The story
Heyo! This is an old Jaymar toy piano I picked up at a flea market (Daytona Beach, FL) in not so great condition. It’s still playable and got some character, although not all the notes work.
The idea here was to get a pretty realistic representation of the real deal with not a ton of sampling, so naturally I sampled every key at multiple velocities with 2 round-robins, 2 microphone positions (stereo close pair, far mono), key release samples, AET velocity morphing, scripted volume controls per mic position, and a fun GUI to really make you feel like you’re truly crouched at the piano.
It’s time to be a kid again, use this dinky little toy piano to your hearts content. It was both a pain and a blast to make this and I hope you enjoy!
Reviews for Decrepit Toy Piano
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
It's been through a lot!
This little cute piano toy has really been through a lot - so much that some notes barely let some pitch out! It's freaking lovely though! Good quality of sampling with a some white noise to be heard, but that doesn't take the magic away. The dynamics are nice too! Check it out if you are looking for something really unique. I'm pretty sure you can do a lot of creepy stuff with it.
Abrasive toy piano
This is definitely an interesting contradiction, While toy pianos are usually characterized by fun, dreamy and gentle, this one is pretty abrasive. Theres some unique percussive mechanical noise going on here that ive never heard in another toy piano. It gives it a percussive and agressive quality that i haven't heard before. I personally dont know where i would use this but its really unique and i imagine many people will find this really interesting and useful. Its very deeply sampled with multiple round robins and dynamic layers which is always a huge plus.
Very simple, definitely a toy piano!
Very cute sound! It is definitely a toy piano. The sound is very very simple, and it is easy to play. I hear some noise at higher register, but it maybe the characteristic of the toy piano.
Well sampled Toy Piano
Great recording, excellent programming, and very expressive with four velocity layers and three round robins. That's a lot of samples! It's obvious that a lot of work went into this minute monstrosity. The softest velocity level 1-30 is so low that it's really tough to trigger consistently. I prefer to follow Christian's maxim that there's very little below 70, so if it were up to me, I'd compress the dynamic range. This instrument is indeed decrepit, and some of the keys barely produce a tone, or only do so occasionally. I suppose that adds to the character, but it also means you've got to sort of write around those notes if you're looking for a clean tone. So, this is interesting, and probably highly useful under certain circumstances. In terms of sampling, it's really well done, and it's neat to see how Conner has grown and matured as a samplist.
Musically hard to use...
I was initially curious about how this instrument could be used, so I tried composing some track around it, but unfortunately the lack of tonality on some of the notes made it difficult to work with. Perhaps it's better suited as a sound effect or texture instrument rather than a melodic on or maybe that was the original intent.
