Damping a harp

[Ludger_Vollmer]

Dear friends, the note a in a harp score I want to damp with the hands, so that we have a very short note. Unfortunately the playback of the note is extremely long. What can I do? Thanks!

[jesele]

There are some different options on this site. Perhaps create a Playing Technique with staccatissimo as a Playback technique.

Jesper

Damp all strings / HARP NOTATION

Or there is a damp symbol under Unpitched Percussion with a Damp Playback technique. Guess it depends on the Sound library if it’s implemented.

And a damp technique. Has no playback effect in Noteperformer, though.

[Ludger_Vollmer]

Thanks! But unfortunately, none of these methods have any effect on the playback; the note still sounds extremely long.

[arco]

If all else fails (you might get other suggestions below though), you could create a “hidden” stave mapping to a VST with short notes where you have changed the envelope so it is a quick sound. Assign that actual note in the score to not play, suppress playback.
Are you using NotePerformer? or Halion? or another library?

I was playing with harp samples a few days ago (Halion) and was playing around with different samples trying to determine what I wanted, some were shorter than others. I assume you can change the length of the triggered sample to shorter in the editor for your purpose.

[Janus]

@Ludger_Vollmer

But unfortunately, none of these methods have any effect on the playback; the note still sounds extremely long.

Playback is determined by the capabilities of the sound library irrespective of what is written in the score. If there is no ‘damped’ option in your VST, there is really not much you can do.

[MarcLarcher]

I know I created an expression map for the Pianoteq’s Harp. Muffled strings are dampened strings, IIRC

This example shows it’s not too complicated to add a line for that effect to really happen in your file. It depends on the library you’re using (read the manual of your library!)

[Vadian]

The Iconica Sketch Harp has a stop key switch (B-1) which can be used to damp the harp.

[Janus]

@Vadian

Iconica Sketch Harp has a stop key switch (B-1) which can be used to damp the harp.

Except I can’t get it to do anything!
I can get it to trigger, but there’s no affect… Perhaps It needs to be triggered after the note has sounded?

[Vadian]

@Janus

but there’s no affect…

Indeed, I was too rashly, sorry

But it works by applying a Piano pedal line and hide it.

[mavros]

With libraries having a separate damping/stop key putting this as a a hidden note with the damping sign on it worked for percussion instruments for me but I never succeeded using the sign on the actual hits.

May the feature of sounding length vs written length can help to some extend,