Chocolate Audio / Glissando Harps

[Piet De Ridder]

Chocolate Audio's 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.

A quick glance at Glissando Harps specs:
- 2 fully sampled Harps, Glissando Concert (GCH) and Glissando Orchestra (GOH)
- 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

Currently 30% off the regular price ($119 instead of $139). Also special upgrade price for v1 users.






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[Guy Rowland]

I must be in grumpy mode this morning, this is another tone I don't much care for. Fantastic glissandi engine though... which was the other library that had something similar?

[Piet De Ridder]

OrangeTree's Angelic Harp has a degree of glissando convenience, but it's nowhere near what these Chocolates offer. The one that set the bar for idiomatic harp playing though, several years ago, was the Sphere harp from OrchestralTools which has dedicated patches for both glissandi and pedal-playing.
I'm not familiar with all of today's harp libraries, but I suppose they all must have some sort of solution for simulating glissandi. That being the case however, I have *never* heard a simulated glissando that sounds like a real one. (A finger that moves over the strings during a glissandi doesn't pluck, it brushes, which is why I don't think it's possible to simulate convincing glissandi with regular plucked samples.)

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[Lawrence]

My harp search is ongoing. I bought Angelic Harp and banged it into my template, but I never got on with it. Depending on the preset, it always either stuck out too much or vanished. I reluctantly returned my old EWQLSO harp to the template which still sounds more balanced to me.

I don’t love the tone of Glissando in the walkthroughs. Maybe there are demos that allow it to shine.

[Guy Rowland]

That ancient EWQL SO harp really has something, don't it? One of a fair few eternally golden patches.

[Markus K]

I love glissando harp a lot. You can set up the tone with the three mics in a lot of ways- from sharp to very soft. I wasn’t so convinced from the demos either but after learning the tweaking possibilities I’m very happy with it. To be able to adjust the volume of the resonances e.g. is very useful. I’m talking about the Concert Harp. Didn’t download the new one but already upgraded. I think it’s one of the best virtual instruments I had the possibility to get my hands on.
The actual glissando function I didn’t explore that much.

[Simone Coen]

My harp search is ongoing. I bought Angelic Harp and banged it not my template, but I never got on with it. Depending on the preset, it always either stuck out too much or vanished. I reluctantly returned my old EWQLSO harp to the template which still sounds more balanced to me.

I don’t love the tone of Glissando in the walkthroughs. Maybe there are demos that allow it to shine.

The tone you hear in the walkthough is from Glissando Concert Harp. Then there's the new Glissando Orchestral Harp, part of Glissando Harp together with the first one. We did a totally different sound, different harp, different studio, different mic perspectives (8) which can be combined in groups of up to four.

[Lawrence]

I’ll give it a listen, Simone, thanks.

[Simone Coen]

I’ll give it a listen, Simone, thanks.

You're welcome! I will do my best to do a walkthrough with the new harp too... in the meantime tomorrow I will publish a new video (using that sound) better explaining all of the interactions you can have re: Glissandos and other artics.

[Simone Coen]

new videos are coming soon. I beg your pardon for being so late, but I fell ill + Black Friday craze + got my credit card cloned (so no Black Friday for me, damn!)...

[KyleJudkins]

new videos are coming soon. I beg your pardon for being so late, but I fell ill + Black Friday craze + got my credit card cloned (so no Black Friday for me, damn!)...

Unacceptable

Looks like you will have to settle for Cyber Monday

[Simone Coen]

Unacceptable

Looks like you will have to settle for Cyber Monday

Well... crazy as it might seem, they are sending me a new card in just 7/10 days... so I am just surviving with my revolving "credit" card

[Simone Coen]

I managed to do a proper long-running walkthrough.
Chapter times are in the description to the video.

Enjoy!