Here is the complete list of the best free harp VST’s and sample libraries:
- St. David’s Harp Hollow Sun
- Versilian Studios Etherealwinds Harp II
- DAT: Microharp
- Decent Samples: Bowed Nagoya Harp
- Sonatina Symphony Orchestra Harp
- DSK Music: DSK World StringZ
In this article we’ll cover the best free harp VSTs & sample libraries around. If you want to see a bigger list of free vst plugins, check out our huge list of 250 free vst plugins.
Contents
St. David’s Harp by Hollow Sun
Hollow Sun’s St. David’s Harp is not going to be your main, go-to harp sound. Rather than going for a rich and lush orchestral harp, Hollow Sun have sampled a Celtic folk Harp from rural Wales.
With a subtle tone, St. David’s Harp has been multi-sampled from a custom artisanal Welsh instrument, and uses their newest synth engine.
While you don’t have multiple velocity layers or round robins, it’s been extensively sampled, to deliver a natural and crystal clear tone.
Like most of the plugins on this list, St. David’s Harp is a Kontakt Library, and you can get it for free on the Hollow Sun website, right now!
How does it sound?
Etherealwinds Harp II CE by Versilian Studios
Versilian Studios’ original Etherealwinds Harp became so popular and beloved, that they had to make a V2.
The new version updates the interface and the sound, delivering what the team calls “possibly the most complete lever harp library in existence”.
Etherealwinds Harp II Community Edition is a good candidate to be your main harp VST.
With 255 samples over 5 octaves as well as an amp envelope, reverb and pan, you’ll rarely be left looking for more.
While the CE or Community Edition is stripped back from their paid full package, it still delivers, to keep the original freeware spirit of the plugin, alive.
The only standalone VST plugin on our list, Etherealwinds Harp II CE is a great addition to your production toolkit.
How does it sound?
Microharp by Dream Audio Tools
Another Celtic harp on our list, Microharp from Dream Audio Tools is a super simple, yet, in-depth harp Kontakt library.
Meticulously sampled with four round robins for each articulation, you can play the Microharp with both a picked and fingered articulation.
You can also patch these together, to mix between both fingered and picked tones.
DAT also includes a delay and reverb unit inside of Microharp, to play with. While that’s it for the FX, Microharp is great with added processing after.
While this will not be your main harp for classical styles of music, it is useful to insert some ethnic textures and tones to your music.
How does it sound?
Bowed Nagoya Harp by Decent Samples
Not a classic harp sound in any way, the Nagoya Harp or Taishogoto is a staple in Japanese folk music.
Decent Samples’ Bowed Nagoya Harp is an awesome and unique Kontakt library, that delivers the sound of a Nagoya Harp being played with a Violin Bow
In terms of sound, a bowed Nagoya harp is super unique and bound to insert some awesome textures and layers to your music.
While it sounds awesome, longer held notes can have a noticeable loop, but some post-processing can help with that. In addition to the usual ADSR controls as well as a custom convolution reverb, you also get to choose the levels of the two microphones used to record the samples.
The mics used were a Contact Microphone and an Oktava mic. Both mics are quite different in their sonic characteristics, but they’re fun to mix together and experiment with, to dial in the perfect sound, for your needs.
How does it sound?
Sonatina Symphony Orchestra Harp
Around 10 years ago, Mattias Westlund released his awesome free orchestral kontakt libary. While the original is no longer available, an updated version is still available from BigCat Instruments.
In addition to the original samples from the Sonatina Symphony Orchestra, BigCat have added samples that were put up on Mattias’ blog, after the release of the original SSO.
The Concert harp sound in Sonatina Symphony Orchestra is just as great-sounding as the other instruments. And believe us, there are a lot of them, from Choir voices, to percussion, woodwinds etc. Orchestra Harp is an instant road to symphonic textures
While the original was aimed at beginner producers, Sonatina Symphony Orchestra is more than that, offering an incredible variety of instruments, that are well recorded, for entirely free.
If you don’t have any orchestral sounds yet, downloading Sonatina Symphony Orchestra is a no-brainer.
How does it sound?
DSK World StringZ
World StringZ by DSK Music is a collection of eight world instruments, namely, the Cumbus, Dobro, Kanun, Koto, Dulcimer, Tar, Turkish oud and Celtic Harp.
All these instruments are a sure-fire way, to insert intriguing string textures from all around the world. And, the variety in tone of each is fantastic.
The string sounds you get with World StringZ are:
- Celtic harp
- Cumbus
- Dobro
- Kanun
- Koto
- Dulcimer,
- Tar
- Turkish oud
An awesome addition to any producers toolkit, World StringZ is probably the best collection of free world instruments. The sounds are inspiring and a quick way to add a particular sounding folk vibe to your music.
In addition to the usual ADSR controls, you also get a HP and LP filter, which are fully automatable. In addition to this, you also have a fine-tune control, but sadly, no reverb or delay.
We usually like to add a Valhalla Shimmer or VintageVerb after this, to further increase the mysterious and earthy tones of these instruments.
How does it sound?
Finishing Up
Here are our favorite Free Harp VST’s and Sample Libraries:
- St. David’s Harp Hollow Sun
- Versilian Studios Etherealwinds Harp II
- DAT: Microharp
- Decent Samples: Bowed Nagoya Harp
- Sonatina Symphony Orchestra Harp
- DSK Music: DSK World StringZ
We hope you’ve enjoyed this list of the 6 best free harp VST plugins and Kontakt libraries. Whether you’re looking for a classical concert harp vst or an out-there folk instrument from Africa or Asia, you should have found the harps you were looking for.
From orchestral tones to oriental plucks, these harps are the best of what free harp vst plugins and sample libraries have to offer.
With that being said, we hope you’ve already downloaded one or two of these and can start to utilize them in your music right away. Moreover, you can checkout BOOM Library ENRAGE With amazing sound libraries and awesome VST plugins for quite some time.
Toms is a music producer & DJ, born and raised in Post Soviet Latvia. Currently based in Brighton, Toms has had over 6 years of experience with all things production and in that time, he’s done a tonne of cool stuff! He’s played multiple festivals, had experience in the field with mixing & mastering and even become a freelance journalist in the music industry.
Toms currently creates music under the alias Sovereign. Producing music that’s intimate and subtle, while full of edge and energy, the young producer combines the artistic sounds of Trip Hop artists like Massive Attack, with the energy and youthfulness of producers like Flume, Jamie XX and Yaeji. You can check his stuff on Soundcloud.
