The story
This upright piano is 119 years old and was made by a now-obsolete manufacturer called the Belford Piano Company. It belongs to my in-laws, and I always enjoyed playing it during visits. You can feel its age under your fingers and it has a smooth, dark tone that’s always just a little out of tune. I decided to sample it over the Christmas holiday. Initially, I thought this would be a quick and simple project, but as I got into it, I found myself really enjoying the piano’s personality and decided to go further. I began scripting a user interface and went all in, tweaking the samples until they were just right.
This instrument has:
– 3 dynamic levels
– Release samples
– Controllable velocity curve (you can get super punchy with it, or dial in the “soft piano” sound)
– Quick reverb and compression controls
– Adjustable pedal and mechanical noises
– A preset system (comes with some of my favorite settings, and you can add your own)
I hope you enjoy playing this as much as I do!
Interface
Reviews for Belford 1904 Upright
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
This is super beautiful
Appreciate to you so much
I can't believe it. It just sound like a real upright piano
Really lovely!
It has such a nice character! Thank you for sampling this!
It would be really cool if you could make it available for Decent Sampler or some other player that is really free ...Sweet charming low cpu beauty!
What a fantastic piano! it seems to reach for the notes tuning wise which is very charming, perfect for smokey bar jazz or a chas and dave knees up! Thank you I still cannot believe it is free to be honest and it is up there with NI "The Maverick".
Also the gui is top notch and very simple to dial in a reverb and change velocity too which is sweet.
Thanks for all your effort bro and hard work coding the script.Wow.. this has Character.
Every Note a work of art. Time its self created these notes. I love the G in the middle and the B on the bottom.. something has happened to this peano, it tells its own story. Love the graphic interface on the controls, very easy to understand. I has aged strings so its not 'bright' but I think it is going to work in my Honky Tonk piano project nice.. Thanks.
character piano
The out of tune notes reminded me of the wonky notes on the broadwood white piano my granparents used to have in their living room.
Some pedal down resonance would have been great but what's here is still good.
Found the two-way reverb controls a bit fiddly - liked the minimalist approach on the GUI though.
