Hildur’s Harpsichord
A 1973 Harpsichord. Recorded with a dented SM57. Destructively resampled to sound nothing like a Harpsichord.


ByJacob Maloney
The story
Coursemate James Blundsdon sampled the harpsichord in one of the practice rooms at Leeds College of Music. I then morphed those awesome samples through various distortions, reverbs and other effects inspired by Hildur’s incredible work on such films as Joker and Chernobyl. This created a dark, evolving, heavily textural patch; fondly called Hildur’s Harpsichord.
Now housed in a brand new Kontakt Instrument. Enjoy!
Trailer:
Pianodrop:
Interface

Reviews
Dirty Harpsichord
This is excellent. Given some extra lo-fi dirt and distortion these samples are a pleasure to play.. Nice one!
Incredible and unique sound!
One of the most unique sound on Pianobook. Creepy, dark and haunting, I used this sound on several projects, it worked every time! Bravo.
Beware handle with care
Agreeing with the other reviews, this one requires some caution when using. It can easily overpower and take the spotlight, but sometimes that what I want. The noise layer knob was a smart feature and works really well blending between to find the sound you want or building tension. But after getting the hang of this instrument, it is a blast to play with! Using my midi controller to the automate the mod wheel, reverb, and noise layer.. superb. This works great for a nice long and low drone sound constantly evolving. But I found that it works well for melody too, especially for impacts, maybe for chase or fight scenes. The only issue I have is the release. There is a release knob that works, but I was expending a long decay. When using it in the background it can be abrupt when it stops and restarts a note. Easy fixes for me, but a longer tail release could make it more user-friendly.