Piano & Keys Bundle

Montclarion Hall Grand Piano

The Montclarion Hall Grand Piano is a classic Steinway 1926 parlor grand that lives in one of our favorite recording halls. We captured in wide stereo from three distinct microphone distances (internal, external/mid and far/hall) to allow custom and surround mixing and provide different ambient flavorings. It has a crisp, solid tone ideal for classical composing, yet works equally well for soul, jazz, rock and pop. It also includes a variety of useful and creative string effects and prepared piano content, such as percussive pounds, slams, string scrapes, steel guitar slides, mallet and pick glisses, sweeps, plucks and more.

We recorded in a steep A-framed long hall to achieve lush, clear and well-defined natural acoustic reflections. In our ears, something about this magical room combined perfectly with this piano, creating the right holistic balance. The true instrument here is the piano and the hall together as one. We also recorded player POV sounds like pedal sfx, bench, lid and sheet music flutters. Then we popped the hood and went to work with fingers, mallets, picks and guitar slides, capturing a full collection of sweeps, scrapes, glisses, rumbles and other effects. Then we prepared the piano for a little special treatment, capturing 3 buzzy, resonant and raw tuned string percussion sets. Finally, we bloodied our knuckles and turned the piano into a 3-man percussion ensemble.

Kinderklavier

The Kinderklavier is an iconic sound found in commercials, TV, soundtracks and pop music. From cute and innocent, dark and twisted, to pop and rock, Soundiron’s Kinderklavier is a truly versatile library. It features 25 keys, each sampled with 8 round robin variations and an average of 6 velocity layers. The instrument has a small wooden body with metal tines that function as resonators. They have a klonky, reverberant character, with a raw unpredictability that makes this instrument perfect for scoring animation and children's music. The plastic keys of the Kinderklavier have a unique rattle when played aggressively, which are included as optional release samples. In addition to standard deep sampling, the Kinderklavier was beaten with sticks and mallets, dismantled, probed, strummed and tortured in just about as many ways as we could think of, creating a variety of unique percussion and effects. It also includes a variety of sound designed ambiences crafted from the raw recordings.

Topping off the library is a complete set of custom controls for each preset and 46 of our own custom reverb impulses. Modwheel automation allows pitch adjustment of up to +/- 6 octaves. Attack and release knobs are included allowing you to fully sculpt the performance. An offset knob also allows you to cut into the samples, creating unique pad and glitch effects. The samples have been stretched up and down the entire keyboard and we've included a "Natural Range" button to constrict the playable key range to just the original 25 keys of the kinderklavier.

Lakeside Pipe Organ

The Lakeside Pipe Organ is a vintage steel and wooden pipe organ located at the Lakeside Temple of Practical Christianity, in downtown Oakland, California. This large pipe organ produces its sound by venting mechanically compressed air (wind) through 850 resonant steel pipes and wooden reeds, arranged in 15 ranks. Each pipe produces sound at one fixed pitch, so they are provided in sets with one pipe or more per note, each set or stop having a common timbre and loudness throughout. The Lakeside Pipe Organ has multiple sets of pipes of differing timbre, pitch and loudness which the player can employ singly or in combination. The actual organ is made from three keyboards and a foot pedal board for bass notes, each of which controls its own group of stops.

We recorded 5 different essential stop settings on the organ, which can be compared to PP, P, MP, MF, FF dynamics with master organist Don Sears. All settings were recorded from 2 wide stereo microphone positions(close and far) for maximum user flexibility. The full range of the pipes covers 61 keys on the console, starting at C2. We've stretched the lowest note down to C-2, in order to allow deeper notes than the physical pipes allow for this organ. We've programmed the library with an intuitive and flexible interface, including an advanced step-sequencing arpeggiator, LFOs, dsp multi-effects such as delay, flanger, filter and convolution reverb. The reverb section features 115 select custom impulse responses recorded from some of our favorite locations. Amoung these are classic real-world spaces, as well as unique fx impulses that are great for creating rich, evolving atmospheres and special effect.

