The story
Hi everyone, here is my contribution to the wonderful PianoBook library. Special thanks to Christian Henson for inspiring me to do this and to David Hilowitz for his excellent YouTube instruction!
These are one shot artificial harmonics samples ie the string is stopped normally, and then fingered (with the little finger) a 4th above the stopped note. Viola harmonics are more mellow and less squeaky than violin ones and sit in the register between C4 and C6.
The viola was recorded with my favourite mic – an AEA R44 to which I added a little reverb but left in some bow noise for more of an organic feel.
For the demo ’Spellbound’ I randomly choose a bunch of PianoBook instruments and built them around the Spooky Viola sound. No other samples or sounds were used. Thanks everyone for your sounds.
In order of appearance
Boars Hill Gate Post,
Spooky Viola Harmonics
Amped Bottle
Finger Muted iBach
Mountain Dulcimer
Wine Cork Hits
Studio Lucid Pizz Cello
Scary Violin Flautandos
Discord Choir
Confinement Celeste
DK Cello Spurs
Bowed Guitar Preset 2
Have fun!
cheers
Roland
Reviews for Spooky Viola Harmonics
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Not spooky but beautiful
These don't really give me a spooky vibe, i think they're more beautiful. They're pretty short which means they're not extremely versatile but i think they're really nice for adding on-top of shorter string chords, for example the shorts in Olafur Arnalds Chamber Evolutions which are string chords that only last for a few seconds. I think these are recorded really well and sound really full despite being harmonics. No issues here besides limitations but many instruments on pianobook are made to just do one thing and do it well and theres nothing wrong with that. You could also drench these in effects and use them as one note ambient throws
Spooky, but in a good way!
This instrument has a lot of potential, but right from the get-go, it sounds very pleasing with no problems! The samples might seem a little short and they don't loop, something that you'll need to get used to. I noticed that the knobs by default don't represent the actual settings. If you try to change the Attack, Decay or Sustain, they reset and create issues. Nevertheless, you can definitely give it a try. Once you figure it out, you will like it!
Not spooky enough...
Perhaps I'm looking for something beyond spooky, but this library just didn't quite cut it for me. Maybe with more customizability over the sound it would have been more usable. Well built instrument that I'm sure will work well for many.
Short, breathy harmonics
Once you reconnect the samples --this was saved with absolute paths-- you'll be greeted with a complete GUI that gives you control over the ADsR and reverb. I really like that it's easy to eliminate the reverb. The ADSR is nice, but given how short these sounds are, it's not really that necessary. These sounds are well played, but not well recorded. The samples seem really noisy, and they have a very boxy quality to the sound. It isn't the lovely, open, cantabile sound you might hope for. It sounds slightly band limited. So, this is a great first attempt at sampling, and clearly a lot of time and effort went into the GUI. The player is obviously very talented. Learning to craft a playable sample instrument is a long journey. I certainly don't pretend to have figured it out! I think it's super cool that we can share milestones on that journey with this community, and that those milestones and help and inspire others in their musical journeys as well!
