The story
A few years ago my kids were gifted a toy piano for Christmas, and at this point I’ve probably spent more time playing it than they have. I enjoy the way it rings out and the mechanical sounds of pressing each key.
I recently became interested in learning to script in Kontakt, and I thought this was a good project to start with. I wanted to capture the raw, imperfect quality of the instrument while also providing a way to quickly manipulate the sound. I created six modules where you can control release samples, pitch shift, filters, chorus, delay, and reverb. For instance, pitching the notes an octave down, adding some low pass filtering, chorus and reverb quickly creates a cinematic feel.
I recorded three round robins in three dynamic levels, and three round robins for the releases in two dynamic levels.
Reviews for Toy Grand Piano
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
The ultimate toy piano!
As the owner of a toy piano, I know what this samplist was talking about when they mentioned that they'd probably spent more time playing it than their kids had! This library perfectly captures all of the weird quirks of toy pianos, and provides a pretty much perfect palette of tools to shape those sounds, including high and low pass filters, tempo synced delay, reverb, chorus, easy control over release samples, and even an octave pitch shifter. I couldn't have created a better toy piano library if I'd tried. Bravo!
One of the best toy pianos!
The sampling is trully well done, the GUI is one of the best I've seen in the entire Pianobook, and the sound is actually pretty cute, and not too creepy. There are only 2,5 octaves though, and the lower one is not that well defined, since you hear a lot of the higher resonances.
In the amazing GUI though you can find some awesome options that can turn this thing into an SFX machine.
You really need to test it by yourself in order to understand it. Highly recommended!
A cute little pack, with a lot of attention to detail
This is a limited sample instrument, only cause of the instrument that was sampled no duh. But because of the limited samples, a lot more attention to detail was put into adding more and more to the final product. The gui is phenomenal, the additional options provided add so much difference in sound quality, this is "THE" Toy Piano sample instrument. That being said, because its a Toy Piano sample instrument, it has a limited range of uses, but that forces composers to be more creative, which is always highly encouraged regardless.
Awesome Characterful Instrument
This is a really nice toy piano. The sound is childish and characterful and has alot of mechanical noise and other noise that gives it alot of character. The range is fairly limited but thats just because of how the instrument is made. The GUI is also really well done and gives you a-lot of different ways to alter the sound with effects. This is a fun sound to mess around with and feels very realistic. great job
Useful Toy
I can see where this sample pack would have its uses. The sound could be more inspiring, and the GUI- which is incredible by the way- increases the playability. The noises of the releases and the tuning is a little bit left-field for my taste, but I suppose that is what you get with a Toy Piano!
