Pianoteq 5.3 is out, with new Concert Harp (49 strings)

[mhschmieder]

Bit of a surprise; I wasn't expecting them to work on a Concert harp next. It's modeled after a 49-string Salvi Grand Concert Harp model.

The demos were nice but sounded sort of between a harp and a harpsichord and/or piano. But I'm in a rush at this point in the night and didn't check to see whether they were soloed demos or combination demos.

At any rate, when I played the Harp after installing it, I found it very natural in timbre and extremely pleasant and easy to coax into different styles, meaning this will probably now be my go-to Concert Harp vs. keyswitching VSL and the like (though VSL's Harp is VERY good and still my favorite for certain styles).

[bkshepard]

Wow, thanks for the heads up! I'm a huge Pianoteq fan and have been using that VI for several years. I love the diatonic version of the harp, and the fact that you can get both harmonics and natural-sounding glissandi is really cool. This is definitely my new concert harp.

[David Polich]

Thanks for the info, Mark. I did not know this update was out. Will definitely be getting the harp.

[Babz]

It's been a LONG time since I tried a modeling-based piano. What's better Pianoteq or TruePianos?

Babz

[bkshepard]

I use both. Generally, I prefer TruePiano when I'm doing rock stuff as it think it has a nice bite to it. When I want something that sounds more like a classical piano, though Pianoteq is my go to.

[stubbsonic]

Yea. Pianoteq is gorgeous to my ears.

I got the email today and was happy to see a harp. It is one of those sounds I use quite often in some orchestral things, and Pianoteq is just so quick to get it sounding right.

About $55 USD, though for one specific sound, that might seem "just ok". Consider that the Pianoteq interface gives you a great deal of control over the tone, timbre, attack & response. It will be like many different harps.

[mhschmieder]

I retracked some harp stuff late last night, and this Pianoteq modeled harp did a magnificent job and sounds the most realistic. Also, it reacts the best to lighter attack, when wanted.

With the sample libraries, I'm always conscious that I am listening to samples, and thinking "I need to do more key-switching".

The Pianoteq run left no "to do" tasks.

[mhschmieder]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the Concert Harp has some diatonic presets that allow you to set it up to be played like a real harp.

I haven't yet looked into whether standard switch pedals can then be used to step through the seven pitch zones of a regular harp.

Also, I remember reading about a MIDI Harp a while back, which was probably for students and likely doesn't sound as good as Pianoteq but might make a nice playing interface for it.