorder
• Alto Recorder
• Tenor Recorder
• Bass Recorder
• Soprano Ocarina
• Tenor Ocarina
• Penny Whistle
• Irish Whistle

You can check the various included playing styles here.

The Harps module features a Concert Harp and a Celtic Harp with single note samples and a large variety of glissando samples.

Rare Winds is available for $125 USD (DVD), while the Harps module costs $140 USD (DVD).
A download version of Rare Winds costs $70 USD (includes only Alto Recorder, Tenor Ocarina and Penny Whistle) and both the Concert Harp and Celtic Harp can be downloaded separately for $70 USD each.

Visit Westgate Studios for more information a