The story
This piano is one of many presets that I have within my custom instrument called Asylum. This is one of many in the “piano” category. I was playing a gig in an old civil war era barn that had an old melody grand piano. I sampled various notes with my iPhone.
It was already trashy sounding. For this preset I did Granular processing on the sample then imported into my ASYLUM GUI. The instrument itself has effects controls so the presets can be mangled even more.
Enjoy!
Reviews for Asylum Grainular Piano
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Darkly inspiring textures
Lot's going on here in this dramatic, warped soundscape. The inclusion of a changeable sample start point, comprehensive ADSHR and effects creates superb control over your sound design.
Interesting sounds with a few
Other than the horrifying wallpaper in the GUI, this instrument can produce some interesting sounds. I noticed that the samples are slightly right-pan favoured, so try to set the patch pan at around 20-25L for a more balanced experience.
There are also some clicks that might easily go unnoticed during the release of some samples. This can easily be fixed if you set the handy "Group Sample Start" knob anywhe.
Regarding the GUI, the aesthetics are cool and there are nice options to deal with, but they could be a placed in a more spaced out way. Be careful when you play with some options, because they can increase the overall volume a lot.
Spooky Horror Piano
This piano offers some bright but subdued spooky piano hits as well as the ability to make a more drone type sound. The sound is a bit thin and bright because it was recorded with an iPhone, maybe it would be cool to layer with a bass or something with more low end. The point of this i dont think is to sound like a realistic piano but i think the instrument would have more character if it wasn't just one piano sample stretched out. The GUI is really great though . Its well designed and really gives you a lot of control over the sound. i just wish i liked the sound a bit more but i still think it could work really well in certain situations.
processed piano that doesn't sound like a piano
This sample pack consists of a single sample of a piano that has ben processed until it no longer sounds like a piano. It's sort of an amalgamation of choir, bells, and organ. The sound itself didn't seem to fit the wall paper image much, maybe because I rarely, if ever, write horror music. That's not really of an importance, of course. Much more mysterious was the vertical slider at the center of the GUI. It took no small amount of experimentation to discover what this unlabeled slider does. It is the distortion amount when the distortion is engaged. With three different knob styles in use plus this fader, the GUI feels like it is a little discombobulated or maybe lacks a cohesive design aesthetic. None of that really matters much until it impacts how you interact with the library, at which point it matters more. This is an interesting sound and worth trying if you're looking for some keys to round out a production.
