Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi there Mia and welcome!
Tell us a bit more about what you play on your harps and like to listen to.Somewhere here on the HarpColumn I remember reading a response I’ve used several times now and it’s worked for me: “it was a professional investment in my career”. If they persist (happened a few times) then I just say, “enough that we had to do it on the installment plan. Beyond that, I don’t care to discuss figures.” Then I get into a quick educational seminar about the history, care and feeding of wire harps and that usually discourages that line of questioning.
Hi Niina,
Is this the Spanish composer and organist (1886 – 1961)? There is an entry on page 851 of vol. 7, 1995 ed. of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. It is primarily about the composer. I don’t see anything about Viejo Zortzico under Works, although it says selective list. I could send you some material on the composer if it’s helpful.Hi Laura Ann,
If you do decide to purchase the Zoom, please let me know how it worked out for you. I am thinking of getting one myself for doing a bit of field recording (nature sounds, etc.). Some of the sites I purchase my licensed nature sounds from are great, but they don’t have all the ones I want, or a certain way I’d like. I had a few other models on my list too, but I’ve read a lot of good reviews on that one.Hi Laura Ann,
Thanks for the compliments! 🙂 I hope it was of some help. If you go to recording.org and type usb microphone into the search box, you might find some more info there. Not a lot of harpists over there unfortunately 🙁 but posts covering acoustic guitar might do the trick. Lots of stuff there about computer and usb microphone recording.Hi Laura Ann,
I’m not sure how helpful my reply will be to you, since I have a dedicated recording studio setup (and I do no live performance of any kind, just studio work) but here goes: I have two microphones on the floor facing the soundboard of my wire-strung harp, about six inches away and they are the same make and model (Shure Unidyne 5155B), so they create the stereo image. They are pointed directly at the bottom sound holes of the harp and are spaced roughly a foot apart. Then I have an electret condenser mike positioned near the top of my harp about six to eight inches away to pick up the highs and lastly, I use my harp’s built-in piezo-electric pickup.
I do have a hybrid studio, which means I use both reel-to-reel tape and digital hard disk recording. I started with tape, and added computer programs later. I use Sonar pretty extensively and like it a lot, but then I do a lot of multitrack work, which you may not end up doing. I think Sonar is easy to learn (it was for me), but that was my experience with it. I mix with Sonar, master with WaveLab and convert to mp3 with RealAudio converter. Audacity comes in handy for various audio editing tasks.
It depends on what type of recording you want to do. Again, this is all I do, so I have a pretty elaborate set-up. If you visit my website it will give you a better idea than what I’ve tried to describe here (pictures, etc.).
But others may have some suggestions for a simpler setup too.
Hi Bay (and Angela and Tacye),
We have a woodstove downstairs. My harp is upstairs, along with a hygrometer. We have a large humidifier in the same room with the woodstove and it goes through about two gallons daily in the winter. I live in Vermont and the humidity can drop pretty low in the winter. There’s another small humidifier in the same room with my harp and like Angela says, I try to keep it in the middle somewhere, around 50% or so. I found it’s happy even at 60%. Beyond that – hot, humid summers where it gets to around 75% or so, then I have to run the air conditioner.Hi Aaron and Niina,
I don’t see a way to post pictures on the forums, so I’ve added a picture of my Paraguayan harp on my profile page under Instruments. It’s the second one. Finally had a nice day so I could get outside and take a few pictures. Also added a little write-up about the harp as well.Hi Angela,
Can you hunt the web for a used Zenon Chromatina quartz tuner? That’s what I use on my wire harp. I get it very accurate with that. I’ve heard they’re not made anymore, but if you comb eBay you might be able to come across one. They cover seven octaves and can do 415Hz, 440 Hz, plus some higher ones.I like to check my tuning by octaves, and start with the bottom-most strings first, work up to the middle C pair, then start down from the top G and arrive at the middle. It goes pretty quick that way. It’s like a suspension bridge – the tension on one part is dependent on that in another. So I try to balance it out without the tension going up too fast and coming near the breaking point! I’ve never heard of Bochsa. Just trial and error…
I don’t rely 100% on my tuner – if it says I’m off by a few cents but I can hear (and feel) that the octaves are in unison I leave it alone. Sometimes for the very lowest bass notes I might intentionally leave it a little bit off by a few cents because it shimmers a bit, in a kind of pleasant way. But not by a lot, or it can be pretty jarring!
Hi Niina,
That is just a lovely video you have – I like the way you arranged the pop music. Very beautiful harp, with the carving! You’re playing concert harp every day too?
On the video it sounds a bit like you are doing some of the clairseach fingernail damping technique? I hear you about nails. I broke one earlier this week, so I’m off recording for a few days until it grows back a little more. The length affects my sound a lot. I haven’t had a lot of luck with glue-on nails. I tried them and I wasn’t getting the tactile sense I needed. So I just wait for the nail to come back. Fortunately they grow fast!
When I restrung my Paraguayan, I actually did it with red C’s and blue F’s, even though I knew it was normally the other way around for that instrument! I figured since I would be learning the clairseach next (and mine also has the colored strings), I would just be confusing myself and never learn the note colors properly. First time on a harp coming from my keyboard background then.
The pop music does sound good on them, I agree!
I am thinking of using the Paraguayan alongside the wire harp on a few tracks and see how they sound together.
Good to know there is nothing really amiss with my instrument. It holds tune really well. Maybe I will try playing higher up instead of closer to the sound board as I usually do.
Hi Nina,
Thanks for posting the video link. I tried to get a sense from the video what the correct tension of a Paraguayan harp should be (see my earlier posting to Aaron on that) and I think maybe my harp is a little bit lighter strung than this one. The harp in this video has a brighter tone.Any ideas on how to deal with that? They are nylon strings.
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for the links. I’ve bookmarked them already. I found that pretty interesting that the the Robert ap Huw manuscript calls for five different tunings – I guess I just assumed Welsh harps of those days were pretty much set to one tuning. I have Paul Dooley’s CD. Lovely music, that.
The harpbuilder’s site is something too – didn’t know harp necks broke occasionally when they’re brought up to tension the first time! But I guess you wouldn’t necessarily be able to see inclusions in the wood grain; just have to assume it’s a quality piece of material you’ve got to work with.
I also have a Paraguayan harp (which I haven’t played as much lately) and when the light gets better – the weather’s been gloomy – I’ll take a picture of it in natural light and post it. It has a rather light tension. Is that normal for Paraguayan harps? The strings seem a little floppy to me, but the tension improves as you go further up. Are the bottom strings primarily resonators? Sorry to ask, but actually this harp belongs to my husband and he acquired it before we met. (He’s a church organist and carillonneur, not a harpist.) I think it was a harp looking for a home and no one wanted it so he was willing to take it. It desperately needed new strings so I ordered a complete new set from Vermont Strings in 2007 and changed all of them. Some of the old strings were broken; the remaining ones were very hardened and stiff. I learned to play on the Paraguayan before I got my Luna. It has the guitar tuning pegs like the one shown in Nina’s video link below.
