HELENKO
PORTABLE CELESTE
FROM THE 1930S
If Björk could time travel, she'd take this 1930s CELESTE
Helenko places a rare tabletop celeste made in the USA in the 1930s in your DAW. Infuse your music with character and imperfect charm. Discover a sound that's recognizably yours while oozing that Trentemøller / Tom Waits / Björk vibe we all love.
overview
The acoustic side is just half of the story. Get inspired by the Afterglow patches - an atmospheric collection of multi-layered cinematic textures created entirely in the analogue domain.
the video shows an old version of the interface
If there’s a rule of thumb that could be applied to most instruments, the smaller they are, the more character they have. And the more character they have, the more attractive they are. All quirky noises and imperfections add up to max out the sonic interest.
the story
The original instrument folds into a nice suitcase, so you can take the celeste with you and let its magic unfold when the inspiration strikes you. It also features a protective lid, which you can weave over the resonator tubes to create tremolo effects in (or out of) sync with your music. The plugin replicates this with charming authenticity.
analogue warmth
out of the box
Helenko was recorded and processed entirely in the analogue domain, using the best tube kit created between the 1940s and 1969. Think of this as having access to a state-of-the-art all-analogue studio filled with unobtanium gear you always dreamed of.
THE PROCESS
Spend less time mixing and enjoy soundtrack-ready tones right out of the box. Enjoy the clanky keys and all the little imperfections and noises that make things sound human.
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Click to pick an articulation to explore.
INTERFACE
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Adjust the lid position to control the brightness of the sound.
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Adjust the volume of the key releases to find the perfect balance between realism and clunkyness.
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Animate the lid position with a built-in LFO, modeled after real human performance.
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Introduce a lo-fi pitch drift, similar to the sound of a warped vinyl.
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Fine-tune the response of the celeste to fit your playing style. Setting it it Human will give you a more realistic response, with just a bit of natural latency added.
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Choose an articulation from the list of available patches. The first row gives you acoustic playing techniques. The bottom row is all about experimental processed sounds.
ARTICULATIONS
AFTERGLOW
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Adjust the volume of additional layers introduced by the Mod Wheel or controller selected at the bottom of the interface.
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Select a controller to play the patch.
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All patches come with a little helping text to let you know what to expect.
ACOUSTIC ARTICULATIONS
The celeste was deeply sampled, focusing on maintaining human expression and natural imperfections. Enjoy the organic, hyper-real feel, thanks to multiple round robins and mechanical noises recorded on all acoustic articulations.
Close the lid for a darker, woody sound or move in sync with your track for beautifully organic tremolo effects. There’s also a swirly tremolo articulation recorded, accompanied by natural squeaks of the 90-year-old lid.
Imperfect, warm, and charming. Enjoy the sound of this 1930s celeste with no need for time travel.
The instrument’s lid weaved in random tempos to create chaotic volume swirls. Squeaky.
AFTERGLOW ARTICULATIONS
The Afterglow collection fuses experimental playing styles with analogue tape, vintage synths, vocals, and musique concrète techniques to create a MPE-ready collection of multi-layered, cinematic textures.
Enjoy the organic movement, dirt, and nostalgia flowing from underneath your fingertips. Get inspired by unexpected sound combinations, and help your music to stand out from the crowd. Boldly.
A beautiful pad crafted using an absurd analogue signal chain, with pitch-shifted vocals layered on top.
A pad crafted by pushing the recordings through some extreme time stretching, tape, a vintage pitch shifter, and an EMT reverb, smashed against the Polivoks with oscillators being detuned by hand to create tension.
Inspired by early tape manipulation techniques, I created the main bit of this sound by running the recordings through multiple echos, recording the outcome to tape while moving the tape away from the machine’s heads with a cotton swab.
For this patch, the celeste was resampled at 8-bit and brutally compressed with a massive 1940s Altec 322c tube limiter.
Don’t run your lovely celeste through a ring modulator. Ever.
* compatible with MPE and Expressive E Touché
SIMPLY THE BEST SOUNDING CELESTE PLUG-IN OUT THERE.
- Trentemøller
TRY IT OUT
Download the free trial and experience Helenko at your own studio.
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Helenko is a VST3 / AU / AAX plugin.
You’re going to need 2.21GB for the samples. Twice as much is required for setup.
Windows (10 or newer) and Mac (10.11 or newer). 8GB of RAM and an i5 or better CPU required. 64-bit only. MPE requires a compatible DAW. The download and setup are handled by Pulse, which makes it easy to manage all your Felt Instruments. The fiels are watermarked to you.
The plugin works in every major DAW that supports VST3, Audio Unit or AAX plugins, like Ableton Live 10 or newer, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, FL Studio, Studio One, Reason 12, Reaper etc.
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Helenko is sampled from a portable mid-century celeste. On acoustic articulations, the note range is C3 to C7 with 5 round robins per sampled note.
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Select Afterglow patches in Helenko are MPE-ready. You can use a controller such as the Roli Seaboard, Ableton Push 3, Haken Continuum, or Expressive E Osmose to control the Afterglow patches using polyphonic per-not expression.
To use this feature, assign CC74 to the Slide axis on your controller, flick on the MPE switch on the interface, and make sure that your DAW is compatible with MPE.
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There are no sales at Felt because I don’t think they’re fair to people who got the plugins earlier on. And those are the people who I want to support the most, which is why I offer loyalty pricing.
In a nutshell, purchasing the plugins gives you access to bundle upgrades and sweet discounts on new releases.
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I offer a 25% edu discount on individual products to students and educators. The discount will be valid for a year since it’s issued and will not work on the bundles as they’re already discounted. If you’re interested in edu pricing, please, send me a copy of your Student or Staff ID or a different proof of your enrolment and I’ll set you up.
Please, allow a few days for a response - Felt is a one-man company and support needs to get the priority treatment.