The story
Hello Everyone! Very excited to have found Piano Book and the many artists and audio folks contributing to this great effort! It’s always fun to see how creative people can get when money isn’t an obstacle! So my story with this piano begins in 2017 with some very talented friends renting a church to record in. There are many empty churches in the states and they make for a beautiful and challenging space for recording! Sid Lindner was the song writer (Hotel Alexis) and Mike Yorgenson had the genius idea to find a lovely church in Sunapee NH. I was hired as a player and to help Mike engineer and ultimately mix/master. If it had been up to me I would have shown up with a few mikes and a laptop, but Mike brought his entire (nearly!) studio from home… (timpani drums! Haha!!) And his lovely wife to decorate and cook amazing meals… they did such a wonderful job creating an atmosphere that pours from each track. In setting up for the session Mike found this Gulbransen full upright piano on the local CraigsList.net in the “free” section and delivered it to the church himself. The piano became a centerpiece for a few of the tracks on the record. When tracking was done we sadly left the piano behind. So when it turned out the church had sold a year later, it was decided that I would give the piano a home temporarily. While I had it I did these recordings and a few others. Since then Mike has moved it to his studio in CT. I always wanted to try a thumb muted & a guitar picked piano sample. I never thought I would Share it so didn’t take a whole lot of time doing it, and there are some lovey warts imho. I did tuning in the EXS24, but the samples haven’t been tuned. The picked piano is very thin and harpsichord like, but with the filter can be tamed and makes for some very dark horror film music effects. FUN! Here’s a link to the record that was made: https://burstandbloom.bandcamp.com/album/summer-ghosts-nightfalls Sid Lindners: https://hotelalexis.bandcamp.com/ Mike Yorgenson: https://communityrecordingservices.org/ Chris Decato: https://chrisdecato.bandcamp.com/ Thanks so much for reading and I hope that you enjoy my contribution to PianoBook! Chris,
Reviews for Gulbransen Picked Upright
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
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OMG, it's a piano-dulci-forte-achord!
I read the description and the reviews and thought I might pass this one by. Am I ever glad I didn't. What we have here is a Frankenstein cross - and a brilliant one mind - between a dulcimer and a harpsichord but with the depth of sound only a piano soundboard can provide. It needs some release admittedly - preferably lots - just stick the sustain pedal down and forget about it unless you're truly modulating. Playing a piano with a plectrum? Who'd have thought it? What a completely brilliant "stupid" idea! This one will definitely be heard on TV at some point...
A more unique sampling take on a piano
This is another weird and unique take on how to sample a piano differently by Chris. This one has a more distinct character that seems something like a dulcimer and a harpsichord to me, perhaps a little more synthetic. In a similar fashion, it features two different velocity layers, and this time they sound far more consistent.
The instrument is sampled very well, note by note, though you might be able to notice some white noise if you go hard on it, or if you try to sustain multiple notes at once for long.
If you enjoyed it, be sure to check out the Thumb version, which features a different kind of sound but share the same idea, quality and sampling method.
Really cool concept but not super usable for me
This is definitely such a cool concept that i hadn't thought of before. Unfortunately i don't really think it will work for me. The end result is pretty brittle. Im generally into darker sounds so someone who likes brighter stuff might like this a-lot. It kind of resembles a mandolin or banjo. I think it might work really well as a subtle layering tool. I also think it kind of sounds like a clav. Again this is a really awesome concept but the end result just isn't something im into. Everyone would check it out for themselves though and im interested to see what other creative ideas you come up with.
