Free Steinway C and Fazioli in SF format

[markone]

Stumbled across these soundfonts while surfing. No idea how good (or otherwise) they are the demo sounds pretty good though. They aren't the average knock-off piano samples that are floating around the web... They appear to be freeware, sampled from the original instruments quite carefully, looped and turned into soundfonts.

www.hum.aau.dk/~bovbjerg/piano.html

Here's what Soren Bovbjerg (the developer/pianist in question) says:

This Steinway piano is a marvelous instrument. I took all my piano examns from the University on this piano and I have spent countless hours playing it. For training as well as for fun.

and...

The recordings of the Steinway are done digitally through a Behringer preamp and two microphones: AKG C414 EB for the overall sound and AKG C452 EB for the strings. The Fazioli is only recorded above the hammers. The signals are recorded separately so that the levels between the mics remain adjustable. The samples are looped, and normalized in Sound Forge.

Clearly the guy has spent some serious time on these.

Realistically they way my life is right now, I'm not going to have the opportunity to sit down with the fusion an time soon so I'm not going to be able to try these out...

But anyone who fancies a crack at fusionizing 'em, I'd be interested in the results.

[christianrock]

I think I'll have someone else have a go at trying out something recorded with a Behringer preamp and normalized with Sound Forge

[Failed Muso]

Feb 26, 2009 18:57:08 GMT christianrock said:

I think I'll have someone else have a go at trying out something recorded with a Behringer preamp and normalized with Sound Forge

As for the samples? Perfectly acceptable on first listen. I'm sure these will work well on the Fusion if converted properly. Minimal tweaking required, I guess.

[psionic11]

I've converted these two soundfonts as well as several other piano soundfonts. They aren't going to win any awards, but they are halfway decent alternatives to the Holy Grail. Both sampled with what sounds like 3-way velocity switching, the Fazioli is somewhat thin and flat, with the ff sample much too bright, while the Steinway has a pretty good overall sound. Of course, being somewhat smallish samples for pianos, there's not much realistic velocity response for solo playing, but in a mix they should serve someone well.

The Steinway sounds a lot like the Holy Grail, and you can get a nice, fuller sound out of it by layering the HG with the Steinway. Worth converting imho.

[Hollow Sun]

If you've converted these, you should make 'em available to the wider community - let them draw their own conclusions.

Pianos, being what they are, seem to be very subjective and one person's piece of junk is another's pianoforte perfection.


Steve

[jeangenie]

Hi everyone,

I’ve converted these piano sounds (thanks for the link!) and imported them into Fusion. However something must have gone slightly wrong during the conversion because when I play softly I get a loud piano sound whereas playing hard seems to trigger a low velocity.

What I find really strange is that when I tried to edit the appropriate multisample, this sounded much more responsive and dynamic than the program itself! So this tells me there must be some parameter I can tweak to improve these sounds. I’ve poked around a bit but I haven’t been able to get any decent results!

Could anyone please point me in the right direction or explain why the multisample would sound better than the programs?

Thank you

[kpr]

You are using the automatically generated Program that comes when you converted the multisample with the Fusionconverter?

The Programs the Fusionconverter is doing are usually not useful. You can use the multisample, but you should do a brandnew Program especially for Piano samples. Check the unmodified multisample, how it acts and how it sounds and then decide the Program features. Then adjust everything as you like it, test it and save it.

If you are unsecure what exactly to do, then try to select a similar Program and replace the multisample to see how it works. Sometimes this is the quickest chance to make a Program. Usually there are still a few parameters to adjust though.

Good luck!

Klaus

[jeangenie]

Klaus

Thank you so much for your tips!

I do use Fusionconverter and, as useful as it can be, it never seems to yield great results with piano sounds. So I followed your advice and dropped these multisamples onto an existing piano program and while still in need of some tweaking, the difference was huge as the program created by fusionconverter was virtually unplayable.

Thanks again!

[oliv928]

I think the link is dead now...