European Historical Instruments: Dutch Harpsichord - NEW

Sample CD

The instruments of the Ruckers family represent the well-known and sought-after sound of Flemish harpsichords while ranking among the best harpsichords ever built. Their full and precious sound set out to influence the harpsichord designs in Spain, France, England and Germany.

Like all harpsichords, the Ruckers is not touch-sensitive. However, even if the differences are minuscule, not any given note will sound exactly the same due to different resonances of body and strings.

Until now, many keyboards and samplers represented harpsichords by always triggering off the exact same digital sample, leaving a cold and sterile sounding impression.

In order to improve upon previous recreations and to pay tribute to the liveliness and depth of this antique instrument, we captured every sampled register with up to 8 variations of each note.

To complete the harpsichord experience, we recorded every register with 4 different release samples of each note.

Remaining in excellent condition in the collection of Andreas Beurmann, it is now available for the first time for your sampler within the Dutch Harpsichord library, presented in its original valotti tuning at 372 Hz (presets at 440 Hz tuning included). The sample library contains nearly 3700 single samples.

Recorded in the great sounding rooms of the Hasselburg estate, we employed active tube-driven Royer® R-122V ribbon microphones and vintage Neumann™ TLM-170® microphones in conjunction with Crane Song™ Flamingo® preamps and Universal Audio™ 2192® digital converters to do the instrument justice.

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