Fraustrating problem with hammer noise on Piano VST's

[event2020]

I have a fraustrating problem with hammer noise on Piano VST's where you can hear a audable thump from, either emulating or a recording of the hammer hitting the strings.

This happens when playing single notes, not chords.
I'm playing an arp that ranges from C4 - C5

By the time I've done some subtle EQ and buss compression the noise just ruins what I am trying to do. If I eq the noise out it leaves the sound tinny and nasty.

Its happening in
Arturia Piano V - German Grand (and many other presets)
EZ Keys - Grand Piano (and many other presets)
Korg - M1 (various patches)
Kontakt - The Grandeur and The Giant

Any suggestions, how would you deal with this?

[event2020]

No One?

[BertKoor]

A compressor with the wrong (attack) settings can make this worse. How is it if you leave off the compressor?

[samantabharata]

The Giant doesn't have that characteristic out-of-the-box.
Hammer there in [Anatomy, reveal:] Noises. Turn it down.

giant.hammer.jpg

[vurt]

99 problems und der frau ist nacht eine!

[event2020]

Hi BertKoor

Exactky the same as the compressor is only catching any random peaks over 3k

[event2020]

The Giant doesn't have that characteristic out-of-the-box.
Hammer there in [Anatomy, reveal:] Noises. Turn it down.
giant.hammer.jpg

Hi

I tried that and it makes no difference.

The audio clip below is The Giant, default preset, no channel or buss processing and noise turned down.
The clip starts with a low-ish velocity and get gets played harder as it goes.

https://soundcloud.com/user-302625817-5 ... 4229fbecc2

[thecontrolcentre]

Isn't the hammer part of the sound? I've sampled a few pianos and cant see how you can get away from it tbh. Maybe you could alter the attack on the samples to lose some of the initial sound?

[samantabharata]

There isn't any hammer noise there in that soundcloud post. (the jpg I made doesn't have the feature turned on: turn it on and crank it up and hear what hammer noise sounds like. That slider does a lot.)

That's what a piano sounds like, you're wanting something maybe like piano patch on an old rompler like Roland or something I think. There's a little bit of the sound of the keys being hit, but that's there, period.

You can cut into the attack using Kontakt, but that's just a normal piano sound.

[event2020]

Thats strange because I listen to a lot of solo classical piano and if the noise is there in those recordings it is not noticable at all.

Although not classical, this is the original recording who's piano I am trying to emulate and there is no noise at all, just the notes.
https://soundcloud.com/user-302625817-5 ... 4229fbecc2

[samantabharata]

Actually every note in that sounds like it was cut into to alter the attack, and not at all well, very choppy and unnatural.
If that's what you want, you can achieve it in Kontakt. the old Roland rack romplers at least sound smooth, though. The Giant is a very good-sounding piano really, that is butchered.

[event2020]

Actually every note in that sounds like it was cut into to alter the attack, and not at all well, very choppy and unnatural.

You may say that but the production on this is Nile Rodgers/ Bernard Edwards and the keyboard player is the late Raymond Jones of Chic.

Yes while a lot of classical piano players like to hear the hammer noise, you never hear it on pop / disco / RnB songs.

Just listen to any Elton John song, or Freddy Mercury's piano - all clean and full sounding

[BertKoor]

Funny you mention Elton John. His piano sound learned me what a compressor sounds like when pushed too far.

[JamelaBanderson]

Do you hear it in Pianoteq? They have a trial version with all pianos that you can listen to before buying. I find it very clean, though the highest tier edition allows you to tweak specifics.

[thisdjiknow]

I kinda side w/ the others that have said it could be a compression issue. Any time I've had an issue with a hammer strike, emulated or otherwise (in a piano obviously), it's generally got to do with the A/R on either the instrument itself or the compressor (compression can make matters DRASTICALLY worse). When I first started getting into production it took me a LONG time to get a feel for compression.

On synths there's been an audible noise (not a hammer obviously - but a similar "feel") before and I was able to remedy that by lowering the sustain IIRC.

I hope that helps.