Custom Laser Harps and Custom Laser Harp Installations

            The only builder of Custom Laser & Light Beam Harps in the world.

 We custom build very special Multi-media MIDI Laser Light harps that have red or green laser beams instead of strings. These laser harp systems can trigger any type of audio or visual event, image, sounds or music, up to 70 times per second.

We build three types of Laser Light Beam Harps, 'framed' and 'infinite beam versions, as well as our new Hybrid models, that include both types of interaction. We use low powered 5mw red and green lasers, which are referred to as Class II lasers by the USA FDA, which are safe for public interaction with, when installed in a laser harp.

Here on this page you will see a few of the projects that we have created. Since we specialize in one-of-a-kind custom Laser Harps, please feel free to be as creative and expansive in your ideas and dreams as you can be ! :-)

 For installation in your Science or Children`s Museum, we can design a compact lap or floor sized laser harp that looks just like a harp. Or we can design for you a laser harp installation in a shape that is very sculptural and stream lined. For example in a large open "C" shape, or any other shape that you have in mind.
Or for a entirely different approach, your Laser Harp installation could be in the shape of a grand old Oak tree, carved from figured Maple or Myrtle wood, with the lasers shinning down from the branches, onto the sensors in the exposed tree roots !

For Performing with a Laser Harp on Stage

For playing on stage as a midi performance instrument, your Laser Light Harp can be custom designed to fit your needs in just the size and configuration that you desire. We can also build you a harp with strings, that is also electro-acoustic, with lasers installed as well.

It is also possible to design a laser harp with a very slim all-metal structure, that allows the player to move their entire body through the harp. This type of laser harp could be designed to allow it to be folded for easy transport, when performing on the road. If you are interested in this approach, just write or call for more details, and to let us know what your needs are.

Let us know all your ideas and design requirements, we look forward to bringing your special Laser Harp project to Life, for All your Educational, entertainment or stage performance needs ! ;-)

The Laser Harp shown above on the left is a custom 28 Laser harp with both Red and Green Lasers. Shown with theatrical haze

The harp at right, and at bottom is a custom carved laser harp, with 8 red lasers, created for the 'Strong National Children`s Museum of Play', in Rochester NY. It was created to be "The Giant`s Harp", from "Jack and the Beanstalk

New model for Stage Performances being developed for the Fall of 2010

 I am working a new Laser Harp design, that I will begin offering this fall, for a portable all-stainless steel Laser Harp, with both 'framed' and unframed' elements to the design. This Laser Light Harp will be easily assembled from four pieces of polished highly reflective Stainless Steel, assembling to make a structure that will stand up top 12 feet high. The  very slim and low profile operating control panel is also made of Stainless, and is supported between the two angled upright narrow profile support pieces at a comfortable playing height at about four feet from the floor

Imagine,..... eight Green lasers shooting up in a spreading fan of brilliant green Light,  to sensors overhead, and the stainless steel top rib reflecting and splitting the over-splash of the beams to shine all over and above the audience in a performing space...you break those beams, trigger waves of music chords, sounds of space and nature, while also with the same beams triggering visual projectors to display large images moving on the scrim at the back of your stage,...... while the Brilliant Green Laser Beams you are breaking are also being reflected to other sensors on your control console to trigger secondary programming, including volume /pitch change via the level of reflected Laser Light. All the while, the over splash form the Green Lasers is flashing off the highly reflective Steel.

 All of this in a streamlined space-age very slim and low profile, stainless steel frame ! ;-)

The software we use has the capacity to respond to a break of a laser beam up to 70 times per second. You can program up to 60 events per 'song', with an endless number of possible 'song' combination of any type of audio-visual event, image, video, sound sampled wave files, etc. The software is fully programmable with an on-screen syntheses and wave file editor, available to pre-program an endless Varity of sound and visual scapes of any type of audio or visual event file or element.. This Laser Light Harp model will have 16 channels available. Our software can control three LCD or other type of projectors from one lap top, computer when an extra video card is installed.

Laser Harp shown above: This is a Carved Myrtle wood Laser Harp with 8 green Lasers. It is currently for sale and available for $15,000, complete with software and all multimedia control equipment, ready to hook to a Laptop computer and sound system. This harp is about 38 inches tall, designed to be installed on a cabinet, or display counter about four feet tall. The bass part is designed to be secured from below, with the powered supply and connection to the computer feeding out the bottom of the harp.

'Framed' Laser Harps

In this type of laser harps, the lasers shine onto optic sensors, located on the "sound board" of the harp. The lasers are located in the neck of the harp, shining down on the "string rib". The lasers are generally set about 2 to 3 inches apart, (the spacing can be customized, depending on how you wish to use the harp).

 A 'framed' laser harp can be designed and created in almost any shape or size that will allow a stable beginning and end point for the laser beam and it`s sensor. And that will allow you to break that laser beam, and thus trigger the midi event or sound you have programmed, with your hand or in any other way.

A room sized installation could be designed and custom built, with the lasers shining down from an elevated structure, down to sensors set on the floor, or from one wall to another.

We can build these harps in any style and size, and we can also create a carved and sculpted laser  harp that has a 'look' or style like any of the many custom harps I have built over the last thirty years.

 These harps are usually designed and built to be in a harp-like shape, but almost any possible shape or style, size or configuration is possible. Let me know what design, or  concept you might have in mind! A room sized installation could be designed and custom built, with the lasers shining down from an elevated structure, down to sensors set on the floor, or from one wall to another.

 Custom Laser harp with 8 red lasers, created for the "Children`s Hospital of the King`s Daughters", in Virginia Beach Virginia, 2008.

'Infinite Beam' Laser  Beam Harps

We am working on some new designs for using lasers beams in what is referred to as an infinite beam type laser beam harp. In this type of harp the lasers  beams are pointed up in a fan shaped pattern, fanning out away from each other, from a compact harp body. In this type harp the laser beams are reflected back to optic sensors set into the body of the harp. The number of sensors is only limited by the number of midi channels in the midi controller system hooked up to the harp. the usual is 8, 16 or 32 channels. The number of light or laser beams in this type of harp can be from 8 to 32.

Micro Adjustable laser Mountings

 The most important thing with an Laser Harp is that the frame or body of the harp, that supports the lasers and the optic sensors must be perfectly stable, in order to maintain the perfect aim of each laser to it`s optic sensor. We use micro adjustable aiming fixtures, to allow the lasers to be easily adjusted to be on target to the sensors.

We can custom design the height and size of your own Laser Harp, to fit your individual playing style and travel needs. Please inquire with us about your needs and ideas !

In its simplest form, a Laser Beam Multi-media MIDI Harp is a light controlled switch. When a beam is interrupted and broken, or reflected back to an optic sensors, in the 'infinite beam' type, a signal is created, which activates previously selected events.

This harp above, is playing various sampled Virtual DJ, James Brown samples and other vocals, with several different background loops, that can be changed by breaking the bottom beam repeatedly. This programming also has a "record scratching" type of effect, where every time you break some of the beams, the sound can repeat like when a DJ plays or "scratches" a record.