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!

    Gideon Wolf on 13 October 2021
  • 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.

    Fred PoirierCreator on 16 October 2021
  • 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.

    Ada MaskilCreator on 07 November 2021
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