Nordic Folk Strings features 2 models of tagelharpa, Bass Tagelharpa and Standard Tagelharpa. The former features a darker, lower sound whereas the latter presents a more typically Vikingreminiscent tone. Both have been sampled at different time ranges, with different kind of rhythms (straight and triplets) , different tunings and tones.

Rather than sampling long sustained notes, in Nordic Folk Strings we have sampled rhythmic movements, in order to preserve the raw authenticity of the tagelharpa. The movements loops are tempo synched to the DAW and can be combined creatively by using our custom scripted Rhythmic Legato and the innovative Movements Sequencer.

8 Kontakt instruments
The 8 Kontakt instruments featured in Nordic Folk Strings are organised as follows.

Bass Tagelharpa
- Slow 80-110 bpm – Straight rhythm
- Slow 80-110 bpm – Triplets rhythm
- Fast 110-130 bpm – Straight rhythm
- Fast 110-130 bpm – Triplets rhythm

Standard Tagelharpa
- Slow 80-110 bpm – Straight rhythm
- Slow 80-110 bpm – Triplets rhythm
- Fast 110-130 bpm – Straight rhythm
- Fast 110-130 bpm – Triplets rhythm

“Slow” and “Fast” movements can be used outside of the recommended tempo range, at any bpm. The 48 kHz 24 bit sampling and the High Quality Time Stretch in Kontakt preserve the quality of the sound even outside of the recommended tempo ranges.

“Straight” instruments feature 5 available Movements, whereas “Triplets” instruments feature 3 movements. Different tunings are available for both the bass and standard tagelharpa. As the droning strings and the soloist string have been sampled separately, the selection of the droning strings tuning determines the root key.

Movement Sequencer
All the 8 instruments in Nordic Folk Strings feature a Movements Sequencer, a creative and innovative tool to seamlessly combine movements and create new ones from scratch. At each step, a different “chunk” of movement is played, according to its position against the reference timing (more on this in the “Rhythmic Legato” section).

The Movements Sequencer can be used in two ways: with to beat and to keys. With to beat, the sequencer is driven at a regular timing whereas with to keys the sequencer moves to next step everytime a new note is played.

Both the options can create virtually endless rhythmic and melodic combinations.

Rhythmic Legato
Nordic Folk Strings introduces an innovative functionality to play seamless melodies with the movement loops : the Rhythmic Legato.

Simply put, once a movement is selected, if the notes/loops are played in a legato fashion (adjacent notes briefly overlapping), the basic movement rhythm keeps going seamlessly in background. Instead of having the loops always starting from the beginning when a new note is played, the Rhythmic Legato script offsets the loop according to when it has been played against the reference rhythm of the movement.

The result is equivalent to “comping” the audio loops in real time to achieve realistic and smooth phrases. Just press PLAY in the DAW and play a legato melody to immediately spark new ideas.

By combining the Rhythmic Legato and the Movements Sequencer, it is possible to come up with virtually endless new movements and playing melodies “into” them.

Nordic Folk Strings provides an ultra-realistic rendition of the tagelharpa combined with performance and writing flexibility. It can be used for traditional epic music as it can be pushed to write articulated and complex parts. Or you can get creative with the timbre by experimenting with the Tone Selector (Clean and Gnarly tone).

Nordic Folk Strings is for composers and music producers looking for the iconic strings sound of traditional nordic music. It evokes images of vast frozen lands from the Viking age and scenes of ancient battlefields.

IMPORTANT: Nordic Folk Strings requires the FULL version of Kontakt 6.6.1 or higher!
It will NOT work with the FREE Kontakt Player!

home page: https://silenceandothersounds.com/products/nordic-folk-strings