# Berlin Symphonic Harps - Now available - New demo online!



## OrchestralTools (May 9, 2018)

There has been one beautiful, shimmering sound missing in our Berlin Series so far: *The Harp*.

The wait is over - we went back to the Teldex Scoring Stage to catch the spirit of this fascinating instrument. To offer even more possibilities, we recorded not one, but two enchanting, pearly Harps to enhance your Berlin Series Template. Each Harp has its own unique sound character with a consistent set of articulations for both harps. Of course we offer both of these Harps with *True Pedal Control!*

We are proud to introduce the *Berlin Symphonic Harps!*



*The Berlin Symphonic Harps have three main technical features:*

*True Pedal Control*
The concert harp is essentially a diatonic instrument. In its natural position, all strings are tuned to the c-major scale. With the seven pedals, the player can tune every note of that scale one half step up or down. In Berlin Symphonic Harps, every string of the harp was recorded in its natural, sharp and flat pitch. A special U.I. within CAPSULE provides control over that feature for the user. This way you can easily tune the harp, just like a player can.

*Playable Glissandi Patches*
We offer a real playable glissandi patch for each Harp. The samples of those patches were recorded with the technique used by the player to play a glissando, which is different from that of a single plucked note. That is the reason why glissandi played with standard harp patches often sound not quite as smooth and connected, as one might expect. But now, with the combination of the pedal simulation with the playable glissandi articulation, we can re-create those most beautiful harp glissando sounds.

*Release Damping *
Any plucked string on the harp usually just rings out after the initial plucking. But the player obviously can also damp the note. That triggers a more or less audible sound, which depends on volume, note length and damping technique. For both harps, different note lengths and damping sounds are recorded and triggered within the sustain patches depending on the timing of the key-releases. If you play very short notes you get the immediate damping of the string. If you however use the sustain pedal, the string rings out as long as you hold it.

*Enjoy the screencast* that explains these technical features in a more detailed way.



*Beside the technical features* that allow to have full control over these marvelous instruments, of course this Collection also offers what the renowned Berlin Series is well known for:

*A perfectly balanced sound*, recorded in the famous Teldex Studio Berlin with uncompromising recording techniques. Based on CAPSULE for Kontakt the Berlin Symphonic Harps are the perfect complement to the Berlin Series. But thanks to the generous offer of microphone positions and the many included ways to shape your sound, the Berlin Symphonic Harps are also easy to place in every other musical template.


Enjoy the Berlin Symphonic Harps demo compositions by *Sascha Knorr*, *Benny Oschmann,* *Snorre Tidemand, Helge Borgarts & Thomas Stanger.*





*Intro Offer

The Berlin Symphonic Harps are now available for
199€ + VAT instead of 249€ + VAT
*
The offer is valid until May 23.

Get all information on our *product page.*

Berlin Symphonic Harps is based on CAPSULE for Kontakt.
IMPORTANT: You need the Kontakt 5.5.1 full version sampler to run this collection.​


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## madfloyd (May 9, 2018)

Wow, sounds great!


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## BenG (May 9, 2018)

Looking forward to checking this out!


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## Penthagram (May 9, 2018)

Sounds fantastic


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## muziksculp (May 9, 2018)

Yes, OT-BSHarps Sound Fantastic ! 

I already have two harp libraries, but watching the videos of OT-BSHarps, I think I need to have this library


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## zimm83 (May 9, 2018)

Sounds good ..... the Berlin Choir is now far far away......


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## erica-grace (May 9, 2018)

Sounds nice! 

*Playable Glissandi Patches*

Does that mean there are no recorded gliss, and the only way to get gliss is by building our own from individual notes?


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## Moquan (May 9, 2018)

erica-grace said:


> Sounds nice!
> 
> *Playable Glissandi Patches*
> 
> Does that mean there are no recorded gliss, and the only way to get gliss is by building our own from individual notes?



It has both options. At around 6:30 in the video they play the pre-recorded ones as well.


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## NoamL (May 9, 2018)

Very cool. In all other harp VIs as far as I'm aware, the "pedal simulation" is just selecting 7 of the chromatically sampled strings and remapping the keyboard to exclude all other pitches. This does that too, but it is an *actual* pedal simulation, where they recorded each string in each tuning position.

That is a true "next gen" game changing feature. For starters it means you can perform your own bisbigliandos.

Moreover, let's say we want to tune the harp to G minor pentatonic:

*D C Bb | E# F G A#*

or to C octatonic:

*Db C Bb | Eb Fb Gb A#*

Those duplicate notes will now actually be included in the glissando, and sound like different strings instead of strangely repeating round robins of one string.

Also, any note that is tuned sharp on the harp will sound a little more bright and tense, while notes that are tuned flat will sound more mellow and resonant.


