Nine Inch Nails' Piano- How to?

[tristancalvaire]

I've really wanted my own copy of the Nine Inch Nails' processed piano, used on tracks like the end of "Closer" or the beginning of "Every Day is Exactly The Same." I see there were a few threads on it here a few years back, but I haven't been able to figure it out from them alone.

So, before I spend hours upon hours layering tack piano samples, pianos with extra-modulated vibrato, filters, tape emulations and distortions and the like, probably ending up with something with terrible usability- is there a specific technique that would work well for getting this piano? Or perhaps a sample pack I could load into EXS24?

Your advice is much appreciated!

The sound is here-


I realize that there's a bassier sound underneath the piano (and of course the creative vocal sampling afterwards); I'm mainly looking for a way to create that very thin, ghostly piano by itself.

P.S. Is it a mellotron sample? I have no idea if a mellotron piano existed, but the processing certainly sounds... mellotrony.

[David]

Can't listen to that video right now but the piano at the end of closer is a detuned piano sampler instrument. I remember synthesizing one just like that on my old K2000 (which NIN used all the time when they recorded those albums) by simply forcing samples to incorrect pitches, for example using a C3 sample for an F3, a B3 for a G3 etc... or maybe it was only higher samples transposed down... then messing around with the tunings some more.

[tristancalvaire]

Can't listen to that video right now but the piano at the end of closer is a detuned piano sampler instrument. I remember synthesizing one just like that on my old K2000 (which NIN used all the time when they recorded those albums) by simply forcing samples to incorrect pitches, for example using a C3 sample for an F3, a B3 for a G3 etc... or maybe it was only higher samples transposed down... then messing around with the tunings some more.

That gave me the interesting idea of seeing what I could do using the Vocal Transformer. Running Logic's Pop Piano preset through it, I get some interesting sounds by changing the formant; Boosting it over an octave gives it a Sitar-like feel; decreasing it within an octave gives it a dissonance similar to the NIN song.

I'm also experimenting with chaining two VocalTrf; I change both the pitch and formant in the first one, then use the second one to bring the sample back to its original pitch. I find that large changes don't result well, however, so if I boost by say +15 semitones in the first plug-in, I'll make the second one a -3 change rather than -15.

It generates some pretty neat effects, and can emulate the NIN sound fairly well- I'll be fooling around with it for a while.

[Eriksimon]

This is a cool example of "how it works" (should work?) on this forum: a question, an answer with some suggestions and further experimentation leading to results/discoveries. That's learning.