For a limited time, Native Instruments are offering their brand new Irish Harp – a comprehensive Kontakt Player compatible sample library, released just a few days ago. According to the announcement, it will be available for free until the third of July – so get it while you can, if you haven’t already.
This special release, which comes in at about 1GB through NI’s Native Access, has basically everything that you would expect from a commercial level harp VST – only that this one is completely free.
Surprisingly (or not), this 34-string Celtic harp is very, very playable. Thanks to a highly effective Key Mode feature (and the White Keys setting in particular), alongside other helpful aspects, one may quickly find that Glissandos and other harp-known ornaments are fairly easy to execute.
NI really made the effort to pack this lib with some very handy keyswitches & articulations. There’s a good variation of plucks and many different playing techniques to work with.
Ultimately, all of the sounds, modes and features that we get with this free Irish Harp make for a decently realistic plugin experience that shouldn’t be taken for granted. It is safe to say that this is one of the best (if not the best) harp freebies out there.
Now, more technically speaking, this harp seems to offer exactly 4 Round Robins with each one of its two Velocity layers. That only applies to the higher register of the instrument, though, as the lower octaves have 2 RR’s per note.*
* Relevant to the default (fundamental) articulation setting.
Another feature that one may find useful is the added Tremolo effect, controlled by the modwheel. Sound-wise, it’s not too impressive, and I wouldn’t use it myself as it sounds somewhat inorganic. But make no mistake, it doesn’t take anything away from the truly wonderful work of the developers.
You may redeem this free summer gift via Native Instruments’ website (refer to the attachment below for additional information). Your download link will appear in your account at Native Access – NI’s dedicated product management app. The latest version of Kontakt (7.3.0 and above) is required for the library to run.