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## MaxOctane (May 9, 2018)

NoamL said:


> For starters it means you can perform your own bisbigliandos.



Explain why please?


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## NoamL (May 9, 2018)

MaxOctane said:


> Explain why please?



Sure. Bisbigliandos are the harp's version of tremolos, and in order to perform the very fast repetitions, the harpist tunes two neighboring strings to the same pitch (A# and Bb for instance).

In theory you could simulate this on a harp VI by just hammering one key over and over:

Bb__Bb_Bb_Bb_Bb_Bb_Bb_Bb

However in reality it is more like this:

A#____A#____A#____A#____
.....Bb____Bb_____Bb____Bb____

(but faster)

The sustains of each string overlap as they are plucked alternately.... this is what creates the blurring sound. Also, the two strings have different sound colors, because the B string is tuned open (i.e., flat, the "open" position of all harp strings) while the A string is tuned sharp (the tightest possible position).

Now if you wanted a bisbigliando that starts slow and accelerates, or vice versa, there was no real way to mock up this idea, even though it's easy for the harpist; she has as much control as a wind or string player has over their trills. We could only use the one-shot bisbigliando samples (and I pretty much hate 1-shot harp samples, it is like that discussion in the roundtable Hans had with his other RC composers about one shot cymbal rolls...) With this true pedal simulation (not even a simulation really, they should have called it true pedal sampling) you have the option to really perform _anything_ the harpist can do with the standard pluck technique.


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## WindcryMusic (May 9, 2018)

This is very impressive indeed. I have to give this one some serious thought between now and the 23rd of the month.


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## galactic orange (May 9, 2018)

NoamL said:


> With this true pedal simulation (not even a simulation really, they should have called it true pedal sampling) you have the option to really perform _anything_ the harpist can do with the standard pluck technique.


Does that mean the Berlin Symphonic Harps work that way? Or are you postulating that "if they did" it would be great?


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## Moquan (May 9, 2018)

galactic orange said:


> Does that mean the Berlin Symphonic Harps work that way? Or are you postulating that "if they did" it would be great?


I do believe he mentions in the video they sampled each tuning of the string.


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## galactic orange (May 9, 2018)

Thank you. I'm at work and can't watch the videos. These harps sounded very nice in the demo songs I listened to earlier.


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## mobileavatar (May 9, 2018)

The true pedal control feature is awesome!

I wonder whether there are any tricks/workarounds to simulate extended techniques like slow pedal changes.
Would applying pitch bend work? It would be great if those pedal switches within CAPSULE are pitch bend themselves!


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## Hendrik-Schwarzer (May 10, 2018)

galactic orange said:


> Does that mean the Berlin Symphonic Harps work that way? Or are you postulating that "if they did" it would be great?



It´s all recorded. Each string in every possible pedal tuning. That tripled the recording time but especially the possibility to play bisbigliandos or special scale glissandi like pentatonic in a convincing way was worth to go that extra effort.
Also e.g. F# major scale sounds different to a Gb major scale. Even if the pitch sounds the same, the used strings are different and the character too. F# major will sound a bit more percussive and clear. Gb major will offer you a subtle softer, smoother sound.

For the playable glissando patch, the harpenists played the strings in a different manner, more like they would do in a glissando. The attack of each note appears softer, as they "moved" their fingers over the string, instead of plucking them.

We designed this collection to be a harp workhorse with a very natural, unprocessed and useable orchestral sound.
With the different mic positions you can have them from pretty close to very ambient.

All the Best,
Hendrik


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## Karma (May 10, 2018)

Just came here to say that Benny Oschmann is the man!


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## artinro (May 10, 2018)

@Hendrik-Schwarzer If I may ask, how many dynamic layers were recorded with these instruments? I see the RR numbers listed on the articulation pdf, but I see no mention of the dynamics. Instruments sound superb, congrats!


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## aaronventure (May 10, 2018)

@Hendrik-Schwarzer I wonder why does the pedal switching work with presets?

Wouldn't it be easier to have every string on a keyswitch and then the velocity determines the position? In that case there would be no worry about the presets, no going in to configure them for every project.

0-42 = flat
43-85 = natural
86-127 = sharp


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## NoamL (May 10, 2018)

That's a really good idea.


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## OT_Tobias (May 10, 2018)

aaronventure said:


> @Hendrik-Schwarzer I wonder why does the pedal switching work with presets?
> 
> Wouldn't it be easier to have every string on a keyswitch and then the velocity determines the position? In that case there would be no worry about the presets, no going in to configure them for every project.
> 
> ...



That is how it works, actually.
You have presets to save the settings, but everything is controllable via CC or KS.


