We’ve been doing a lot of work recently recording orchestra parts for Kalevala The Musical, a show inspired by Finnish Folklore. One of the unique aspects of Kalevala is that it heavily features the harp, an instrument far underrepresented considering its caliber of sheer beauty. We were happy to work with harpist Liann Cline to get the absolute best sound out of her instrument. We ended up putting an xy stereo pair at the front of the harp and our top shelf Neumann offset by a 45 degree angle as an additional mono mic.
The result could bring tears to your eyes! Seriously, it was easily one of the most beautiful sounds we’ve had the pleasure of capturing in our NYC recording studio. The harp is capable of deep rich notes as well as the most detailed mids and lighter than air high notes. Liann is incredibly talented, great to work with, and turned out to have roots in Michigan much like our own recording engineer, James Quesada.
After recording the harp parts for every track of this full-length musical, we’re as eager as ever to hear how the final product turns out for Kalevala The Musical! Follow @kalevalamusical for updates and @lianncline for more magical harp 🙂