ST DAVID'S HARP
Well, we've just got back from the Eisteddfod here in rural Welsh Wales, a bit tiddly on the locally brewed beers, wine and cider and stuffed with Caerphilly cheese and Welsh lamb and with muddied boots and thought, given that it's St David's Day here, the patron saint of Wales, something appropriate for the day may be in order. So what better than a Welsh/Celtic harp? We Welshies are famous for leeks, daffodils, male voice choirs, sheep shagging and harps...
We tried sampling leeks and daffodils but, frankly, it wasn't a success if I am being honest. We tried laying our hands on a male voice choir but they have no time for this sampling nonsense - besides which, they were getting measured up for new blazers before heading off for a rugged game of rugby.
The sheep shagging noises were, of course, out of the question (though might be something we could revisit at a later date - I might get my old mate Stu from Neath involved for that - he's an expert!).
But I remembered that I sampled a Celtic harp some years ago and thought that might be just the ticket for this auspicious Welsh day. Some tweaking here and there for Kontakt, some tweaks from Mario for the GUI and we were done and we're making it available at a silly price.
We used our new synth engine for it...
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!
I know a Celtic harp is unlikely to be your first choice of 'go to' instruments but there are several presets in there that take it into synth territory as can be heard in the audio demo (which is all 100% Welsh harp). It kicks off with a traditional Welsh folk song called 'Calon Lân' (which means 'a pure heart') and then descends into synth pads and noises, etc..
Not - perhaps - the usual HS Towers fodder but maybe an interesting thing to add your library for a few of Her Majesty's quids.
| CREDITS |
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| Samples |
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Hollow Sun |
| Scriptmeister |
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Mario Krušelj |
| Programming |
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Hollow Sun / Mario Krušelj |
| GUI design |
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Hollow Sun / Mario Krušelj |
| Graphics |
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Hollow Sun |
| Audio Demo |
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Hollow Sun. Created entirely with St David's Harp |
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Kontakt 4.2.4 full version
Windows® XP (SP2, 32bit) / Vista® (32/64 Bit), Windows 7® (32/64 Bit), Pentium® or Athlon XP 1.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM
Mac OS® X 10.5 or higher, Intel® Core™ Duo 1.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM
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| NOTE : It will work with the Kontakt Player but only in 'demo' mode and the session will be time limited. |
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Just bought it, Sounds very Nice Steve
Thanks ... Jesse
Had to buy this one being a welshy myself !
Jamie
Diolch!
Ok you convinced me.. Great for some nice celtic electronica...
Hope you weren't on the Brains too much..
Cheers
Martin (In Llyswen)
Beautiful
Xionic
This is lovely. Very intimate and warm.
Jon
You should do more sounds like this. I have all your synth sounds but this is very different.
Jason
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