The story
The last time I had an acoustic piano in my home was when I was 8 Years old and coming to the end of my first year of piano lessons. By this time the guitar was calling me, so unfortunately the piano was left to gather dust in the corner of the lounge before being unceremoniously removed a few years later. Alas, youth is wasted on the young. If I’d have stuck with it, things may have been different but I’m pleased to say that only 30 odd years later I longed for the sound of a ‘real’ piano again.
Much trawling through the inter-web finally brought me face to face with my destiny. A late 1970’s piano that many consider to be from one of the powerhouses of English Piano manufacturing – Danemann. They made robust and sweet playing pianos designed to resist a nuclear explosion for they were destined for a hard life – as school pianos! Imagining the kind of lives they must have had could bring a tear to ones eye but I am pleased to say that at least this one has now been rescued and made in to a virtual instrument.
I recorded it through a UA Apollo twin with the 1073 preamp emulation with no eq on both of the microphones. The mics were a recording in to Logic pro x.
Having just been tuned, I absolutely love my piano and the house is once again ringing with tones that only an acoustic piano can create. Many thanks to Christian for providing the templates and videos to make sampling a piano as straight forward as possible and I hope you enjoy the sound of this piano from one of the iconic piano makers of yesteryear.
Reviews for English Classic
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Truly inspirational piano
This is one of the first pianos that I've downloaded from the piano book and since then it's been an unmovable part of my template. A lot of character, great dynamics, well-defined low end, and warm highs. All recorded with the right amount of ambient that makes the piano works perfectly with every kind of reverb. Less than 14 Mb of memory usage makes this piano perfect for very old laptops like mine.
Quite a distinctive voice that works for me
I'm far from being a pianist and would usually steer away from composing a piece of music centred around a piano. This was one of the first Pianobook instruments that I downloaded and the tone and feel just really gelled with me. I composed a track, that you can see in the top right called Woodlands. This piano, it's sound, it's character is what inspired the piece. That's what I look for in any instrument or sample library.
THIS ONE! Balanced levels and tone across.
LOVE this one for Decent Sampler! Great job on this English Classic by Tim Didgiunaitis.
I always have had a sweet tooth for older upright pianos. Something intimate, familiar to them. It's what I started on in my early teens and they were everywhere. Friends homes, schools gymnasiums, church basements.
As a piano tuner many years later in Montreal, I've seen and heard pianos in most of the seasons of their lives, including some on their death bed. To hear old pianos here, you feel their "old souls" (if I may use the term). We get drawn to something of a story with each of them.
I've been listening to most of the pianos here since it started a few years ago, and especially lately since I started using Decent Sampler for live gigs (laptop doesn't handle multiple Kontakt libs too well).
The PianoBook PIANO libraries that check the boxes with me (for live music) have not been numerous due to one issue that seems: the bass. I often found the bass to be one of the weakest part of the recordings on all those I've demoed and installed from here.
They have character, and are very inspiring for certain types of projects, or personal creative times, yes, but for use with a band I need it to "show up." For live music I look for levels consistency across the board, from the bass to the treble.
Tim's English Classic is now part of my live rig. And beyond. I enjoy the quality of its tone and the presence I get from the bass strings. May have a few velocity peaks on certain notes in the mid section (that I would have noticed), but the sound overall is "bread&butter" material to me.
I'm very grateful for your contribution to this amazing bibliothèque of sampled instruments, Tim! Well done!
Good dynamic range across the octaves
Really well sampled piano. Weight and warmth in the low end and bright, glassy tones at the top. I feel like I'm playing this piano. That's hard to do. Well done.
English Classic is a very apt title.
The piano has been recorded fairly well, it translates really nicely into a larger mix, as the natural ambience of the room it was recorded in isn't overbearing. Really nice work!
