– As of 22.06.24, the Woodland Piano is on version 1.3.0 –
– The Woodland Grand Piano is now available! –
https://bit.ly/woodland-grand-piano (including Pianobook-exlusive Demo)

1.3.0:
– Better playability (no volume jump when switching velocity layers)
– New Noise Slider
– Better slider behavior (now linear and with dynamic numbers)
– UI Improvements
– Komplete Kontrol compatibility

1.2.0:
– Overhauled the UI, designed to match the brand new Woodland Grand Piano UI

1.1.0:
– 48Khz version is now the main download –
– 2.16GB download size –

v.1.1.0
– corrected some pedal sounds not being affected by the group’s purge or volume UI
– improved visibility and usability of certain UI elements
– realized noise issue was due to Kontakt’s downsampling aliasing issues when using at 48Khz
– restored samples of the quietest layer of the normal articulation
– replaced all the samples with 48Khz versions
– tightened up ADSR

I am a big fan of pianos that speak with more than just their melodic notes. I’ve enjoyed the works of Sigur Rós for many years, and in more recent years Ólafur Arnalds as well. One thing they both manage exceptionally well in my view is the relation between the music and the noises around it. Ólafur Arnalds has beautifully detailed piano sounds in his work, and they all feature all of the creaks and moving wooden parts of the instrument. So I wanted to capture that in a piano as well.

So for my go at it I recorded the piano with seven microphones (three stereo set-ups shown in the walkthrough video below) up close and with multiple articulations – normal, felt, muted, and plucked (normal and felt feature four velocity layers, and along with muted notes feature samples in pedal up and down) + release triggers and pedal sounds. These different mic positions and articulations are important for me because not only do they add a good degree of flexibility within the same instrument, but they also explore some of the different sounds that you can get from the piano.

– Tech Info –

The Woodland Piano is a Yamaha upright recorded at 96k 24bit and presented at 48k, using seven microphones for three different close mic positions.

Microphones used:
– Three Neumann KM184 over the hammers on the top of the piano in a wide AB stereo configuration featuring a center channel.
– Two Schoeps MK4 just above the center of the instrument, pointing at the hammers in a slightly narrower AB.
– Two AKG C414 XL II just below the MK4s, again pointing at the hammers in the same AB spread as the MK4s.

For my workaround to trigger Release Triggers during sustain pedal press, please refer to the video walkthrough below at 3:46