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What you're looking at is the Plectra Series 2: Highland Harps - a virtual instrument download that brings the authentic, intricate beauty of traditional folk harps right to your fingertips. This elegantly crafted software features a trio of plucked folk instruments from America and Europe, each with a light, airy tone and our signature deep sampling.
This collection is part of our ongoing Plectra Series, a curated selection of plucked, picked, and strummed string instruments from around the globe. This particular installment focuses on the lyre, lap harp, and Celtic harp, each instrument evoking vivid images of the Irish countryside, Appalachian splendor, and the comforting warmth of a crackling fire.
The Highland Harps virtual instrument is perfect for creating traditional, folk, medieval, and Renaissance music, as well as modern scores in a variety of styles. We've meticulously captured the warm and rustic tones of these instruments, each with a rich tradition extending back hundreds to thousands of years.
While the Western concert harp has been extensively sampled, these smaller, more intimate instruments have often been overlooked. Our approach was to record using close mics and a minimum of room ambiance, allowing each note to ring out and breathe with just the right amount of 'air'. We've ensured extensive recording of dynamics and round robins, with up to 7 layers for some articulations, so the entire range of each instrument is accurately represented.
Playing styles include plucked, harmonics, hammered, bowed, ebowed, percussive slaps, and glissandos. The Highland Harps virtual instrument offers a breath of fresh air in the world of sampled plucked instruments.
The custom scripted interface is user-friendly, providing easy access to useful controls such as attack and decay, bass, brightness, transposition, octave plucking, and humanization. Added reverb and spatial width controls make it a breeze to customize a patch to your liking for any given project.
In terms of content, you'll find three instruments: the lyre, Celtic harp, and lap harp. Each instrument is deep sampled, with up to 7x round robins/velocities, and offers an intimate close-miced sound. You'll also find glissando and glissando beds, along with a variety of playing styles including plucked, bowed, ebowed, hammered, and harmonics.
In essence, the Plectra Series 2: Highland Harps virtual instrument download is a stylish, authentic, and beautiful tool for any music creator looking to infuse their work with the timeless elegance of traditional folk harps.