|
The
Kortier MIDI Lever Harp
is two harps in one. It is a great sounding electric harp that
is very portable and has tremendous stage appeal. At the same
time, it is something revolutionary- a MIDI controller harp.
What this means is that any synthesizer can be connected to the
harp with a standard MIDI cable and triggered or controlled by
this harp. As you play the harp, a stream of digital messages
(MIDI is the acronym for this) is sent out from the harp,
controlling whatever MIDI hardware or software program that you
connect to. Adding this capability to the regular sound of the
electric harp gives you literally unlimited sonic possibilities.
Here's how it works- Pickups
(Piezo transducers) are attached at the base of each string.
When a string is plucked, an electric current is generated by
the transducer. These impluses are received by the microprocessor
on the main circuit board of the harp, which converts them to
a stream of MIDI messages. These digital MIDI messages describe
what you are doing with the strings- what strings were plucked,
how hard (volume), and when they are stopped.
These MIDI messages travel to
your synthesizer via the MIDI cable, which responds by producing
the type of sound that you have dialed in, with all the articulation
and other nuances that are present in your playing.
Those same pulses created by
the plucking of the harp strings are also amplified as ordinary
electric harp tones. This makes the instrument very "harplike"
since we can hear the actual sound of the harp strings at any
time, either alone or blended with the synthesized sound.
The harp has a pitch bend knob
that allows you to bend synthesized notes up to a half step upward.
A jack is also present to connect a sustain pedal for holding
synthsized sounds as long as you wish. If any synthesized sounds
need to be stopped suddenly, there is a "kill switch,"
a push button that sends an "all notes off" message.
I build this harp in two sizes.
The 31 string harp is small enough to play on a strap, standing
or moving about. The range is to low C, two octaves below middle
C. The 36 string version is a floor standing harp, 5 full octaves,
with the bottom note A.
Features of both:
- Clear, clean sound from fluorocarbon
strings, steelcore in bass octave.
- Proper tension and string spacing
for good technique.
- Camac sharping levers.
- Very portable, comfortable to
play.
- Rigid insulated travel case.
- Stand connected with two wingnuts,
easily connected and removed with no tools.
- Price- 31 string $6,500, 36 string $6,995
Pitch bend knob and kill
switch
|
36 string MIDI/Electric harp
31 string MIDI harp

|