Yamaha U1 (1976)
A beloved Yamaha U1 from the 1970's sampled in 3 layers.
ByKai-Anders Ryan
The story
My most loved analog vintage gear. My Yamaha U1. It was bought by my grandmother back in 1970s. My mum was practicing piano on it when she was a kid.
Since then has it been parked to a wall in my grandmother’s house for decades. I remember as a kid, we were not allowed to touch the piano. I inherited it after graduating from the Oslo National Academy of The Arts.
The piano is in perfect working condition. I decided to sample it before I got it tuned. I did sample it with 3-layers, all the white keys (52 samples).
I want you to check out my softest patch (1-layer) without felt, because it really brings out feelings (for me, and I hope you too) when playing it.
I used high quality microphones trough vintage preamps and high quality RME converters.
Reviews
The perfect soft piano!
The sampling is amazing, there is absolutely no noise at all. It is shy, but it is also very dynamic. If this had a GUI with some settings, it would be a 5/5 no doubt. It really is, a perfect soft piano. The title should give it away, for more people to discover it!
Beautiful sound.
This really has anything you could want in a piano library. Its dynamic, realistic, warm, clear, emotional. You could throw a million words at this thing. The high end sounds especially beautiful to me. Its very shimmery and ethereal. This one is really inspiring and i think is great for scoring even though its not a felt.
Yesteryears Yamaha
Something about the tone of this does make it sound aged (in a really good way). Almost nostalgic. The notes seem to waver slightly which give the instrument real character. Very good.