Hey guys!
I recently have had to sell my Piano since I have moved to a new city where I will not be able to make any more recordings. I will be moving back to using VST pianos, but haven't recorded on them for a while. I have used in the past with some of my releases, Noire and the Woodchester Piano. I also have Labs soft and felt pianos and the Una Corda. I would like to use more of an original sound, perhaps layering different VSTs to make more of a unique and realistic feel.
I'd love to know what you all use, and if you have any suggestions?
I usually begin writing in logic with a mix of:
• Noire Felt, with some adjustments to the mechanical & felt noises.
• The Gentleman Upright, with the lid shut and the colour turned to about 10 o'clock.
It's worth playing around with some of the resonances and tones to find a nice balance. I find The Gentleman adds a nice mid-range and the Noire gives some clarity.
I've never actually been satisfied enough with the results to release a solo piece made with MIDI piano. I usually take what I've written and notate it up to record on my acoustic piano. It works as a nice starting point though and is the closest I've come to replicating a real piano. On some scores, I've blended that with Spitfire's Cinematic Soft Piano (quite low in the mix) as it adds some really nice mechanical noises and a bit of "umph" to the sound.
Worth noting though that the more blends of piano you add the more out of phase the piece is going to get as each VST has a different rate of attack from the samples.
Some other notable mentions are:
• Una Corda
• Westwood Upright Felt (this has some really nice imperfections in the samples that I haven't heard on many VST pianos)
• Garritan Abbey Road Piano (not a felt piano, but has a bold sound)
There are a lot of great pianos on https://www.pianobook.co.uk it's a free community site run by Christian Henson from Spitfire Audio. Speaking of them ... many of their Spitfire Originals Pianos are very good and not too much money either. I agree with Adrien, layering piano sounds can get some great results.
Hey Cameron, I'm quite a fan of layering VSTs. I'm always going for that now, it makes the sound much more interesting, full, and it doesn't sound like everyone's piano ^^ Currently I only have one released piece with this approach (La Vallee du Vent) but each upcoming releases will be a mix of Noire, The Gentleman, and Olafur Arnalds Toolkit :) Have fun experimenting!
I've only used Noire so far but i'm still experimenting since i don't know much. Excited & curious to see what others have to say! 👀