The story
This Schwechten Grand (I believe it’s boudoir size), was made in Berlin circa 1921.
This piano has been in my family for at least 15 years and I have grown up listening to my parents teach piano with it on a daily basis at home in Oxfordshire.
It means a lot to me because, despite my piano skills not being that great, this piano was my gateway into songwriting and composing. Made in Berlin, it’s ivory keys and beautiful brass inlays feels as though it carries a bit of soul and craftsmanship from a time gone by. This piano fell into my parents hands when it was passed onto them for free (on the condition they never sell it!). My dad had been giving lessons to a child from this family and they passed the piano onto us because sadly they didn’t have the space for it.
If money was spare, this piano could do with a bit of renovation (and a tuning!) but it still holds plenty of character.
I am now situated in Leeds studying film music, and these basic samples feel special to me because it feels like I can take a piece of home back to my student digs.
This has been my first time sampling piano and with pianobook, I’ve found a new love of sampling and I wish to sample more instruments and re-sample this piano in the future. After having been a long time viewer of Christian’s channel and downloading samples from members of the pianobook community, I decided to have a go myself whilst I’ve been back for reading week. This is just the start! 🙂
“According to Christopher and Anne Aker on their website, Piano Grands (pianogrands.com), Schwechten pianos are, “Extremely rare, no finer pianos have ever been made than those of the house of Schwechten. Based in Berlin, Schwechten pianos are prime examples of the top quality work that came out of some very small shops in Germany and Austria in the 19th century. The Schwechten line of pianos began with his elder brother Heinrich’s shop in 1839. Georg Schwechten established his shop in Berlin in 1853 and specialized in exquisite hand crafted pianos.”
This piano has just two layers, p and f with release triggers.
You may want to adjust the volume and velocity groups inside the exs24 editor.
I plan to make a Kontakt version as well.
It was recorded using a pair of Behringer B2s, a Steinberg UR44 and the pianobook MVP logic template.
Reviews for Schwechten Grand
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
A beautiful and kind piano, amazing first try!
I bet it is not a simple task to sample a full piano, let alone to fully program it and to make it interesting and playable for everyone. If that was really James' first try, he has a bright sampling future for sure!
This piano is sampled very well, and it plays beautifully to say the least. It has a very soft and warm character without feeling too felt-like. You also get to fully control the release triggers which is surprising for a first try. Awesome! You will only notice the noise if you sustain many notes at once, but again, it doesn't build up at all, so in the context of a mix it won't be noticeable at all.
Lovely, if bassy grand
Let me first say that if this is a first attempt at sampling a piano, it's a pretty amazing first attempt. There's so much that's going right in this library. It's a great instrument which is mostly in tune, generally well recorded and basically perfectly edited. There are two minor things that might be improved. First, there is some noise in the samples, and it can build up fairly significantly. Second, even with the filter's cutoff completely open, it sounds rather muted and somewhat dull in tone. It's kind of bassy. I think this might be due to the mics used or the placement of said microphones. It's a interesting sound, though, actually, and kind of different from what you usually get in a piano sample library. So, in a way, it's sort of cool. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but it does position this library to be somewhat unique and it helps it stand out from the crowd. I'll be excited to see what else James samples in the future!
One of the best first attempts ive heard
This might be the best first attempt ive heard on pianobook. The piano is warm and mellow, is pretty well recorded and programmed really well. Its pretty playable and there are definitely no major issues. My only issues are the noise, which was noted by others and while i wish it wasn't there its not nearly as bad as some other libraries. Also i personally love dynamics in my pianos so with only two dynamic layers i wish it was a bit more dynamic. Also maybe it could sound a bit more clear defined and close. It sounds a bit far away at the moment but just slightly, nothing too bas. As i said this is an amazing first attempt and i ant wait to see what you do in the future.
