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I've really wanted my own copy of the Nine Inch Nails' processed piano, used on tracks like the end of "Closer" or the beginning of "Every Day is Exactly The Same." I see there were a few threads on it here a few years back, but I haven't been able to figure it out from them alone.

So, before I spend hours upon hours layering tack piano samples, pianos with extra-modulated vibrato, filters, tape emulations and distortions and the like, probably ending up with something with terrible usability- is there a specific technique that would work well for getting this piano? Or perhaps a sample pack I could load into EXS24?

Your advice is much appreciated!

The sound is here-
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-Aj9_8t1eQc" frameborder="0"></iframe>

I realize that there's a bassier sound underneath the piano (and of course the creative vocal sampling afterwards); I'm mainly looking for a way to create that very thin, ghostly piano by itself.

P.S. Is it a mellotron sample? I have no idea if a mellotron piano existed, but the processing certainly sounds... mellotrony.

T,

The "mellotrony" quality is, I think, more evoked by the Beatles reverse reverb that's part of the ambient pad playing under the piano than the piano itself. I don't think that is the mellotron piano. FX on that piano are the crux.. to me the piano just sound like it's heavily filtered (maybe using a very narrow parametric EQ) and compressed. It doesn't sound like a particularly long or HD sample. Reverb I'd guess as a big room verb but a short reflection time.

It may be one of those things that can only be realized in context with all the other things going on with it - so I'd think about maybe trying to get close then using it in a combi that added some of the ambient pad sound (LH only?) to see how it plays.

I've seen recent(ish) video of Trent Reznor extolling Mainstage (apple) and Mac as having replaced "a truckload of hardware synths". I couldn't say whether any of the NIN signature sounds are part of the Mainstage's ga-zillion sample sounds but that might be the case given that he's an endorsing artist.


BB

Well, I've found a way to give the piano a lot of dissonance in a fashion that sounds similar to NIN.

Basically, I run the piano through a Logic plug-on called 'Vocal Transformer', which allows you to adjusting the semitone-tuning and formant of a sound source. If I chain two of them together, I can adjust the formant and pitch in the first, then readjust the pitch again in the second one to be back in tune.

Turning the formant up results in a sitar-like sound, whereas turning it down within an octave results in the NIN-esque piano. Changing the pitch adds in a rolling dissonance, and using the second vocal transformer I can keep it in tune.

Adding a slight vibrato in between the plug-ins adds in an interesting character as well.