How to make this nice piano sound

[_MystiQ_]

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Hello Everyone,

Writing here with a hope that someone can help me maybe in some way regarding harmonics of some piano sounds.
I need to recreate this unique sonority of the piano (mainly sound in the first link, cause I believe it's the same piano like in the rest):

http://www.musicwebtown.com/mystiq/play ... 364727.mp3
http://www.musicwebtown.com/mystiq/play ... 364728.mp3
http://www.musicwebtown.com/mystiq/play ... 364730.mp3
http://www.musicwebtown.com/mystiq/play ... 364731.mp3
http://www.musicwebtown.com/mystiq/play ... 364900.mp3

Clips above are from the album To be on Top released in 1992 by renowned game music composer Chris Huelsbeck.
I was in correspondence with Chris regarding this piece and he gave me original project of the song, though I made it already myself by ear, cause I am creating score sheet of it - it's now a piano friendly material and took 13 pages of A4.
However this was really nothing, the most difficult part is harmonics and on that I myself already spent 2 years trying and trying to recreate it. Could it be possible that this was done in FM and on Yamaha SY-77?

My e-mail converstaton with Chris in the link below:

http://www.mystiq.republika.pl/RE_chris ... 022007.txt (http://www.mystiq.republika.pl/RE_chris_huelsbeck_07022007.txt)

Regards,
Rob

[BertKoor]

Ehm... it's just a recorded acoustic grand piano... Nobody will care it's not an exact copy if you take an excellent grand piano library and do your utter best at the performance.

Is that a shower of rain in the background, or was that the reason we've moved on from vinyl to CD

[_MystiQ_]

Ehm... it's just a recorded acoustic grand piano... Nobody will care it's not an exact copy if you take an excellent grand piano library and do your utter best at the performance.

Is that a shower of rain in the background, or was that the reason we've moved on from vinyl to CD

If you were familiar a little with grands, you would know that getting such bass is beyond reality it's not *just* an acoustic grand as you said...on grand (even Fazioli 10'2") you won't get such powerful bass and dynamics and such details, the sound of a real grand is usual and "real" not that dense like that piano even with detune and inharmonicity, this piano produces some kind of illusion of a real grand...

Also for me this sound sounds like it has a very high feedback applied or something that bring closer all the sympathetic resonances and other details of the overtones, it's very close miked...
And maybe for you it sounds as usual grand but *it's not* if you had dissect more the sound as I did...
Really I have tried all as you said excellent piano libraries and samples out there(synthogy, akoustik piano, truepianos, pianoteq, etc.), and even experts from pianoteq or truepianos didn't help...
Well, the bad news is so far nothing came close to this piano as yet.

My brother presumes the sound was done in FM/AWM sample combination and/or presets were used from Yamaha SY-77 as Chris said earlier, because there are some parts that shows the evidence of this...

Regards,
Rob

[BertKoor]

it's very close miked...

Funny you mention that... To me it sounds more like it's miked at some distance in a very nice sounding room. Probably they've combined several mikes at several positions, maybe they've combined it with some synths but I don't hear that to be honoust. The expressiveness of a real grand piano is astonishing when played well, no synth comes close to that.

But I want to emphasize this again: no listener will really care weather you're getting close to this exact sound or not. All they will hear is a grand piano...

[deastman]

We have an SY-77 at my office. If I get a chance this week, I'll check it out...

Edit: In case you didn't realize, the SY-77 is not strictly an FM synth in the classic DX7 sense. It has multisampled PCM ROM sounds in it which can be combined with FM synthesis, and you can blend four sounds with a vector joystick, like on its other predecessor, the Prophet VS.

[gsoto]

May I ask what do you particularly like of the sound?
Getting exactly the same timbre would be nearly impossible. The closest sound I could find in here is from my PSR-530.
I also have some Roland XP-30/80 soundfonts that have a "similar" tone.
If you are lacking bass you can always EQ or layer some other piano samples.
Reverbs sometimes play a fundamental part in the sound too.

[Jake Jackson]

I can't tell you how to get this exact sound, but I can suggest some things to try:

1.To my ears, this sample, if its a sample, has very few layers. Maybe two or at most three. Notice the timbre doesn't soften much on soft notes.

2. Those few layers were taken at a fairly high velocity level, but probably not above around 100. (The sound is bright, but not overly bright.)

In other words, to experiment, I would take your favorite piano multisample and create a new multisample by removing the soft layers beneath about 50 or so above 100 or so.

Play around with filter to velocity, experimenting with the filter set around 900 and UP.
I don't think this sample set has any velocity to sample start setting--but you might try this too.
But the essential thing is only to use medium and low high strikes.

Let us know how it comes out.