Reverse Piano
A Yamaha piano processed through a guitar pedal
Bywesleywilson29
The story
Christian’s film exploring Dave, the Neumann KU 100, left me with more questions than it answered. In a good way.
In the midst of the strangest week of the year, that between Christmas and the new year, I was experimenting with some new mic positions on my family piano – attempting to create a ‘pseudo binaural’ recording, if you like. I ran off a quick ‘MVP’ style sample set when a notion hit me.
Making pads from pianos is no new idea – taking a sample, stretching it, reversing it and putting in a big crossfade to create a ‘ping-pong’ style loop – but what if we simply reversed all of the samples?
With a little magic from the cheapest bit of tech I own (a 5 quid eBay-find guitar pedal) this is the result. I’m not really sure what to call it – it’s not really a pad nor a piano – so I’ve gone for ‘Reverse Piano’!
Reviews
Super cool effect...
These warped and revered piano effects are always really cool to play with. The instrument is well built and all the samples sound good. Might be nice to have some more of the raw recordings as an option for those who want to do their own processing, but that's not at all a necessity. Still a great instrument that I'll be holding onto!
The Secret Sauce behind a 'forward' piano sound
I wasn't quite sure what to make of this library at first. As someone who loves reversing sounds, using backwards reverb --we all know how to reverse IR's in Space Designer by now, right? -- I figured this would be an instant favorite for me, but it wasn't. I couldn't put my finger on the exact reason, but I coming back to it, thinking I'd figure out what I needed to do differently. The inspiration came from Christian Henson's "Meris Verbs for LABS Soft Piano" library. What if I used this library as an effect for a different piano library, albeit a mismatched one? That was the eureka moment for me. Laying this with a forward piano is -- THE BOMB! Give it a try. you won't regret it!!!
A great idea, that adds real colour to your music!
Anything below F3 has a noticeable overtone to it. Which makes the low end of this piano great for atonal clusters. The Top end is full of magic and wonder. I recommend sending the instrument through a randomised pattern delay to create a lush swirly ambience that doesn't feel repetitive. All in all, this is a surprisingly versatile library that's been recorded very well!