Fabula Audio has introduced a new virtual instrument inspired by collectible card games. Every preset in Hark! comes with its own original illustrated card, rarity and lore, bringing a richly detailed fantasy world of characters, creatures, factions and relics to explore as you play.
The sounds draw from real instruments including Hurdy-Gurdy, Lute, Psaltery, Harp, Recorder, Shawm, Bagpipes, Rebec, Bowed Strings, Choir and Chapel Organ, alongside fantasy-inspired retro synths. You can play their original tones or transform them into changing drones, ambient choir beds, plucked patterns, reversed fragments and evolving granular clouds.
The instrument features granular synthesis, slow drift freeze, three-voice ensemble, reverse, randomize, storm, tape FX, ADSR, delay and reverb. Chord lock lets you play complex chords with one key, with an arpeggiator offering strum, swing, humanize, rubato and roll. Every preset can be reshaped and saved as a new sound of your own.
40 presets are included, with two optional 30-preset Booster Expansions: Heraldic & Legendary, exploring courtly strings, ceremonial winds and plucked patterns, and Curses & Beasts, built around Hurdy-Gurdy drones, occult textures and spectral voices. There’s also a secret puzzle hidden in the illuminated interface that unlocks an additional card and preset.
The Founder’s Edition brings together the instrument, both boosters, 30 MIDI phrases in all 12 keys, the Print-Quality Card Collection and an exclusive Founder’s Card. It’s limited to the first 100 buyers and saves 22% against the combined listed value.
Priced £149 GBP, Hark! is available in VST3, AU and AAX plugin formats and as standalone software for Windows, Mac and Linux. The Founder’s Edition is £189 GBP.
More information: Fabula Audio
