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Not sure what you’re trying to do, would need more info. But some general thoughts: First, you’d have to get a signal from your harp somehow. Either from a built-in pickup or an added pickup or a microphone. Then the signal would have to go into a device that could send it to a bluetooth speaker. Harp (pickup or mic) => Smartphone => speaker should probably work, but I’ve never tried it.
I use an AKG C411 microphone on the soundboard of my pedal harp. It’s been good enough for all the gigs I played so far (some with a singer, some solo, some with a whole band and once even with a brass band), and even for recording something quickly. Two of those would give a more balanced sound, but so far it’s been enough. The C411 is a condenser mic, so you need XLR ins with phantom power.
Just in case you haven’t solved your problem yet: You have to choose the input you want to use on your Mac (or in Garage Band, I don’t remember). Did you use the “Guitar Input” on the M-Track?
I second the Heartland Harps Infinity. The lowest octave is quite punchy, though it doesn’t have the depth of a concert grand (and doesn’t go as low). While I’m not familiar with most of the harps mentioned above, I think when it comes to portability, the Infinity is hard to beat. I’ll spend about three days running from bar to bar with it in February, I’ll know for sure afterwards. I’m three hours from Paris, if you have no other possibility to try one. But Dave from Heartland Harps could probably give you the adress of an owner nearer to you.
While you can’t make it sound like other instruments, you can change the sound a lot by using different effects. Walk into an electric guitar store and try some effect boards, maybe you’ll find something you like. If not, it’ll give you an idea about what’s possible and it’ll be a lot of fun hearing your harp sound like it never sounded before.
Not sure if you’ve already decided, but: IIRC, Heartland Harps has some sound samples on their website (called “taste test” or something). There are some examples on Youtube as well.
As a (still relatively new) Infinity owner (Nylon strings) I’ll try to answer some of your questions: The overall sound is quite bright. I’m used to gut strings, so that might be part of it. My wooden, gut strung lever harp (a little taller, but slimmer) sounds different. Not different good or different bad, just different. But to most non-harpists, the difference is minimal and until now, everybody liked the sound (I have yet to use it for a public performance).
As a (rather ham-fisted) pedal harp player, I like the string spacing and tension (my pedal harp is a Salvi Aurora). Ease of use, well…. it’s a harp. Plays like one, sounds like one. Only, doesn’t weigh as much as one. It has been reliable so far, I play it almost daily. Has also survived two or three falls (children…) without complaining.
It’s quite loud, and it seems to react differently to volume changes (I need to play softer to get a soft sound).
I usually play it sitting down, with the harp on it’s “leg”, but have also played it standing up. Both work well, but since it’s so light, it moves around more. You get used to it, I only notice it in fast, loud passages. Even then, less than when I just received it.
Hope that helped some, feel free to pester me with more questions.Hi everybody, my first post. Thoughts on two things Biagio brought up:
For me, part of the appeal of an electric harp would be eliminating the acoustic sound and shaping the sound the way I want it (I wouldn’t use it for a traditional harp sound, much like you wouldn’t use an electric guitar for a classical guitar recital). If you’re not in a huge venue, the acoustic sound will be heard and will overlap with any “effected” sound you would use. Also, I could imagine more problems with feedback on an electrified acoustic harp. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the occasion to try this. Maybe more crosstalk on an electro-acoustic harp as well?
Considering how important the body and soundboard are on electric guitars, I don’t think it’s something that can or should be neglected on a purely electric harp. Again, I’m no builder and have therefore not built fully electric harps with different soundboards (I wish…), but I know how fussy guitar players are.
