This is our living room piano, a small “spinet” model named Klaviano, made in Berlin by the company Manthey in the 60s and 70s.

It’s an instrument I spotted in a friend’s flat as I first came to the city, and it caught my imagination for its unusual design, its fancy rounded edges on the overall minimalistic shape. Surprisingly, it had also something to say in the sound compartment. The middle octaves feel pleasant and balanced, with an unassuming but rich texture. Lower registers lack of course body (strings are just too short) and higher registers may be too shallow, but they somehow are coherent to this instrument’s voice. It’s a nice Berliner, and was a probably commercial hit locally, as in the years I saw more of them in small clubs and auctions. I found mine easily, looking online.

The mechanics were well playable too (by Renner, I learned) and basically the Klaviano made our family happy. It followed us as we moved in new flats, but with the years it started to have some problems. The tuning is becoming unstable and needs frequent adjustments. And the spinet action is probably too exotic to justify the repair price.

So what to do to “photograph” this nice iconic instrument as it still works and is in good shape? Enter Pianobook: I never thought to take the time to produce a multisample of a home instrument, but the concept of the project really convinced me, along with the demystifying instructions on how to do it. Decent Sampler was also the software that appeared to make all this pretty approachable (and it is!). When the “dspreset” was ready, I ran it through a conversion tool to get also the “sfz” version, which sounds substantially identical, but lacks the custom controls.

I recorded it close with two Rode M5 microphones, four dynamic layers, two round robins and release samples, all in a quick session (it’s hard to find the living room quiet, as we are a busy family and we live on a busy street). It’s my first sampled instrument and have some regrets, especially on getting the dynamics right, nevertheless I’m happy with the results.

So here is a first snapshot of the lovely Klaviano, I hope it can bring some good vibrations outside Berlin too!

Updated to version 1.1
Thanks to all for the kind reviews. I addressed a few obtrusive noises and leaks with some editing. Now it should be slightly more usable. Uploaded a new demo too!