The story
I’ve always been rather curious about harmonics on piano, like with harp or other string instruments. Does it still have that beautiful fragility in the sound? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a full, playable harmonic piano before, and thus this was an interesting experiment.
I managed to get access to a semi-grand piano, and went about sampling the harmonics, 1 dynamic layer, 2 round-robins, with the sustain pedal down. It certainly sounds very similar to a normal piano, but there is definitely a sort of greater innocence to it. It sounds somewhat like a cross between a piano and harp harmonics.
The name of the piano draws from the perceived innocence. I don’t know anyone named Annie.
Anyways, hope you enjoy this idea / experiment. :]
Reviews for Annie’s Piano
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
warm and intimate sound of piano
I am a big fan of piano, so I tend to try out all the piano available. This will for sure add a nice selection to my library. Such a warm and intimate sound of piano.
Harmonics! ...with a bit of a delay
In the description it is being infered that this could sound like a normal piano, but it is actually not - in a good way though! This patch is not a generic piano instrument. Its envelope is shaped in a way that each key press really feels the sound signature of a harmonic, but at the same time it doesn't take away the defined piano character that you expect to hear.
If you intend to perform on it, you might want to spend a little time to get used to the tiny extra timing needed to trigger a sound, but it probably shines through programming. It is very dynamic, but if you go hard on it, you might start listening to some white noise in the samples. If you go soft, you won't even notice it! You might also need to know that the range is limited, but that's kind of expected for a harmonics patch.
Number one with an Arpeggiator!
I thought it would be sure fun to try this sound with an arpeggiator, but doing so quickly points out the fatal flaw in this library. The sample start time is not only really loose, it's also inconsistent. What should have come out as nice even sixteenth notes ends up sounding like swing, shuffle, or even dotted rhythms because of the inconsistent editing. I really do like this sound, however, so put in the time to edit the timing on my copy so its a lot tighter. It's also worth noting that the samples all play to the end, regardless of whether you're holding the keys down or not, so it's easy to run out of polyphony. Adjusting the release time doesn't solve this issue, and I didn't dig in to see if I could diagnose the problem.
Harmonics Piano
This piano has a very unique harmonics vibe. This should probably have been indicated in the title of the instrument but its in the description. Its cool because it doesn't have as much mids and lows as a normal piano but somehow still feels very warm and characterful. I think it would work really well for scoring or for EDM or hip hop music where you dont really want the piano to take up that much frequency space. The sample editing could definitely be better, its a bit loose. i would like to see that improved but apart from that its a fun and unique instrument.
