Tweaking the Piano

cobray · Post by **cobray** » Sat May 05, 2012 9:37 pm

Hi all,
Does anyone else customize their piano sounds on the Kronos?

I start with the Kronos German Grand and set the release time to max. Then this morning I played with a little reverb and added a touch of delay. Problem is though it sounded a bit too bright for my taste so I went into the EQ and fiddled around. I didn't have a lot of time so I never got it to my liking, sounded a bit muddy.

Anyone have any tips they want to share?

Thanks!

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Sat May 05, 2012 9:46 pm

Yes, for my ambient projects i've created a full set of new age piano's. I've missed those kind of piano's in the factory soundsets.

Things i did was adding a second exi for pads or celtic sounds. Also for one piano i used the reverb tail of the japanese piano as the release tail of the german piano. The new age sound from that piano was very interesting.

Also i always modify the eq of the reverb, i remove the low end to avoid the mudiness.

The piano sounds were modified by changes to the bias and the lid position.

I love the piano sounds from the kronos because they give you so much possibilities to change the sound.

i've recorded a demo for youtube in the past but never uploaded it, here are the first 2 short new age demos from that video in one file with two of my custom ambient piano's.
The first one is called Magical Carpet Piano
The second one is called Dark Celtic Piano

<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=htt ... "></iframe>

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Sat May 05, 2012 9:46 pm

I removed the mechanics sound (don't know the real name right now), because when using the sound via another MIDI controller it is always send as value 127 (release velocity).

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Sat May 05, 2012 10:18 pm

I just finished tweaking my custom piano.

I have it split from middle C, so the higher notes are from the German Grand, and the lower notes are from the Japanese Grand. I like the tighter bass and more punch in the Japanese, but I love the delicate sound of the German grand.

I also added a bit of Ensemble (only 20 percent wet) brought in by the sustain pedal. I like the 'sparkle' you get from that on sustained notes.

Aside from that, I was very happy with the standard German and Japanese grand sounds. I just wanted something a bit more unique.

.Jens · Post by **.Jens** » Sat May 05, 2012 11:01 pm

For "bright" and "dark"ness, I'd rather go for tweaking the velocity bias first than using the EQ. It's a very powerful aarameter, especially to get the sound right relative to the actual keybed used (in my case, it's a Doepfer LMK4+ with a Fatar TP10/MD keybed).

Post by **Sharp** » Sun May 06, 2012 12:34 am

Qrobinez, that was beautiful.

Regards
Sharp.

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Sun May 06, 2012 1:04 am

Sharp wrote:Qrobinez, that was beautiful.

Regards
Sharp.

Yes same comment from me.

cobray · Post by **cobray** » Sun May 06, 2012 2:21 am

Likewise, thanks for your input.
Tonight I've got the German Dark on Exi 1 and a Reed EP 200 on Exi 2 with the flanger turned on just under the surface of the mix.
I'm playing with some reverse delay at the moment. So many layers to play with...I love the Kronos!

rmvieira · Post by **rmvieira** » Sun May 06, 2012 4:56 am

qrobinez, your pianos sound excellent. I can see you put a lot of thought and dedication into your work. Bravo!

levioter · Post by **levioter** » Sun May 06, 2012 1:43 pm

Qui thanks !
Again a great and expressive playing !

Cheers