Jolly old piano! This library captures the authenticity of a cheap, dusty, beat-up, rusty, out-of-tuning piano – the one you remember from your grandmother’s house.
We developed separate string and key release samples to preserve the eccentric charm of the piano. Our Old Broken Granny Piano captures the heart and soul of an old, decrepit piano with wobbly keys, a few broken strings, and many decades of rough use from alcohol abuse.
Of course, there are many other magnificent piano libraries with their shiny varnish and pristine strings, but none of them have ever captured the true beauty of a cheap, dusty, battered, rusty, long-out-of-tuning piano.
This is exactly the sound that you remember from childhood… and it’s impossible to forget how your grandfather danced.
We recorded 3-4 layers of velocity across all keys, with added cyclic variations in the middle two octaves of the midrange. In fact, there are two independent trigger samples for each note to better replicate the natural behavior of the instrument during recording. This. Each note has separate string release samples and key release samples.
The “key release” trigger is a soft, distant-sounding mechanical “knock” that naturally occurs whenever any key is lifted, even after the resonance has died down.
The piano was so old and wobbly that you had to let go of the sustain pedal very slowly, otherwise all the hammers would fall back onto the strings, and sometimes even get stuck there if you lifted your foot too quickly. Over the years, our Old Busted Granny Piano has become something of a cult classic, appearing on an endless list of soundtracks, trailers, commercials and records.