realsamples Presents Rare 18th Century Portable Mini Piano

German sample manufacturer realsamples releases a virtual copy of the Orphica portable piano as part of the Edition Beurmann.

Produced for merely about 15 years, the Orphica remains one of the rarest pianos today - worldwide, only 30 instruments have been preserved at the very most. The Orphica Piano library offers a very special little piano: Invented by Carl Leopold Röllig, the small portable piano type was built in Vienna in 1798. The instrument is taken from the famous collection of ancient instruments by Professor Andreas E. Beurmann.

Inventor Röllig was reminded of the "Lyre of Orpheus", so he chose the name accordingly for what happens to be a predecessor of today's portable keyboard. The instrument offers a slinky, charming and lively piano tone unlike any regular piano sound - thanks to its small size featuring three octaves, it has a different main focus: Twinkle-toed, yet present with chocolate-like mids and with the typical piano-like grace, it can be great for any piano track asking for a fresh, unconsumed sound.

To bring the Orphica into the sampler, realsamples captured the sound with 16 velocity layers of each note, representing the surprisingly expressive dynamic range. Furthermore, key release sounds were sampled chromatically with 8 variations per key to complete the virtual version of this marvelous little instrument.

To make this sound available to players worldwide, German collector Professor Andreas Beurmann and realsamples joined forces to offer a virtual version. Presets are available for all common sample formats including HAlion®, Kontakt2® and higher, EXS24® and GigaStudio3®.

Recorded in the great sounding rooms of the Hasselburg estate, custom-made Wagner™ U47w® tube microphones were used in conjunction with Crane Song™ Flamingo® preamps and Universal Audio™ 2192® digital converters, captured in 192 khz/24 bits resolution. Furthermore, the sample library contains essays from Beurmann himself, explaining both the historical and musical background of the instrument.

The Orphica Piano library is available in different resolutions, starting at 139.95 US $. The sample library can be purchased directly on the realsamples website.

Sound samples and information:http://realsamples.net/index.html?d\_613\_Orphica\_Piano\_\_\_Edition\_Beurmann272.ht m