The story
Hello
Piano:
Yamaha S-400B (I thought they made motorcycles..?)
Story:
So it was another boiling hot Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere. The studio was closed (not to me…), quiet and ready to be used. I jumped in, setup some mics and went to town. She’s bright, if you want it that way, reasonably clean and well presented from 2 vastly different listening positions. Sometimes you just have to try out things that you haven’t before and this was one of those times.
Approach:
Røde Ribbon mics, capturing the full piano body and miniature omni DPA’s stuck underneath with blu-tak for the why the hell not sound. Check the pictures out for a better description I guess. I also made multiple Impulse Responses which are included here to be used any which way you want, and one should be loaded in the Kontakt instrument by default. These were made through the piano, in the room in a few variations so you can have a strange sustain if you want. Note: If anyone wants my Impulse Response Utility that I made (OS X only sadly) then please just get in touch.
Instrument:
If I did what I think I did right, it should load in Kontakt, with 3 mic knobs:
1. Underneath close mics
2. Ribbon body mics
3. Release Triggers
There’s also a quick EQ panel for fast sculpting and a Reverb amount slider which’ll send through an Impulse that I like. Try them all and see what you like, hopefully something for everyone.
Reviews for Yamaha S-400B
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Bright but Characterful
As ive said before im generally a fan of darker, cinematic felt pianos. I find most non felt libraries to be stale, boring and too bright. I know Yamahas are notoriously bright but i was really suprised at how much i liked this one. It has alot of character which is so refreshing for me for a piano like this. It also has great dynamics and a very dramatic theatrical quality to it. The reverb also sounds great on it. This might be my new go to non felt piano. Awesome job. The GUI has some nice controls as well.
Nice and clear sound of piano, versatile library
Very nicely captured piano! I really like the clear tone of this library. It is easy to play with, and goes well with many instruments or library.
Yes Yamaha
This is really great in my opinion. The sound is crisp without being too bright and shiny. It sparkles. Works perfectly.
Interesting piano
The default mic presets on this instrument leave something to be desired, but cranking the release and blending the body and under microphones differently can have a dramatic impact on the sound and turned my dead face into an excited little kid. Worth the download.
A nice sound with extended options!
This piano instrument is quite nice, very well recorded with a little to no white noise in the samples. If you intend to use the sustain pedal, I highly recommend to completely turn the Release all the way off, since it builds up all the release trigger noises and releases them at the same time with some added white noise that will be hard to deal with in a mix - and in fact scared me at first.
The different microphone arrangement is fantastic to play with, especially if you combine it with the included EQ. That way you can tune it up and fix some spots you might find over -or- underwhelming.
One thought though. Why the hell is the Reverb Level a horizontal slider whereas it works with vertical mouse control? It would work better as a knob anyway.
