Hi,

I'm seriously considering going out and buying a harmonica (a decent chromatic model) and sampling it myself using a Behringer B1 studio mic and then creating a multisample myself as I can't seem to find any other viable option.

Or, if there are any decent sound fonts or vsts/emulators that can reproduce a decent harmonic sound.

I know that there is Zero-G's Harmonica set, but most of those are riffs and acidized wavs, and I'm only wanting some playable instruments, there is a chromatically sampled harmonica on the second CD that I'm told is quite good.

There is also Harmonica Essentials which are just riffs, as opposed to single notes. And WizooSounds has one, but I don't really like it, it's a bit thin.

Apart from this, are there any decent sampled harmonica sounds?

Thank you

Cheers
Ben

Yeah I wanna know too.
I have seen many GM quality ones but never a great one.

Must be one of the hardest to sample instruments with all the legato and - even harder to capture - sideband notes and breathing techniques.

-> DashSignature NuSofting Peti 0.5.beta [Vsti]
-> PlugSound Free SamplePlayer [Samples]
-> SoftRave Dr.Tikov Harmonium 1.0 [Vsti]

all FREE !

Dr. Wackler is right, there are things you just can't emulate with a multisample. So if you wan't it to sound realistic, sampling won't cut it. However a harmonica is not that hard to play a tune on, so you'd be better of just playing the real thing.

vista wrote:

-> DashSignature NuSofting Peti 0.5.beta [Vsti] -> PlugSound Free SamplePlayer [Samples] -> SoftRave Dr.Tikov Harmonium 1.0 [Vsti]

Well, PlugsoundFree has a harmonica, but a harmonium (Tikov & Peti) is quite different from a harmonica. Sure, a harmonica has similer reeds, but harmoniums are more akin to a n organ. Peti is more of an Indian portative organ type harmonium, and Tikov is a big arsed church/parlour type harmonium.

plugsound free harmonica really isn't that bad. If you do want all the breathing nuances you'll probably have to do it yourself.

Considering Steinberg is german they may see a possible market in creating Steinberg Virtual Harmonica... I'm not even sure I'm joking; harmonica is used and abused a lot in (all) european folk and folksy music, and some of them are actually using sequencers and stuff (I know a few, I've been engineering for ), though I guess printing score is the big thing in those circles.

Feeling the heat from Vocaloid Steinberg might also consider Virtual Yodeler... ok, now I am joking... I think...

Teh irrepressible Gück.

VoidoidSurrealist wrote:

vista wrote: -> DashSignature NuSofting Peti 0.5.beta [Vsti] -> PlugSound Free SamplePlayer [Samples] -> SoftRave Dr.Tikov Harmonium 1.0 [Vsti] Well, PlugsoundFree has a harmonica, but a harmonium (Tikov & Peti) is quite different from a harmonica. Sure, a harmonica has similer reeds, but harmoniums are more akin to a n organ. Peti is more of an Indian portative organ type harmonium, and Tikov is a big arsed church/parlour type harmonium.

Hi Voidoid you Sure be a realist !

Thanks for making this clear.
My fault, sorry.

vista wrote:

Hi Voidoid you Sure be a realist !

It must be late, 'cause I nearly fell over with that one!

I got a 10 dollar hohner blues harp- it is cheap and sounds like a harmonica. the best part is its easy enough to play, though I dont think I will be doing any blues traveller covers anytime soon...

20-odd years back the Harmonica patch on the Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was quite popular, used on dozens of top-40 songs e.g. in a Tina Turner song (don't recall the title right now, was it "we dont need another hero" ??)

I haven't done any good auditioning yet on the P-600 simulation by tomg, weather its faithfully reproduced. Many soundfonts should have patches that come really close to the original Prophet-600 patch.

C00kie wrote:

20-odd years back the Harmonica patch on the Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was quite popular, used on dozens of top-40 songs e.g. in a Tina Turner song (don't recall the title right now, was it "we dont need another hero" ??)

No, i was What's Love (Got To Do With It) from Private Dancer. That was way back when the Linn Drum programmer was listed as such in the credits...
I played those keyboards on a gig back in high school, I made a decent blues harp on a polysix, way better (and closer of course) than the pad I dialed up on some analog italian monster we had (I forget the name). It was either that or the Roland JX3P... </stroll down memory lane>

Guckli wrote:

No, it was What's Love (Got To Do With It) from Private Dancer. That was way back when the Linn Drum programmer was listed as such in the credits... I played those keyboards on a gig back in high school, I made a decent blues harp on a polysix, way better (and closer of course) than the pad I dialed up on some analog italian monster we had (I forget the name). It was either that or the Roland JX3P... </stroll down memory lane>

Thanks for the correction, thats the song indeed. They play it on the radio here all the time, but not if you're waiting for it
That italian keyboard, must have been a Siel, Gem or maybe a Keytek ??

C00kie wrote:

Guckli wrote: No, it was What's Love (Got To Do With It) from Private Dancer. That was way back when the Linn Drum programmer was listed as such in the credits... I played those keyboards on a gig back in high school, I made a decent blues harp on a polysix, way better (and closer of course) than the pad I dialed up on some analog italian monster we had (I forget the name). It was either that or the Roland JX3P... </stroll down memory lane> Thanks for the correction, thats the song indeed. They play it on the radio here all the time, but not if you're waiting for it That italian keyboard, must have been a Siel, Gem or maybe a Keytek ??

Vintage Synth Explorer rocks, I found it there by looking at pics alone - it was an Elka Synthex - totally incapable of making fairlighty or synclaviery pads like that on What's Love of course, but otherwise a great synthesizer. I'd sure like one, but they're rare I guess.

first one odd thing:

in croatia we have harmonica/accordion words messed up!

croatian | english
harmonica = accordion
mouth harmonica = harmonica

thats really weird!
the best VSTi for accordion is Sytrus, really, trust me! There's a preset called "synth string - austrian accordion"

now, assuming that accordion and harmonica have pretty similar sounds, you can use this preset/plugin...

Voted "get a real harmonica", but a chromatic harp is what you DON'T want -- they're a lot more expensive and much much harder to play than diatonic harmonicas (like the Hohner blues harps).