Little Pump Reeds

The Little Pump Reeds is a collection of hand held air-driven reed instruments, ranging from fine quality hand-crafted traditional Indian Shruti Boxes (related to the Harmonium), a mini accordion and the Plastisax, a plastic Melodica-like instrument. We even included a paper concertina, for a little reed-based tonal “percussion”. As always, we’ve sampled each instrument lovingly and thoroughly, with attention to playability and musicality, pushing these humble instruments much farther than they were ever designed to go. These sample sets are rich, full and playable, with the depth and detail that finally gives these little misfit toys the respect and attention to detail that they truly deserve.

The centerpiece of this collection is the Shruti Box. This traditional Indian instruments is similar in nature and tone to the harmonium. It’s most commonly used as a drone instrument to accompany voice and other solo instruments in Indian classical music, as well as a growing variety of new age and Celtic folk music. Our mini accordion is actually quite the little giant. It has 14 keys and 4 bass drones, naturally spanning three octaves. With a warm, fat tone that belies it’s humble size, this little instrument is a real diamond in the rough. The deep sub-bass octaves have to be heard to be believed. The Plastisax is vaguely like a child’s plastic soprano saxophone, but sounds more like a crisp, clear harmonica crossed with a reed organ. It has 13 keys, spanning roughly 2 octaves. With it’s rich, warm, playful sound and expressive playability, it’s ideal for children’s music and programming, or even layered with woodwinds or organs.

Old Busted Granny Piano

The Old Busted Granny Piano is pretty special to us, though it doesn't sound all that fancy. Actually, it sounds pretty damn rough around the edges, but that’s just the way we like her. Sure, there are plenty of other great upright piano libraries out there, with their shining lacquer and pristine strings, but none of them ever captured the authentic beauty of a cheap, dusty, beat up, rusting, long untuned upright piano. This is the kind of old heap your grandma had in her living room. This particular instrument has been in Soundiron co-founder Chris Marshall’s family for many years, before being passed on from one new home to the next. This was also one of the very first instruments Mike Peaslee deep-sampled. We don't know the brand or model off hand, but she looked to be about 60 or 70 years old and quite beat up the last time we saw her.

Her tone is watery and faded. There are a number of broken and dissonant strings, especially in the upper register. The wood is pitted, faded and banged up and the ivory is missing from a number of keys. Every key lands with a loud, wobbly, wooden thud and and lifted with a hollow rattle as soon as you lift your finger again. Sometimes, she seems creak and groan in the middle of the night, for no reason at all really. Clearly, the years have not been kind to her looks or her voice, but the soul of this old upright piano truly has aged like a fine moonshine.

The Drinking Piano

The Drinking Piano is a fat-bottomed monster upright has a classic beer hall sound, evoking images of the roaring 20s and pre-war 30s. It's got all of the brutal wear and tear that you'd expect from a hundred-year-old instrument that has been played hard and put away wet, night after night. With a fat, wide and close sound, it puts you right on the bench with the yellow, cracked ivories under your fingers. It was recorded right up against the strings in a small, slightly reflective hall, giving it all the presence of a dry studio recording with just a hint of live ambiance.

The years of alcohol-fueled abuse have been less than kind to this once stately instrument. With worn and rickety key action, unreliable dampers, loose pedal mechanics, wear hardened felts, the occasional misaligned hammer and decades of baked-in dust, every key has all the character and frailty of a hundred-year-old bartender. The strings were far too corroded to be tuned without risking breakage and further internal damage, so the whole thing is a little over a half-step flat. But beneath the beer stains and cigarette burns, this massive aging troubadour has a substantial pedigree. It's an original Ivors and Pond model from the dawn of the 20th century, made of solid mahogany, with expert hand-craftsmanship and detail rarely seen in any modern uprights.