Chocolate Audio Glissando Harps

Two complete and flexible Classical Harps
Glissando Harps features Camac and Salvi 47-string concert harps sampled in full detail. Each Harp was sampled in a different venue and with different setups in order to augment flexibility and usage scenarios.

What’s New
A totally new harp, a Salvi concert harp, aptly named Glissando Orchestral Harp, was added to the original Glissando Concert Harp.

Features

• 2 fully sampled Harps
• 19.3 GB of compressed samples content (54 GB uncompressed)
• 8244 (GCH) 19312 (GOH) = 27556 samples
• GCH: 2 microphone sets: Stereo AB with Schoeps CMC6 mics and MidSide Stereo with Neumann and Royer mics
• GOH: 8 microphone sets, including ribbons, tube and Decca tree
• sampled in full detail: up to 6016 samples per articulation and up to 4 round robin
• Pizzicato sampled with 3 (CGH) and 4 (GOH) dynamic layers
• recorded in a warm mid-size room large and lively studio to widen the potential applications
• 23 Articulations
• up to 3 types of release samples
• Independent management of the instrument’s resonances
• warm and precise sound, recorded through Millennia, Neve and Heritage Audio preamps and Apogee Symphony converters
• advanced management thanks to our custom advanced scripting engine
• recorded at 24 bit / 96 KHz, released at 24 bit / 44.1 KHz

Infinite Glissandos – a first for samples harps
The very reason we decided to embark in sampling a concert harp in 2012 was to achieve a flexibility unknown in sampled harps. The sound of harps is unmistakably linked to the Glissando technique, where the harpist runs her/his fingers across the strings creating a dreamy and catchy sound unique to the instrument.
Our Glissando engine lets you play Glissandos at any speed, in any tonal center and setting playable on a real harp.

Any Tuning, any Scale, any Chord
When using the Glissando Mode you’re left with only the white keys (as the harp features 7 strings per octave) and change the tuning of each string by switching the positions of the Pedals via MIDI or GUI. We created a selection of the most used tunings in the section on the right to give you a quick way to get the Glissando you want.

Speed and Intensity
Turn on Glissando Mode, play a starting note, then play an ending note. The Glissando starts right away.

Press D#0 to stop or C#0 to quit Glissando mode.

The time difference between the two notes will tell the engine the speed of the Glissando. The relative velocities will be used to create eventual crescendos and decrescendos.

Use the ModWheel to change the velocity/intensity of the Glissando in real time.

Use the Pitch Bend to slow down or speed up the Glissando in real time.

Glissando Modes
Select one of 7 Glissando Modes via the menu.
Fine tune the Glissando:

• Soften will raise the attack time to emulate a Glissando played with lightly on the tips of the fingers
• Accell accelerates or decelerates the glissando along its duration
• Accent tells the engine how much accent to give to the Start/End notes when one of the Accent modes is selected
• Randomize Time and Velo introduce a randomization in the timing and velocity between notes giving the Glissando a more human-like response

Playing Modes
This harp instrument can be played in two fashions:

• PIANO MODE: play the instrument just like you would play a piano
• HARP MODE: play using only the white keys and modify their tuning using the Pedal keys (C0 to B0)

In both modes, use the Sustain pedal to sustain notes indefinitely like the harp is supposed to do, or release the pedal and play every note in a Staccato fashion with life-like release sample trails.

The user interface is thought out to be easy and quick to learn and use while featuring the power-user tools some of us love to tweak when working with deeply sampled instruments.

Articulated Customs
Customize your playing using the Articulations Panel:

• Assign or turn off any of the 10 available Key Switches for Articulations management
• Available Key Switches are: D0 to B0 in Piano Mode, black keys from F#0 to D#2 in Harp Mode
• Make any of the Key Switches a Two-Way Switch or a Temporary Switch
• Optionally load a Second Articulation to be activated in place of the first when playing harder than a freely settable velocity level
• Use the Note Repeat mode to play fast repetitions (on Note Off you will have another Note On event playing automatically)
• Set the relative level of each single Articulation
• Select the type and level of the Release Samples
• Activate and set the level of the natural string Resonances
• Set the level and status of Pedal noises

Mix, Effect and Reverb, with class
The mixer module allows you to balance the mics and apply effects like Delay, EQ, Compression, Distortion and Amp/Cab.

The IR Reverb module in our engine currently features 39 unique proprietary impulse responses. These are originated from vintage plates, hardware and coveted real rooms, which, when used with the harp, push the limits of what can be done with this instrument.

Sound Design with fun
The Mixer page features a section dedicated to envelopes and filters.

Control the Amplitude Envelope with precision using an AHDSR envelope with the addition of the Attack Curve parameter.

Choose among 4 filter types – low pass 2 and 4 poles, band pass and high pass 4 poles – with MIDI CC# assignable Cutoff, Resonance and Envelope Modulation.

Use an intuitive AHD Envelope to influence the filter cutoff via Env Mod.