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## OT_Tobias (May 10, 2018)

artinro said:


> @Hendrik-Schwarzer If I may ask, how many dynamic layers were recorded with these instruments? I see the RR numbers listed on the articulation pdf, but I see no mention of the dynamics. Instruments sound superb, congrats!



See http://helpdesk.orchestraltools.com/ag_berlin_symphonic_harps_articulations.html


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## aaronventure (May 10, 2018)

OT_Tobias said:


> That is how it works, actually.
> You have presets to save the settings, but everything is controllable via CC or KS.


Ah, wonderful! From the video I got that keyswitching is between the presets.


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## artinro (May 10, 2018)

OT_Tobias said:


> See http://helpdesk.orchestraltools.com/ag_berlin_symphonic_harps_articulations.html



Thanks Tobias!


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## ChrisSiuMusic (May 10, 2018)

Congratulations OT on another wonderful release! Such a clean and pristine sound.


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## mobileavatar (May 10, 2018)

@OT_Tobias Congrats on the new library. It sounds fantastic! I would like to find out if the pedal controls support continuous MIDI CC data? So we could get in-between pitches between normal, sharp and flat, like what the player can do on a real harp?


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## Rap-sody (May 12, 2018)

That harp library sounds so lovely!


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## AllanH (May 12, 2018)

I don't have any Orchestra Tools libraries, but the Harp sounds amazing. I also really like Benny Oschmann's "Growing Up Too Fast" piece (incredible!).


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## OrchestralTools (May 14, 2018)

Helge Borgarts and Thomas Stanger teamed up again to write an excellent demo for our Berlin Symphonic Harps.
Enjoy "A Secret Labyrinth"!


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## zimm83 (May 14, 2018)

AllanH said:


> I don't have any Orchestra Tools libraries, but the Harp sounds amazing. I also really like Benny Oschmann's "Growing Up Too Fast" piece (incredible!).


I buy mostly orchestral tools vst. The Capsule utility is a Killer. And the mix options with gain ....
And of course the sound. Awesome. And the Metropolis series...oh man....soooo good.. 

Really top company.


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## Fry777 (May 14, 2018)

zimm83 said:


> And the mix options with gain ....



Can you elaborate on that a bit more @zimm83 ?

I agree OT products are top notch.


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## zimm83 (May 14, 2018)

Fry777 said:


> Can you elaborate on that a bit more @zimm83 ?
> 
> I agree OT products are top notch.


Yes there is an auto gain function : in the capsule manual :

the combined volume of all mic positions will stay the same when you change the
level of any position. This preserved the dynamic relation of your mic mix while allowing you to put a single position in the foreground or background.

Really useful with all those mic positions available.


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## SomeKindaThing (May 14, 2018)

Bought them today. Lovely tone, and having two distinct harps naturally panned is something I've been missing for a long time.

One minor gripe, though - I wish there was a combined-gliss patch. Right now, the gliss patches only use one octave of the keyboard with key switches to change which articulation is played(up, down, double, etc.). It'd be really convenient if they laid out the 7 articulations across 7 octaves of the keyboard to eliminate the need for keyswitches.


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## MPortmann (May 22, 2018)

Just seeing this in my email today. Clock ticking on sale. Sounds astonishing. Own so many harps (like pianos and string libraries) but have not heard this level of detail in Harps. Is everyone satisfied who has purchased this? Other harps that I have don’t always have the sensitivity in tone & dynamics, playability and enough glissando techniques to cover more complex music. Thanks for any comments and input!


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## ryanstrong (May 22, 2018)

Do you guys know if you can change the instrument so you only engage the lower dynamic samples? I never like the "plucky" high velocity samples so I like to turn those off. Anyone know?


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## Emmanuel Rousseau (May 22, 2018)

ryanstrong said:


> Do you guys know if you can change the instrument so you only engage the lower dynamic samples? I never like the "plucky" high velocity samples so I like to turn those off. Anyone know?



In the CAPSULE Settings View, you can always disable the velocity layers you don't want.


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## garylionelli (May 24, 2018)

Connect (Continuata) installer successfully downloads, but freezes part way through the installation process.


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## tmhuud (May 24, 2018)

Started acting up for us as well. Was not a problem in the past as all we’d do is hit PAUSE. Then hit START or begin download again and it would start right back up again. (Actually here’s a tip: If, during your download it starts slowing down, hit PAUSE and then start again and we’ve seen the download speed back up again to like 4 x’s)

But lately, it’s been getting stuck (frozen) and nothing gets it back up and running until we quit the app and relaunch.


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## garylionelli (May 25, 2018)

I can't get Connect (Continuata) to install the library. Freezes no matter how many times I relaunch or delete prefs. No response from tech support.


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