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Vintage children’s instruments

Channel the magic and mystery of childhood with this unique collection of playful sounds. Produced in collaboration with composer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey, Abacus offers a diverse array of lovingly sampled vintage children’s instruments from the early 19th century to the 1980s. With almost one hundred instruments selected from Richard’s personal collection, Abacus provides composers with an authentically nostalgic toolkit, perfect for fantasy, adventure, mystery, horror, storytelling, gothic, animation, historic, educational, or family-centric television advertising.

BF24:

94,50 €

Ends December 4, 2024
Regular price 189,00 €

Created with Richard Harvey

Richard Harvey is a prolific composer and multi-instrumentalist who has collaborated with artists such as Hans Zimmer, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, and guitarist John Williams. He’s conducted, composed, orchestrated, and played on numerous film and television soundtracks, including The Lion King, The Little Prince, The Da Vinci Code, Prince Caspian, Disney's live action Mulan, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Richard is an expert player and collector of unique musical instruments, with an unparalleled collection of more than 700 instruments—old and new—from around the world. His previous collaborations with Orchestral Tools, Andea and Phoenix Orchestra, drew on his deep expertise in traditional instruments. Now through Abacus, Richard is sharing his incredible instrument collection with the composer community.

Highlights

42 unique and evocative instruments plus wide-ranging percussion ensemble
Consistent sonic aesthetic for all instruments
Includes exclusive rare and vintage instruments
5 mixable mic positions, including vintage spot mics
Unique chromatic musical boxes
Ideal for nostalgic and historic moods, but also for horror, fantasy, and more
Designed and created with Richard Harvey

A musical toy shop

While many of the instruments of Abacus were designed for children, they were performed and sampled by experts. All of the instruments are represented as faithfully as possible with actual pitch ranges plus instrument-specific mapping and articulations. They were captured through five mixable mic positions, giving you a high degree of control over the sound. In short, this collection is a cornucopia of playable nostalgia, perfect for fantasy, adventure, mystery, horror, storytelling, gothic, animation, historic, educational, or family-centric advertising.

Musical boxes
Musical boxes
In a way, the two antique wooden musical boxes are at the heart of Abacus. In order to sample their notes individually and accurately, the cylinders were removed and the notes were played with a dentist’s pick. Originally in 19th century high tuning, these boxes have been tuned to A440 making it easy to add their unique sound into any contemporary composition.
Tuned percussion
Tuned percussion
Set the perfect accents with three sets of bells—handbells, chapel bells, and a rare set of antique suspended bells from a Victorian country house. Metallophones of different sizes, xylophones, and kalimba provide even more melodic and rhythmic potential, slotting into the beautiful space where percussion, melody, and harmony overlap.
Wind instruments
Wind instruments
With its sweetly innocent tones, the recorder serves as a gateway into the world of music for many—including Richard Harvey. Abacus features two solo recorders, high and low recorder groups, and a crystal clear High G whistle for your most starry-eyed melodies. Create textural effects with the vintage melodica or add eccentric character with a handful of assorted whistles.
Plucked instruments
Plucked instruments
A special instrument that had its heyday in the 1920s and 30s, the banjolele combines the scale, tuning, and playability of a ukulele with the unmistakable timbre of the banjo—a unique sound for strummed chords or runs of notes. The concert ukulele gives you a more traditional ukulele sound, and the bass ukulele provides an inviting and warm low end.
Toy pianos
Toy pianos
There are four toy pianos in Abacus. Old, wooden, and magnificently preserved, The Baby toy piano looks like a miniature grand piano, but the sound is instantly identifiable and nostalgic. Although diatonic by design, it was sampled chromatically to maximize playability and utility. Each toy piano in this collection brings something unique to the table, perfect for setting moods from whimsical to sinister.
Percussion
Percussion
With a wealth of instruments including washboards, guiros, bongos, drums, bells, woodblocks, castanets, and even a toy banana shaker, the percussion collection includes everything from more conventional percussion to playfully inventive and sometimes whimsical accents.

All musicians are children

"When I wanted unusual, magical, even childlike effects, I often couldn’t find the sounds I needed. I've spent years sourcing the instruments to recreate those special, evocative, nostalgic echoes from my past or my imagination, and now I'm sharing this lovingly amassed collection, as high-quality samples, with my peers. Let me help you celebrate the child within!"―Richard Harvey

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Abacus by Richard Harvey

Vintage children’s instruments

Studio

SML Studio Surrey, London

Sale 50% off189,00 €94,50 €+VAT

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Not licensed
Licensed
  • Front Porch by Jakob Olofsson
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • L'enfant by Alex Lamy
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • Flight of Imagination by David Kudell
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • Oddball Fairy Tale by Susanne Hardt
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • The Exam by Emmanuel Jacob
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • Warm Prisms by Alex Niedt
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • Adventures Of Sebastion by Friedrich Gattermann
    Abacus by Richard Harvey
  • Cabinet De Curiosité by Julien Tabarani
    Abacus by Richard Harvey

Specifications

  • Works with Orchestral Tools’ SINE Player—NOTE: Very latest version required!
  • 63 GB of samples (19 GB SINEarc compressed)
  • 24 bit / 48 KHz patches
  • SINE system requirements:
  • Mac: macOS 10.13 or higher | Intel Core i5 or similar | Apple M1 chipset supported | At least 8 GB RAM (16 GB+ recommended)
  • Windows: Windows 10 | Intel Core i5 or similar | At least 8 GB RAM (16 GB+ recommended)
  • Formats supported: Standalone, VST, VST3, AU, AAX

Important

If you want to buy the Kontakt version of this collection, please note:

  • This is not the latest version of this collection - the SINE version might offer additional features not available here
  • We don't maintain and update the older Kontakt versions of our collections
  • You can upgrade this Kontakt version to the SINE version later for an additional upgrade fee*

*= Upgrade fee is around 10% of the regular collection price. This is due to doubled costs for downloads and licensing.

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