Harmoniac

The Harmoniac plugin was developed to be a physical model reed, wich can give harmonica sounds.

The VSTI version works as a simple synth. You load it in your favourite sequencer and feed it with midi notes.

The VST version uses audio input to feed the envelope follower. This gives you a much more natural control over sound. But you still need to feed it with midi to play a melody.

If you blow or sing without hitting a note on your keyboard, it won’t give any sound. If you hit keys but don’t blow, it won’t sound either. You need to load it as an insert effect on an audio track, fed by an audio input (a microphone is better than a guitar, but you’re free to do whatever you want).

If you choose to blow in your microphone, to feel like an harmonica player, I suggest you take your microphone in one hand and put the other hand as a cap on it, not touching it, and then blow between hand and microphone. This will prevent you to spit in your microphone.

Blowing and drawing won’t really change the sound, as the plug works with an envelope follower, but it’ll change the attack in a way that can make you hear interesting differences. Depending on your microphone, drawing can lead you to inhale a lot of dust; so be careful. You can also choose to “sing” into it, instead of blowing. It’ll give a louder volume, and can make sound variations at a low attack and decay settings, depending on the frequency of the sound you make.