realsamples has announced the release of Italian Harpsichord III as part of the Edition Beurmann series.

Italian Harpsichord III features three sounds, a front and a rear 8' stop as well both together – this particular instrument offers the traditional rich and slick Italian harpsichord tone with additional flexibility by choosing the adequate stop using the gentle combination of both stops with its inspiring and complex harmonics.

Like all harpsichords, the instrument is not touch-sensitive like a piano. However, even if the differences are minuscule, not any given note will sound exactly the same due to resonances of body and strings. Every key was sampled with 8 variations to provide the timbre changes of the harpsichord in order to avoid the effect of digital repetition. In addition, the release sounds were recorded with 4 different samples of each note.

“The sounds of the key release were originally regarded as side noise and as such, they were meant to be minimised. However, they contribute to the overall picture of the real instrument and are a vital part to the perception feeling.” says Nicolay Ketterer, head of realsamples, who led the recording sessions at the Hasselburg estate, where Professor Beurmann resides.

The library contains 1600 single samples of the instrument. Presets are available for all common sample formats including HALion, Kontakt (2 and higher), EXS24, and GigaStudio 3.

The Italian Harpsichord III library is available in 44.1, 48 kHz, 96 kHz and 192 kHz resolution and was recorded in the great sounding rooms of the Hasselburg estate with custom-made Wagner U47w tube microphones in conjunction with Crane Song Flamingo preamps and Universal Audio 2192 digital converters.

The price starts at $149.95.