MIDI harps
MIDI is a digital language that electronic musical instruments use to communicate with each other, and other types of electronic gear. (The acronym stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.) It is a worldwide standard, so all MIDI gear is compatible.
We are most familiar with keyboard synthesizers. The keyboard, by itself, is a MIDI controller. Usually, there is also a synthesizer (sound producing module) built into the instrument as well. The keyboard controls the synthesizer using MIDI commands. I have developed a system to enable a harpist to control any MIDI synthesizer using a harp instead of a keyboard.
Using Kortier harp pickups on each string of a harp keeps the activity of each of those strings separate. In this way, I do not have to employ any complicated pitch recognition system. When you pluck the middle C string, the pickup that is in contact with that string generates an electrical signal. That signal goes directly to the microprocessor embedded in the harp, which responds by triggering the MIDI message "note 60-on." In addition, the velocity (how quickly the current rises) is measured, so the message sent to the synthesizer is truly representative of the manner in which you pulled the string. All information is updated every 8 milliseconds, so what you hear coming from the synthesizer is truly representative of what the harp string is doing. When the string vibration decays below a certain threshold, the MIDI message "note 60-off" is sent to the synthesizer.
The controlling circuit board which contains the embedded microprocessor also acts as a preamplifier and summing amplifier for the analog electrical signals that the pickups are producing. In other words, my MIDI harps are also electric harps. The output from the circuit board is MIDI out, and audio out. This presents many possibilities for performance. By mixing the sound of the electric harp with the sound being produced by a synthesizer a whole pallet of sound colors are at your fingertips..
Click to see the MIDI 36, a MIDI/electric harp.
Because the Kortier pickups are sensitive primarily to each string, and not to the vibrations coming from adjacent strings, it is entirely successful to install this MIDI system on any acoustic harp. The harp below is a Lyon & Healy Electric Pedal harp that I recently converted. Because the L&H pickups are not compatible, I simply installed the Kortier pickups on top of them, and disabled that now redundant system. Since the harp already had output jacks, the only visible alteration to the harp is the controller module mounted on the face of the soundbox. In this instance, the owner uses a remote rack-mounted synthesizer instead of an internal unit, and feeds the audio output of the harp to a central mixer board.
