My sampled pianos

[LAM]

@LAM Read up, this has already been whined about.

I know Nils already asked for it. I added the suggestion for a LICENSE file and added a practical case why it should be included in the zip file.

So not basically just a +1 to what Nils said.

[sofia-m]

Thanks for all the useful suggestions, mind you, this project is still in beta stage
I will amend the files ASAP.
Glad you guys enjoyed the pianos, more to come soon.

[sofia-m]

I just uploaded a new patch, a 1956 Blüthner Model 1.
https://luciphercode.wixsite.com/sofia-mz/about-5-3
A truly delicious piano owned by the sweetest old lady you can imagine.

[GMaq]

great stuff! Nice site too!

[SpotlightKid]

I did a small test of these piano libraries just now, and I must say, I'm impressed.

Very professionally done, clean, even, and sounding very nice.

I recorded a piano-only version of an old piece of mine and rendered it with each of the four different Piano models. I used a Studiologic SL 990 Pro (Fatar TP40GH keys) with a medium soft velocity curve to record the MIDI (and fixed a few timing inaccuracies afterwards).

I loaded the SFZ files in Ardour 8.1 with the liquidsfz LV2 plugin. I added some hall reverb (LSP Impulse Reverb Stereo with Samplicity M7 Vienna Hall IR) via an effect send channel, and very light compression (ratio 2) as an insert and a mastering limiter.

Here are the audio files on my Nextcloud (download from there, or use the embedded audio player):

• Bechstein: https://0x20.eu/nc/s/Xmt7aeri64PC4ZC
• Blüthner: https://0x20.eu/nc/s/3c8Em4iNamwHyXD
• Bösendorfer: https://0x20.eu/nc/s/ayxW6T3zADX89oW
• Fazioli: https://0x20.eu/nc/s/nbtbYQsBND5xWZf
• Steinway: https://0x20.eu/nc/s/XsSRAQ9PJ7YKYFg

I recorded the MIDI using the Steinway model, so the dynamics are best matched to that model, but for the sake of comparison I wanted to use the same MIDI for all models.

Thanks for the fantastic work, @sofia-m !

[sofia-m]

@SpotlightKid I'm glad you liked my libraries.
Your recordings sound really cool. In my own demos I sort of privileged the range of velocities and the timbre of each piano is somewhat lost.

[SpotlightKid]

I'm interested in your workflow for creating these sample libraries. Would you be willing to answer some question?

I have a Yamaha CP-70B electric grand, which I want to sample at some point and an acquaintance asked me, whether I would be interested in creating an open-licensed sample library from his Wurlitzer Electric Piano. But I know that sample editing can be lot of work, so, if and when I do that, I wanna make sure I know what I'm doing

• Did you use open source software for recording and / or sample editing?
• Did you use any DAW templates for the recording process?
• How did you make sure to get samples with an even distribution of velocities for each note?
• Did you do any noise reduction during recording or in post and, if yes, how?
• Did you use any tools to help with the tedious process of cutting up samples and organizing and naming them?

I'd be grateful for any insight you can give, no matter how much or how little you are able to give.

Thanks again

Chris

[sofia-m]

Chris, I'll try to answer your questions the best I can.

The secret to an easy workflow are good decisions. And what leads to good decisions are... bad decisions

I'm an open source advocate, so yes. These libraries were created with Devuan, and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Devuan (and Debian) developers for creating such a wonderful, comprehensive, and reliable distribution. It made my work so much easier.

I used mainly Audacity and some ALSA tools in the recording process. I also created my own bash scripts and MIDI files to operate the thumper, which allowed me to record one octave/layer at the time.

You must understand that my 'client' was my Dad. Once I decided the most I could afford were 20 velocity layers in minor thirds (and yes, I did tried to sample 88 keys in 24 layers, but then thought what the heck am I doing?) I figured he (and I) would play 90% of the time in the mid-low range. So I mapped the samples accordingly, in increments of 5 from 0 to 80, in 10 to 110 and a fortissimo layer at 127.

The most important factor in noise reduction are the room and the location. I recorded the silence in each place at different times. I studied the sources of ambient noise and figured if/how I could reduce them. You'll want to eliminate noise but without losing the character of the room.
I had to give up on some really nice pianos because the places were unfit for recording.
I engineered the thumper to be extremely quiet and remote controlled. When I recorded, no one was in the room, not even me. Also the type of microphones you use plays a big part.
This approach reduced the need to drastic interventions in post production, besides the usual EQ.

Well, as you sure noticed, all the .SFZs follow the same naming scheme. So, after sampling the first piano, I could reuse the same scripts.
When I recorded, each batch was named in function of where it would go and that simplified the job.
As for cutting and editing, I found out I couldn't really rely on scripts if I wanted a truly quality result.
So, I created macros to automate repeated actions, but I edited and optimized each sample singularly by hand.

I hope this helps.

[tavasti]

I engineered the thumper to be extremely quiet and remote controlled. When I recorded, no one was in the room, not even me.

What kind of device this thumper is? Some pictures and explanation of parts would be interesting.

[sofia-m]

It was actually quite hand to mouth. The playing mechanism was based on gravity and incremented by 5 point steps. The critical part was the ball bearing in the pivot with Torlon plastic balls which made the operation smooth and quiet. The trigger played MIDI files and was connected via bluetooth to my laptop.

[tavasti]

It was actually quite hand to mouth. The playing mechanism was based on gravity and incremented by 5 point steps. The critical part was the ball bearing in the pivot with Torlon plastic balls which made the operation smooth and quiet. The trigger played MIDI files and was connected via bluetooth to my laptop.

Any pictures available?

[sofia-m]

Not likely until January. I'm away from home and mid-term exams are looming.
Something I failed to point out is that this project is still at beta stage.
I'll be seldom online in the following weeks, but will do my best to address quite a few hitches that need ironing out according to school priorities.

Cheers.

[tseaver]

@sofia-m

Thank you for sharing such a beautiful set of piano sample libraries.

I don't know if you know of the site already, but Pianobook (https://www.pianobook.co.uk/) is a place for samplists, composers, and musicians to share and collaborate on sample libraries. In spite of the name, many of the libraries are not made by sampling pianos; nevertheless, I imagine your libraries would be well received there. You might even get some help converting them to other sampler formats, e.g., DecentSampler, for a wider set of potential users.

[tseaver]

I meant to say in my original post: the SFZ files you have supplied seem perfectly supported by sfizz -- I don't see any unsupported-by-sfizz SFZ opcodes in the non-release-samples version, anyway. In fact, the SFZ files seem remarkably minimal in their use of exotic opcodes: I would venture that they should be supported on most of the current SFZ players on Linux.

[sofia-m]

Hi,

I’m posting this between classes, so I’ll be brief.

The .SFZs are intentionally basic. SFZ enthusiasts love to customize their files anyway and scratch their own itches.
If anyone wishes to provide more comprehensive .SFZs, I can add them to the patch.

Last but not least, I pulled an all-nighter and cut another patch. This is the last piano of the series for the foreseeable future.

https://luciphercode.wixsite.com/sofia-mz/about-5-4

It’s a 1969 C.Bechstein D282, recorded in a larger hall than the other instruments and should provide a more shall we say lyric palette.

Don't forget that this project is still very much at beta stage and bugs should be expected.
I’m gonna be busy with school in the upcoming weeks and won’t be online much but I’ll check the forum from time to time to see if any issues arise.

Cheers.

Sofia