Review: Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon

Tyrolean Harp is the brand new sample library developed by WeyrerTon. It features a harp made by Peter Petutschnig, a modern version of the Tyrolean folk harps, an instrument existing only within the alpine region, and played by Christine Gundolf. It sounds warmer than the orchestral harps. This library has three different mic positions and three articulations assigned to keyswitches.

Jump to the Videos of Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon

Jump to the Demos of Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon

Review: Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon

The Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon brings at your fingertips the warm and gentle sound of the homonymous and unique string instrument. The library was recorded in 96 kHz at the WeyrerTon Studio One in Innsbruck using a harp made by Peter Petutschnig and played by the harpist Christine Gundolf. It’s NKS-ready, and you can download it via Native Access. Furthermore, it is made for the Kontakt Player version as well, so purchasing it qualifies you for a cross-grade discount toward the full Kontakt version. The Tyrolean Folk Harp is an instrument only existing within the Alpine region, peculiarity that makes this library even more interesting.

Tyrolean Harp sells for €120.00 from WeyrerTon

Thoughts

The library comes with two patches of similar content. The difference is that one includes samples in 96 kHz while the other one is in 48 kHz. The interface is very simple and intuitive. It shows only three big knobs that control the mic positions: Close, Width and Room. By muting them, you can empty the RAM memory from those samples. Close mic position is something I always look for in sample libraries based on acoustic instruments because I believe it’s a very important feature for people who aim to recreate a room environment in an orchestral piece.

This library seems to satisfy my expectation in such matter: Close knob controls the level of a close positioned mic setup; the Width knob controls the level of a mic setup placed in the near field of the harp, which control the stereo image of your sound; the Room knob controls a mic setup placed two meters away from the harp, which gives you the full sound of the room in which the instrument was recorded. By right-clicking on the knobs you can also assign them to a MIDI CC in case you need to create an automation in your sequencer. Anyways, this library is optimised for the Native Kontrol Standard, so owners of the Native Instruments Keyboards will find all the controls already mapped to the keyboard after loading the instrument using the Komplete Kontrol plugin.

Above the mic positions you can find a small pop-up menu from which you can choose between four playing techniques. You can switch between them also using keyswitches, which is useful for people who prefer to work with one instrument per track. Recorded articulations are actually three: Pluck, Nail and Harmonics, but you can also choose between Pluck Sus, which lets the whole sample playing, and Pluck Rel, which stops the sample as soon as the note is released, performing the same effect of the player muting the strings with their hand. When the pluck articulation is selected, the strings are played using the finger tip, while in the nail articulation the strings are obviously played with the nail. The result is a harsher and more aggressive sound when the nail articulation is selected, and a gentler and warmer sound using the pluck one. Harmonics are very effective, and you can get the best out of them using the close mic. Generally speaking, it’s a very good library, with a realistic and natural sound. It sounds actually warmer compared to other orchestral harp libraries. Plucks are recorded in four velocity layers, giving you a total control on dynamics, while Nail is recorded in two velocity layers and harmonics in one. When the louder velocity layer is triggered, you can hear the vibrato and of a bit detuned effect on the string typical of this dynamic, and if you play softer you can get a very sweet feeling. Each velocity layer has three Round-Robin variations that help you to achieve a more natural and less mechanical performance.

The sound seems to be very controlled and realistic even on the highest and lowest range of the instrument and it doesn’t become too harsh when only the close mic position is active. I don’t really like the width and room mics alone: they sound even too far for my taste. I’m indeed not a big fan of mid/far mic positions since I usually prefer to use the close only in order to add a room ambience using a convolution reverb or a Virtual Sound Stage like Vienna MIR Pro. But when you unmute the close mic, you get the real definition of the strings.

A glissando patch, which in my opinion would have made the library more complete, is missing, but you can achieve good results programming the glissando techniques inside the key editor of your sequencer.

Facts

Tyrolean Harp is made for Kontakt Player and supports the Native Kontrol Standard. It requires Kontakt 5.6.8 and above and a total of 10 GB of free disk space to be downloaded and installed. You can install it via Native Access. It weights 15.2 GB uncompressed and it includes 3.384 samples recorded in 96 kHz and available in 96 kHz and 48 kHz.

Tyrolean Harp sells for €120.00 from WeyrerTon

Demos of Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon

Videos of Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon

Contributor Giuseppe Corcella reviews Tyrolean Harp by WeyrerTon
“Tyrolean Harp is the brand new sample library developed by WeyrerTon. It features a harp made by Peter Petutschnig, a modern version of the Tyrolean folk harps, an instrument existing only within the alpine region, and played by Christine Gundolf. It sounds warmer than the orchestral harps. This library has three different mic positions and three articulations assigned to keyswitches.”