Plucked Piano

A world-class concert grand and Paul Thomson's fingernails abused... ahem recorded for your compositional needs.

As composers we're always on that quest to find a "lead" string instrument that does the job of a piano, harp, or guitar without sounding like one, without having the stereotypical association. Or indeed that can play like a dulcimer or cimbalom, but doesn't have the geographical connection or insinuation. So spitfire took quarter of a million pounds worth of concert grand heard on countless film, scores from Harry Potter to Inception, and... well, we plucked it.

Recorded by Jake Jackson at Lyndhurst Hall - Air Studios, on one of the finest scoring stages in the world, through an array of priceless vintage microphones via Neve "Montserrat" pre-amps, to a beautifully serviced Studer 2" tape machine and then into digital at 96k via the best Prism AD converters: this is an unparalleled signal chain.

We've sampled the full range of the piano diatonically with two plucking styles; finger pad and nail with a selection of mic positions for you to mix to get up front and personal. Or a more contextual perspective that will mix seamlessly in with your Albion and BML ranges of orchestral tools. What's more we've included both direct and tape signals for if you'd prefer pristine and clean to that rounded top and tidy bottom of tape.

In addition to this we've added some amazing synth patches designed by Paul Thomson and derived totally from the plucked piano sessions, to provide your arsenal with some welcome moments of inspiration.

Requires a full version of Kontakt to run.