I created this library because I love the delicate yet feisty spirit of the Celtic harp. It can be soft and gentle or bold and strong and everything in-between.
We recorded a modern Celtic harp with a warm tone and a built in pick-up. This allowed us to create a direct input recording in addition to two stereo microphone positions. We recorded in a studio so the samples are fairly dry which will help you blend and layer them with your other instruments.
10 Articulations
Infinite Variation Engine
Playable Triplets
3 Microphones
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Articulations
The instrument includes normal plucked samples recorded at four dynamic levels. This is the default articulation and has that quintessential warm resonant sound that is unique to the Celtic harp.
For occasions when it’s desirable to have a little less resonance We also recorded a separate set of damped string samples. To create these Michaela used her hands to damp the strings around the one being plucked. This provides a rounder sound that tails off a bit more quickly. The decay time can be customised using the attack and release sliders on the interface.
Stopped strings
Some pieces call for the player to stop one or more sounding strings with their hands. This creates a distinct sound as the vibrating string is brought to an almost instant stop. Michaela’s harp allows you to perform this technique live using your sustain pedal. Releasing keys while the pedal is engaged will trigger individual stopped samples.
Playable triplets
Playing quick groups of three notes is a common occurrence in Celtic harp music and is not easy to simulate with individual plucked samples. The triplet sample set is activated using a key switch, MIDI CC, or program change and each set of triplet samples are triggered in a round robin fashion allowing you total control of the performance speed without the need for artificial time-stretching.
Presets
The library includes a dedicated preset browser from which you can select different factory configurations or create your own personal presets. The browser contains a search bar and a favourites feature that allows you to quickly access your preferred presets.
System Requirements
GNU/Linux (Ubuntu 16.0 or later)
Windows 7 or later
MacOS 11.0 or later
Build for your OS from source
FAQ
Michaela’s Harp is now free software, meaning that it respects your freedom.
The samples have been remastered to improve their clarity, reduce noise, and clean up artifacts etc.
An additional velocity layer has been added to the normal plucked samples. This was recorded at the same time as all of the other samples but wasn’t included in the original release.
The new microphone mixer provides more options for placing the instrument in a virtual space and has additional controls such as individual width and pan for each channel.
I’ve added a velocity curve editor which allows you to adjust the velocity sensitivity of the instrument to suit your playing style and your keyboard.
Added a powerful preset browser for you to save and recall all of your favourite configurations.
The new version was built with HISE and runs as an independent VSTi/AU plugin or standalone application. It doesn’t require Kontakt or any other extra player.
If you haven’t received such an email please contact me to request an update – be sure to include your original order number, PayPal transaction ID, or Xtant Audio account details so that I can verify your order.
LucasSchacht (verified owner) –
For this price you get a very natural sounding harp to play beautiful melodies right out of the box!
Rhapsody’s* slick and user friendly design makes it easy to use and understand these 10 different articulations, this library provides, in no time!
Great product!
*(the native sampler to open Librewaves libraries)
lys_knight (verified owner) –
Beautiful instrument and sound, very easy to play – and great support too from Librewave.
Socrates Garcia (verified owner) –
Loving it! Using it on a Celtic-like movie score and it gives that vibe right away.
Paul Haley (verified owner) –
A beautiful celtic harp. There’s not much more to say. Eminently playable and is an ideal folk harp.
Malou Castagne (verified owner) –
Oh I love so much the sound of this wonderful harp! It’s by far my favorite harp, and I compared it with a lot of other harp libraries before choosing it.
The sound is absolutely perfect for creating celtic lullabies for example.
The instrument is deeply sampled and it’s a real joy to play it. And the audio demos are simply superb, it’s so important because it’s what helps me to make my choice.
I’m very happy <3 and also greatful, because as a blind person I appreciate so much that it's an instrument that is not attached to a single DAW, because it's very difficult for me to find a compatible software to create music.
Thank you Libre Waves!
