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Harpsichord Instruments Sonus Paradisi

Existing and forthcoming Hauptwerk instruments, recommendations, ...
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OrganoPleno

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Re: Harpsichord Instruments Sonus Paradisi

PostTue Jun 18, 2019 1:47 pm

Romanos wrote: The resonance sounds contrived and many of the attacks don't seem real at all.


That's OK. Somebody else didn't care for the Clavi-Organum. But for me (with a little added Reverb), it's a favorite!
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robsig

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Re: Harpsichord Instruments Sonus Paradisi

PostTue Jun 18, 2019 2:32 pm

I have both SP harpsichords and use them for different purposes. The Ruckers is much more mellow, and the Mietke more articulate. The Mietke extended version has a 16' stop which is more useful than one would think. It is not unhistoric, Haas in Hamburg was making them during Bach's lifetime.I believe, (correct me if I'm wrong) that in the inventory of Bach's instruments he owned such an instrument.

I had the very good fortune of spending time with a copy of a 1740 Haas with 3 keyboards made by Goble and sons. The instrument was for a performance of the Poulenc concerto with Trevor Pinnock in Ottawa. It was subsequently used for the recording with the Boston Symphony of the same piece. I spent one lovely evening all alone playing through the Well-tempered clavier, and it was very convincing with the occasional use of the 16'. The first manual was the 16', a half-register of 2' (bass to middle c', and the 2nd manual would couple to it for the pleno. The second and third manuals were like the traditional 1st and 2nd elsewhere. As well, the 16' is used for the 20th century concerto repertoire (Poulenc, deFalla), Respighi orchestral pieces and other orchestral repertoire which requires an expensive, difficult to find (and musically unsatisfying) rental.

The Mietke harpsichord has been incorporated into a claviorganum by Augustine along with a small Dutch organ from Oosterwitjdwirjd. It has been very useful to me for continuo playing There was a thread about this in 2015 with the links to download the necessary elements. It is necessary to own the Mietke harpsichord but the organ is free as is the claviorganum file. I looked recently and the files are still available. Here is the thread from 2015 viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13513
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robsig

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Re: Harpsichord Instruments Sonus Paradisi

PostTue Jun 18, 2019 2:50 pm

A few other observations about the HW harpsichords.

First of all some solution has to be found for the half-octave below C, as harpsichords begin at FF or GG.

Both keyboards can be sent to the pedal as well as to the manuals, but you have to be handy with your pedal-playing. For Scarlatti, Soler etc. it's tricky but doable.

I also found that I had to turn my subwoofer off because the thud of the harpsichord touch was recorded in the sampleset sounds and makes a horrible racket when the subwoofer plays those frequencies.

I found it more realistic-sounding and charming to retune ((and revoice) some notes here and there to introduce a little imperfection in the sound. (Best for the two 8's, not the 4'). I also found the 4' too loud in general. You might want to fiddle with the overall level of the two 8's to get them to your liking.

After a lifetime of tuning and adjusting real harpsichords it has been a great relief to just sit down and play music with these samplesets. And a joy to use in concert without having to deal with moving and tuning a real harpsichord.

That said, I could wish someone would record some historic harpsichords, including Italian and French instruments. There are many good instruments in museums that would be great for the purpose.

RS
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OrganoPleno

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Re: Harpsichord Instruments Sonus Paradisi

PostTue Jun 18, 2019 3:20 pm

robsig wrote:First of all some solution has to be found for the half-octave below C, as harpsichords begin at FF or GG.


I solved this using the Harpsichord samples from the Clavi-Organum. These do go down to that low FF, with good quality, although the ODF never accesses those lower notes.

So I wrote my own Definition File for those Samples using the open-source "SFZ" language, which plays through a free player called "Aria".

http://ariaengine.com/overview/sfz-format/

For my three-manual Console, the top keyboard is Manual Two of the Harpsichord, the middle keyboard is Manual One of the Harpsichord, and the lowest manual plays Manual One of the Harpsichord transposed down one Octave. So the lowest notes can be played there, for Manual One at least, and also for Manual Two if that is coupled to Manual One. Not perfect... but lots of fun!

It takes a little getting used to, with that Octave Shift in the lowest Manual. But I've gotten used to that because of the way I play the PianoTeq Grand Pianos on my Organ Console! Middle keyboard plays normally, top keyboard plays UP one octave (reaching the top notes of the Grand Piano), and lowest Keyboard plays down TWO octaves, to reach the lowest notes of the Grand Piano (which are actually in the 32-foot Octave in Organ terms). The Pedal-Board is programmed to function as Grand Piano Pedals.... "sustain" for most pedal notes, and the other functions on a few of the highest and lowest Pedal notes.

With a little imagination... there is so much that can be accomplished!

A demo of "My Harpsichord" is available here:
http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/18825

so you can see the general idea.
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Romanos

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Re: Harpsichord Instruments Sonus Paradisi

PostWed Jun 19, 2019 2:59 pm

robsig wrote:A few other observations about the HW harpsichords.
I also found that I had to turn my subwoofer off because the thud of the harpsichord touch was recorded in the sampleset sounds and makes a horrible racket when the subwoofer plays those frequencies.
RS


I just had the same experience myself last week. I was playing and thought, "what on earth is that noise?!" and then it dawned on me. :)
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