Soundiron Waterharp is a deeply multi-sampled Kontakt library capturing a waterphone’s eerie tones via mallets, bows, hydrophones, and boiling water, plus crafted ambiences. It is ideal for suspense, horror, and sound design.
Instrument and Core Articulations
The Waterharp library is built around the waterphone, an invented percussion instrument from the late 1960s. Its brass chamber and vertical tines produce darkly harmonic or dissonant tones when struck, strummed, or bowed. The library captures this instrument in exhaustive detail, with articulations played using rubber, metal, and wooden mallets, fingers, palms, and bows, recorded both with and without water in the chamber.
A standout feature is the hand-played “Metal Tabla” articulation, with many velocity layers and round-robin variations. Bowing sustains, staccatos, and legato notes are included, as are bowing sweeps with slow, medium, and fast speeds. Bowing effects with grinding tine buzz, magnets, vocals, and even boiling water at four temperature levels offer extreme sonic diversity. Mallet sweeps and hydro-mallet performances expand the percussive range.
Hydrophone and Water Experiments
A unique aspect of this library is its use of hydrophones, underwater microphones, to capture the waterphone from inside out. These recordings were made while the instrument was filled with water and even while being cooked over an open flame. Additional experiments included filling the chamber with machine screws to alter resonance and timbre. These source recordings form the basis for many of the library’s most unusual and evocative sounds.
The hydrophone bowing effects and hydro-vocal drones, phrases, and other performances provide textures that are impossible to achieve with conventional microphones. By capturing the instrument in such unconventional states, Soundiron has created a palette that is both unpredictable and deeply atmospheric. The contents also include custom ambiences from Steven Tavaglione, known for work on films like Wall-E and American Beauty.
Sound Design and Effects Presets
Beyond the raw articulations, the library features a substantial collection of ambient soundscapes, pads, drones, ambiences, and atmospheres. These are hand-crafted from the original waterphone recordings using creative sound design techniques. This transforms the waterphone from a purely percussive instrument into a source for evolving, textural beds suitable for film scoring and electronic music.
The effects presets include dynamic waveform display with real-time playback and offset cursor, aiding precise sound shaping. An integrated arpeggiator system is included in every tuned and strike percussion preset, offering a wide range of mode, sequencing, and time signature options. Automatable controls for attack, release, edge, filter, and vibrato come standard, alongside a convolution reverb with many custom halls, rooms, and special effects impulses.
Workflow and Compatibility
This library is designed for the full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt, version 5.1 or later. It is an open-format library, meaning the free Kontakt Player does not fully support it and will run it only in a limited demo mode. However, the sample directories are unlocked, allowing use of the WAV files in other software. The standard File browser tab can be used to load presets.
Presets are optimized with an easy articulation menu loading system, putting each category at your fingertips. The graphical user interface is fully featured and automation-ready in your host environment or Kontakt’s standalone mode. System requirements include a dual-core CPU, at least 3GB RAM, and a SATA or SSD hard drive recommended. This is a digital download, requiring a broadband connection.
Key features
- Multi-sampled waterphone with bow, mallet, and hand articulations
- Hydrophone recordings from inside the water-filled chamber
- Recordings with boiling water and machine screws
- Bonus pads, soundscapes, atmospheres, and ambiences
- Arpeggiator system in tuned and strike presets
- Automatable attack, release, edge, filter, vibrato, and convolution reverb
- Unlocked WAV samples for customization in other samplers
Best for
Best for composers and sound designers creating suspense, horror, or sci-fi scores, as well as experimental ambient music. Its eerie waterphone timbres, textured drones, and unconventional sound effects make it a powerful tool for adding unsettling, organic tension to film, TV, game audio, or any project requiring dramatic sonic depth.