First Look: Nagoya Harp by UVI (currently $49!)
In true UVI fashion, Nagoya Harp delivers the realism of the original Japanese autoharp with the added depths of a modern library complete with effects and 4 playing styles: pick, stick hits and bowed and strumming. After taking a first look, I see a lot of places I will be trying to utilizing what could be dismissed as “just another ethnic folk instrument”.
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First Look: Nagoya Harp by UVI
When UVI set out to develop Nagoya Harp their goal was to create an instrument that would accurately portray the classic japanese ‘Taishōgoto’ instrument and also utilize the potential of a modern virtual instrument with advanced scripting and effects for a truly hybrid approach.
UVI’s Nagoya Harp is sampled from the Taishōgoto, an instrument created in Nagoya, Japan, 1912. Combining the mechanics of a typewriter with a traditional Koto or autoharp.
Nagoya Harp sells for $79.00 from by UVI
Thoughts
Growing up my grandmother used to have an old autoharp in her music parlor. If one of my nephews was on the piano and organ then the next best thing to play was the autoharp. I grew to love the way the instrument’s push-button chords would ring out when I would strum and how easy it was to read chord charts and play the instrument.
When I saw UVI was releasing the Nagoya Harp, those were the first memories I had. The Nagoya Harp is a Japanese instrument but shares a striking resemblance to the Autoharps of the late 1800s and early 1900s that offered affordable options for households to bring music into their homes. That and the added ‘hybrid’ nature of what I had come to expect from UVI libraries, had me interested to dig into this unique take on what might easily be dismissed as another “ethnic” folk instrument.
The first instrument I looked at was the Strum patch All Strings in G. The strumming is pretty easy to figure out how to use with one red keys designated for strumming the KEY (in this case “G” drone), one for the high single notes (white keys) and one that simulates Strumming of both the selected white keys and the drone notes.
All Strings In G “STRUM PATCH”
The Edit panel of the Drone offers sequence pattern adjustments for the strummed pattern as well as options for the musical key of the drone.
STRUM Sequencers lets you adjust the strumming pattern.
The Bow, Pick and Stick instruments are the playable multi-sample versions of the library with designated drone keys across the bottom and melodic keys across the white keys.
Just like the Strum instrument the front panel also offers mic options with ON/OFF and volume.
The multi-effects panel is the same across all instruments with a selection of parameters to control the effects, but no options for different kinds of distortion for the ‘Drive’. The Convolver offers a plethora of options for manipulating the sound of the way the instrument resonates.
Multi-Effects Panel includes Convolution, Drive ‘Distortion’ and EQ, UVI‘s Thorus Modulation and ‘Phasor’ as well as delay and Reverb.
Facts
Nagoya Harp downloads as 6.92 GB and runs in latest versions of the FREE UVI Workstation or Falcon. The library is organized into 4 Folders with 50 Presets instruments categorized into: Bow, Pick, Stick & Strum libraries. Nagoya Harp comes with a multi-effects engine including UVIs acclaimed Thorus modulation.
Nagoya Harp sells for $79.00 from by UVI
