New Virtual Instrument Recreates The Sound Of The Ancient Lyre Harp

8dio_lyre_poster8Dio Productions has introduced Lyre, a new virtual instrument for Kontakt.

The Lyre is a ancient Greek Harp, dating back to ancient Mesopotamia (2500BC). The earliest depiction of the a seven string Lyre was found in a sarcophagus in Crete (1400BC).

The classical Lyre has a soundbox/resonator and extending from this are two raised arms connected with a cross bar. The crossbar has strings attached to it – essentially making it a primitive harp.Here the official video intro to Lyre:

Here are the official audio demos:

8Dio deep-sampled the Lyre in a variety of finger positions, which each has a different attack and percussive quality, including Finger, Nail, Muted and Short Tremolo. The finger is more warm and soft – where as the nail and muted articulations are more pointy, percussive and defined. 8Dio also recorded 3 types of harmonics, slides, under bridge and bowed Lyre. In addition the Lyre also contains Glissandi FX, Bowed FX and Sound FX.

The Lyre was recorded with four microphone positions, including contact mics, inside close mics, semi-close and room mics. The end-result is 9.300+ samples. According to 8Dio, it is the most comprehensive Ancient Lyre ever sampled.

A micro-tuner is also included, so you can get traditional middle-eastern tunings for Lyre.

Lyre for Kontakt is available now for US $59. The full version of Kontakt 5.5 or later is required.

7 thoughts on “New Virtual Instrument Recreates The Sound Of The Ancient Lyre Harp

  1. Sampled from what? All the other video about lyre I have found has very different sound. If the lyre would had had the same sound as in this library, I think it would be still widely played and not “dropped” in flavor for other “modern” instruments.

  2. Sounds great. They did a very thorough job and have captured a very unique instrument. The muted sounds are so beautiful. I love the bowed sounds, too. They struck a nice balance between making a very clean sound set, but with some organic, sound-design elements, as well.

    I love that they used a Mid-Sid mic for the close mic. That is a great choice.

    2.7 GB of samples (compressed from 6.2 GB, I assume in a pretty non-destructive way). Seems like a steal at $55, especially if you need some acoustic harp tones in your music.

  3. Although what they’ve created is a pleasant sounding virtual instrument, unfortunately it sounds nothing like a real lyre – don’t take my word for it, just look up people on Youtube playing real lyres…

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