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How to get good sounding piano


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I am trying to get a good sounding piano. By this I mean a round, open, airy sound.

Here's a random example of what I am trying to get :

 

I tried all the stock pianos in logic. I've also tried downloading the VST "VSCO2 piano" from big cat.

 

I can't get anything to sound like this. All that I get either sounds too closed (like playing inside a bottle) or not round.

 

Do you guys have any tip? In particular I am wondering whether I should pursue my effort in the direction of

1) adding effect to the stock pianos of logic

2) look for a VST

 

Thanks

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I would try proper EQ adjustment.

Here the mid highs are rather prominent which purposely contrast with (Grand Corps Malade) slammer's bassy voice tone.

At the bridge (chorist solo) there is a soft bass (guitar) also playing in the background that gets more obvious at that moment, which perhaps could be the subtle roundness you are referring to.

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I would try proper EQ adjustment.

Here the mid highs are rather prominent which purposely contrast with (Grand Corps Malade) slammer's bassy voice tone.

At the bridge (chorist solo) there is a soft bass (guitar) also playing in the background that gets more obvious at that moment, which perhaps could be the subtle roundness you are referring to.

 

Hi Atlas, thanks for that suggestion. How would you go about that exactly? Should I add the "channelEQ" effect, and drag up the anchor point at 1k until it sounds good?

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Ok, thanks. So it's reasonable to just tweak all the anchor points, until it sounds right? There's no need to do/learn any more than that?

 

Hehe, I like that you make it sound like "that's all there is to it". :-D

 

Basically, yes, the idea is to tweak until it sounds good. If and when it sounds good to you, it IS good.

 

Note also that the Logic EQ has several useful presets specifically for piano (click in the "Factory Default" drop down menu at the top of the EQ window). Those are good starting points to get you going.

 

Also, experiment with adding a compressor behind the EQ (try the presets here, as well). Note that compressor and EQ interact, as compressors will react differently when different frequencies of the original signal are pushed, so you may be going back and forth a bit between the two.

 

Also key is a bit of nice stage or plate reverb at the end of the chain. Not too much, just a bit of depth.

 

 

Another thing to note is that depending on what you do, EQ and compressor may get the piano sounding exactly in the direction you want, but expose the limitations of the samples — the Logic pianos themselves just aren't terribly good to begin with. But they're tweakable with EQ/comp/reverb to be useful.

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I'm really not so much of a connoisseur of piano VSTs — I have an upright and a CP70 here for the "piano" toolbox, and until recently had access to a gorgeous Petrof concert grand if I needed that.

 

There are tons - the keyboard guys over at Music Player Network seem to love the Ravenscroft 275 ( https://www.vilabsaudio.com/Ravenscroft-By-VI-Labs ), which is also available in an iOS version.

 

I've played the Pianoteq physical modelling piano and was really impressed. Lovely. https://www.modartt.com/pianoteq

These are on heavy discount pricing every once in a while.

 

The Synthogy Ivory II is an old favourite for a lot of people. Not sure how it compares to the others these days. https://synthogy.com/index.php/products/software-products/ivory-2-grand-pianos

 

The only one I own is the Sonic Couture Hammersmith free, which is a sample-based piano that's really quite lovely, that I use occasionally when Logic/Mainstage's own somehow don't cut it.

https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/p322-hammersmith-free/

That one is indeed FREE, but they only make a limited number of copies available for a short period every once in a while. It's probably worth signing up to the newsletter for.

The Rocksichord from them is also cool.

 

People also love Keyscape, but while that also includes some nice acoustics, the package includes a whole slew of excellent vintage electric piano and mechanical keyboard emulations.

https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/keyscape/keyscape-models.php

 

I'm probably missing many great ones, but those are the ones on my radar.

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Following your advice, I feel I am starting to get a reasonable sound with the stock pianos of Logic Pro. The one thing missing is the low background noise that a real piano has.

 

I feel the very clean, perfect sound of the stock pianos make it sound not 100% realistic.

 

What is the best way to add this background noise? I tried using bitcrusher, at 14 bits. It seems reasonable, but I worry that a better hear than mine will hear the lower quality. Any opinion/tip on this?

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I have played some time trying different pianos.

None of them actually fill the space in the way that I want. So now I am thinking that it might actually be an effect, or a mixing technique, that gives the sound I want.

 

Here's another example of the type of sound I want :

 

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/pauvrediable/single-note-piano-gt/s-g5FIyTnE1sX[/soundcloud]

 

Is anyone able to tell how to get a sound like this?

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That is a VERY different piano tone than your original example and I fear you are over thinking this. Pull up one of many good stock piano's in logic and play with EQ presets and reverb presets until you find something you like. Composition and performance is 99.9% of the equation so hopefully you are spending most of your time on that.
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