Upright piano samples
There are lots of great, big sounding sampled pianos out there, but no homely sounding uprights. So we visited some old uprights and sampled them. We even used the old STC/Coles 4038 ribbon mic to record some of them.

These are sounds with character. They will not cut through in the mix, but they will help in providing a different atmosphere than most other piano libraries.

Here's a free demo comprising the individual samples of program 006 for you to map in to your sampler. The mp3 encoder we used added silence at the start, so strip that out yourself. You'll have to recreate the loop points using your sampler's autoloop function. Envelope settings are here.

If you do not have Halion, Kontakt or an Emu compatible sampler, you can purchase the Halion/ Kontakt format and map the sounds yourself. These sounds are already looped and are 16 bit uncompressed AIFF, unlike the demo above. Please contact us if you want the note mapping table.

MP3 demo tracks
Preset 004- DJ Shadow
Preset 003- Debussy
Preset 005- Scott Joplin
Jazz piano- solo by Mr. Thomas Hughes
Note: Reverb was added to the first two demos.

Upright Pianos CD ROM Contents
Preset 001: Hansons piano
Preset 002: Hansons forte
Preset 003: Hansons pf XSw- velocity switching p and f layers.
Preset 004: Hansons 717a
Preset 005: Ladbrooke 717
Preset 006: Hansons 717b (mono)

User comments

•Rich Aitken of Nimrod Productions: They're ace. Did the job wonderfully. (These guys created the soundtrack for the game and second series of "24". Rich used the pianos in two forthcoming PS3 games Astro Zoo and Super Rubber Dub).

•William Coakley: I've enjoyed playing your pianos... even stuck the Hansons piano in a mix and it did just fine. For my taste number 3 with the V switch was my favorite but for a funky old upright sound for 'who about does beers' saloon playing... nothing like the Ladbrooke.
(William created the PERFECT PIANO sample CDs)

•Mats Grundberg: ...I'm happy to say that your pianos are very much what I expected: a sound that doesn't occupy to much space, that has a nice "everyday" character, slightly imperfect but also because of that perfect for conveying a relaxed, intimate, "everyday" sort of sound.
I'm especially fond of the X-switch patch, but also enjoyed playing the Ladbroke...

•Ben Steer: its exactly what i was looking for. thanks again for the bargain.

•wigworld: it sounds great - loads of character.

•David Miller: The sample banks are great - exactly what I was looking for,
and they seem completely bug-free - I'm very happy with them. Good Work Fella!!!

Technical info
The Hansons is a British upright/overstrung piano with old style action, built in 1908.
The Ladbrooke is c.1955 with modern action, parallel strung.
All samples stereo except where indicated.
Microphones: STC 4038, Audio Technica MB3000L, Sony ECM-717.
Outboard: LA Audio MLX20 mic. pre., Echo Layla 20 bit.
DSP: Cubase VST, KS Waves, Propellerheads ReCycle!, Audio Ease Barbatch, Antares Infinity.

The CD ROM is available in either E-mu ESI format or Steinberg Halion/ AIFF format.
For those of you importing into other formats, the envelope settings are listed here.

The price including postage is only €20.00
Click here to purchase

To send us your feeback just email us.