INSTRUMENTS
Harpsichord
Harmonium
Prepared Piano
The 8 GB collection Special Keyboards offers a state-of-the-art approach to capturing exceptional, rare, but also classic sounds that every sound designer or composer should have.
The harpsichord has a famously bright sound, rich in overtones. This set is great for TV and filmscores, classic rock, and of course this is the definitive instrument for going “Back to Bach.” Recorded in Vienna’s own Silent Stage, the following single notes and repetition performances of a two manual harpsichord were recorded: 8’ register solo, 8’ double, and tutti (a combination of two 8’ registers and one 4’ register).
The harmonium is a free-reed instrument, meaning that air streaming past reeds of different lengths causes them to vibrate. Unlike organ pipes, the harmonium’s reeds produce more disharmonic overtones, creating a unique undulating sound.
The prepared piano is a technique introduced in 1949 by John Cage, where objects like erasers, nails, wire, paper, etc., are inserted between a piano’s strings in certain places, causing them to produce additional tones, harmonics, or percussive sounds. The Vienna team also treated the Bösendorfer grand piano with bare hands (e.g., glissandos over the strings) and with wood mallets in order to get a multitude of creative sounds and colors.
There are no Standard and Extended Library options, as in other Vienna Instruments collections; the Special Keyboards includes the full sets of samples along with the software instrument, featuring our exclusive Vienna Instruments engine.
