Omiharp
Electronic Strum Machine
Part of Studies
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The original plugin with its own interface, as a one-time purchase.
Description
Omiharp is an electronic strumming instrument inspired by the 1981 Suzuki Omnichord. Hold a key and it strums a chord on a physically modeled pluck voice that can sound like anything from a harp to an acoustic guitar.
We went beyond the original Omnichord. The pluck voice has its own timbre controls, and the strum runs through a tremolo, a Moog-style filter and an echo. Besides the classic up and down strums, you can pick up-then-down, thumb-first, mirror and random patterns, over seven chord types.
Play it from a MIDI track. The strummer turns each key you hold into a chord pattern and plays it on the pluck string. The string goes through the tremolo, the filter and the echo to the output.
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Strummer
- PATTERN
- Picks the strum pattern, played once per key press. UP and DOWN strum the chord one way, and UP/DN goes up then down. 1ST-UP picks thumb first, alternating between the root and each next note upward. MIRROR alternates between the lowest and highest notes and works inward. RANDOM plays the notes in a new random order every second.
- SCALE
- Picks the chord the strum is built from, spread over two octaves: Major, Minor, Dom 7th, Major 7th, Min 7th, Diminished or Augmented.
- RATE
- Sets the strum speed. In HZ it's notes per second, from 0.5 to 20. In TEMPO it steps through divisions and multiples of your host's quarter note.
- SYNC
- Switches RATE between free-running HZ and TEMPO, which follows your host.
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Pluck string
- PLUCK
- Changes the attack of the string, from darker to more brittle and pronounced. It applies from the next note strummed.
- PICK
- Changes the sound slightly, from fingered to picked.
- REFLECT
- Sets the string's damping and internal resonance. Higher settings ring brighter and longer.
- DECAY
- Sets how long each plucked note takes to die away. It also applies from the next note strummed.
-
Tremolo
- TREM
- Sets the tremolo rate, from a slow 0.5 Hz pulse up to 4 Hz. The depth is fixed, so there's always some tremolo.
-
Moog filter
- TONE
- Sets the cutoff of the low-pass ladder filter, from about 200 Hz to 20 kHz. Most of its travel sits in the low range, for fine control over dark tones.
- RESO
- Sets the filter's resonance.
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Echo
- ECHO TIME
- Sets the delay time, up to 2.5 seconds, slightly offset between left and right.
- REPEATS
- Sets the feedback, from a single repeat to long trails.
- ECHO SEND
- Sets how much of the harp goes to the echo. The dry harp always stays in the mix.
-
Master
- OUTPUT
- Sets the level of the harp. High settings drive it into a soft clipper for a little saturation.
Try thisSet SYNC to TEMPO and PATTERN to MIRROR, then hold chords with a long ECHO TIME and REPEATS around the middle. The repeats pile up under each new strum.
In Studies
Omiharp is in Studies Instruments, under Synthesizer. Load it on a MIDI track.
Standalone
The standalone plugin, shown further down the page, has separate RATE (Tempo) and RATE (HZ) controls. In Studies they're one RATE knob with a SYNC switch.
- Formats
- Studies: Audio Units, VST2 and VST3 on Mac, VST3 on Windows · Apple silicon native
- Systems
- Current macOS and Windows 10/11 x64
Standalone version
The original plugin with its own interface, as a one-time purchase.
AU · VST2 · VST3 · macOS · Windows