Baby Piano + Baby Bells sample sets reduced to $7 for both

[zvon]

The Baby Piano is a Chinese Toy Piano. I found it at a flea market and it obviously has seen better days. There are 2 keys missing, its casing is worn out and there are loose parts in it. The sound is not even from one key to another partly because the mechanism of some keys is damaged and it's also not in tune.

It's nonetheless lovely and its sound begged to be sampled. I did not stop there and I also created 15 unique resynthesized sounds from the original samples.

This sample set is available in soundfont and Kontakt 3 (with the wav files) formats and is Donationware.

Read all the details and download the free version from this page:
http://lesproductionszvon.com/Baby_piano.htm

There's a text file named "Baby_Piano_Program_list.txt " included in the Baby Piano free set that gives more info about the sounds and the different packages. I hope that everything is clear but don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.


Read the Rekkerd review here:
http://rekkerd.org/mini-review-les-prod ... aby-piano/


_________________________________________________
[EDIT Aug. 27th, 2011]

I've decided to lower the minimum donation required for receiving both the Baby Piano Standard and the Baby Bells sample sets from $10 to $7.

So to recap:
- The Baby Piano free sample set is still free. It contains all the acoustic samples (2 programs) and 4 of the resynthesized sounds for a total of 6 programs and 5 sounds (38 MB).

- The Baby Piano standard sample set is still available for a minimum donation of $2. it contains 3 more programs for the acoustic samples and 7 more resynthesized sounds for a total of 18 programs and 12 sounds (86.3 MB).

- And now a minimum donation of $7 (previously $10) will also get you the Baby Bells sample set. This extra set has 4 more sounds resynthesized from the Baby Piano and 9 programs (123 MB). These "bell" sounds are characterized by long decays of up to 15 seconds. They sound like a cross between electric pianos and bells.

Thank you!

[mikebeck]

I like it!
Donation en route.

[zvon]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your support!

[zvon]

I've added a few MP3 examples of the resynthesized sounds on the webpage.

[zvon]

Just realised that I forgot to mention the number of samples, so here it is:
- Baby Piano: 349 samples
- Baby Bells: 101 samples

For a total of 450 samples.

[zvon]

sfz format and sfz with WusikPRST files will be added. They should be ready for the weekend and I will email them to everyone who already made a donation or will have made one by then.

[bobsled]

Donated.

It is a pleasure to give my support to you, a generous developer of quality products. Thanks for all the past freebies!

[zvon]

Hi bobsled,

Many thanks, your support and kind words are much appreciated!

[zvon]

sfz format and sfz with WusikPRST files have been added. I have emailed them to everyone who already made a donation. If someone has not received them, please email me.

[zvon]

The set got reviewed on Rekkerd, here are 2 excerpts of the review:

- Baby Piano sounds exactly like you would expect: a broken, fragile sounding toy piano. It’s a perfect example of how something one might consider to be trash can still be used to create some lovely instruments.
- ... I find it inspiring.

Read the full review:
http://rekkerd.org/mini-review-les-prod ... aby-piano/

[zvon]

I've added 2 MP3s on the website last week, this time featuring layered sounds.

Sweep, Sweet Tine and Bell from the Baby Piano Standard, with phaser added:
Layers 01

Howling Bell and TP Bell 02 from the Baby Bells:
Howling and TP 02 bells

[zvon]

Here's more info about the Baby Piano, I posted it in the Market Place forum to answer a question. I am copying it here as it may be useful to others.

So tell us more, how was the baby piano sampled? What mics? Effects? Velocity switched multisamples?

I recorded it at 24 bits/44.1 and then converted the samples to 16 bits. I used a Shure SM57 close to the lid and oriented a bit towards the rear of the piano to try to minimize the noise of the keys. Of the 14 notes, 10 have three velocity layers and 4 have two. No effects and recorded in a relatively dead room.

The main difficulty was playing it as obviously it's made for smaller hands and the mechanism of some the keys is not in perfect condition. Also controlling the velocity was quite hard as the keys tend to respond more like an on/off switch than a regular keyboard. For instance playing too softly generated only key noises and not the note. I held the keys until the notes died to eliminate the release noise.

In fact I recorded it a few times and then choose the samples I preferred for each key.


And here are some quotes from the Samples forum:

a lovely pack, thanks! ;]

fantastic share ...thx

<2°TRo²³

Some great sounds here, Zvon. Nice work, and thanks.

Don't hesitate to post your questions and/or comments

[zvon]

Updated on March 18, 2010: Eight Kontakt 3 multis added to the Baby Piano Standard version and five to the Baby Bells. These multis increase the range of tones offered by the Baby Piano/ Baby Bells. Previous owners can download them for free from the webpage and they're included with new purchases.

2 new MP3s of the new multis added too:
Mixed Multi 01
Mixed Multi 02a


Thank you!

[mikebeck]

Thanks again!

[zvon]

Hi Mike,

You're welcome, have you tried the multis yet?