Jamie Laval (verified owner) –
Michaela’s Harp is a rare find. I am delighted with the beautifully created samples which accurately capture the crisp, delicate sound of the Celtic harp — distinctively different from the concert harp!
The developer has taken great pains to create a very easy-to-use interface with lots of sonic variations, all of which sound amazing.
Best of all, the customer support is world class. I had a special consideration with regard to my installation, and the developer replied to my inquiry immediately. Within a few short minutes my case was solved and I was off and running.
Thank you to everyone at LibreWave. I couldn’t be happier.
Charvel (verified owner) –
Michaela’s Harp is a nice AU/VST instrument plugin.
It already sounds great on its own with the Normal Preset, or with the Damped or with the Warm and soft preset for example. Just Play it!
Then you can tweak the Harp sound by blending the three Mic positions for the Harp samples:
– DI sound (Direct from the instrument, like a piezo pickup in an acoustic guitar),
– the Closed Mic,
– and the Reverberant or more distant Mic’ing.
You can also adjust the width of the ambience of these Closed and Reverb Mics (except for the DI sound).
Try out what this does on the sound of a Mic position between your stereo speaker set.
Adjust to your taste and then mix in one or both of the other mic or Di sounds and create your own Harp in a room sound.
Voilà.
The delay parameter is not a delay mixed to the original samples, but delays the DI, closed or reverb samples in time.
You blend the three “Mic” sample sets like with early reflections of a room, and create the sound that best fits your playing style and music production.
A simple interface but with many possibilities.
Knobs and input values can be fine adjusted by holding Shift (type in value), Control (precise slider movement), double-click (reset). Sliders/Knobs can be automated by Midi CC continous controller (Right-click Knob, Select Midi learn, move hardware knob..)
3x articulations that you can also trigger using Midi Program change, for normal or damped sample sets, sustain sample set but with key re-triggered at release, and the triplets playing.
2x Sample sets: Normal with four velocity layers, and Damped with a single velocity layer.
Interface layout nice and easy on the eye.
Attack, Release, Round Robin, Velocity and sample folder location choice complement the picture.
A nice instrument to play with a good choice of options to adapt or experiment.
The manual that you can find on the LibreWave Knowledge Base could have been delivered in PDF inside the downloaded package zip, but not a big problem.
( The AU version can be loaded in stereo or in multiple 3 outputs inside of Logic, BUT i think this option is not yet fully implemented?, as i couldn’t assign or get each of the Mic positions out on a different Logic channel. We’ll see in the future. )
Alonso Urmeneta (verified owner) –
This is truly a wonderufl virtual instrument!
Michaela’s Harp is really deeply sampled in my opinion, and it sounds great. Even though the GUI is very detailed when it comes to art, it’s super simple and easy to use, and as a graphic designer I can think this is very nice art.
You get 3 mic positions, settings such as delay, width and panning that can be tweaked for each of them separately, and some settings that affect the whole instrument such as attack, release, the option to enable round robins and a velocity curve graph.
It also comes with many different presets for these settings so you can get the best sound for your composition out of it. All of these settings are contained in the main page and it’s very clear what every does even the first time you use it.
The settings page has more advanced options in the case you are that kind of user, since you change the different sampled techniques using keyswitches, this enables you to set an input port, a MIDI channel and use third party tools such as BRSO Articulate in order to handle the keyswitches, this is what I found most useful in the settings page and it’s very appreciated.
Once bought this plugin can be downloaded directly from the links they send you on email and you don’t require any third party programs like Pulse.
I’ve been using Michaela’s Harp for a while and only had one issue with it, for some reason some samples went missing, I contacted support and David himself helped me solve it in no time.
Librewave is truly a hidden gem, I recomend it and Michaela’s Harp to anyone, I’m sure their other products are just as good!
~Alonso Urmeneta.
pascal basso (verified owner) –
Very nice instrument. Really roots and easy to play . And very nice support !! Pascal 🙂
James Dowsett (verified owner) –
A fine instrument: intimate, detailed and full of character.