September, Aberdeen, 2020, well… seeing as it is 2020 expect anything. Every week on our YouTube channel we perform a “pianodrop” to coincide with releasing the next batch of instruments. A quick highlights video showing off new sounds and some of our old-favourites. The thing is we needed a cool ident for it so… why […]
This year in honor of Make Music Day we’ve made noise, made samples, and plenty of music! Watch the three part event hosted by both Christian and Spitfire Audio, and make some music of your own! MAKE NOISE Christian shows you how to record your own samples at home, using everyday objects and a mobile […]
With nearly 40 new instruments submitted this month, May was no exception to our record-breaking streak of submissions! Find out more in the video below, and find those instruments here! PIANOBOOK SUNRISES It’s been a long couple of months of early and earlier starts, lots of coffee, and some truly incredible sunrises. We’ve cataloged them […]
OUR BIGGEST MONTH YET! A record-shattering 73 instruments submitted by the community with over 100 demos to go along with them. In fact there were so many great instruments we had to release two highlights videos! Find out more in the video below, and find those instruments here. NFTW April has also been the birth […]
“Music will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer To help us all through these difficult times, here at pianobook we’ve created three of our own ‘Quarantune’ playlists. Not full of upbeat and […]
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST PIECE OF SYSTEM’S MUSIC To celebrate Piano Day 2020, the Pianobook Community has joined together to attempt to create the world’s biggest piece of system’s music. Inspired by the music of Steve Reich and taking a lead from Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs the community has submitted over 380 parts to make up […]
Music in utero From a majestic church organ to sounds from the womb, Christian walks through some of the amazing instruments submitted in January. A Systems Music Treat for Piano day Celebrate Piano Day 2020 with us as we attempt to create the world’s biggest piece of systems music. Find out more in the video […]
The World’s Biggest Piece of System’s Music To celebrate Piano Day 2020, the Pianobook Community is joining together to attempt to create the world’s biggest piece of system’s music. Inspired by the music of Steve Reich and taking a lead from Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs we want you to create you own unique contribution to […]
New Year’s Honours List (Pianobook Edition) Christian highlights some of the key contributors to Pianobook from last year. Here’s to an exciting year ahead! Congratulations to all the honours list: Simon Fyffe Egor Kurdello David Hilowitz Jon Meyer Joshua Meltzer Stephen Tallamy Andrew Ward Angus Roberts-Carey Christopher Scullion Conner Sawchuk Andrew Finch Keith Theodosiou Pete […]
Featured in the 2019 honours list: Andrew Ward: 1911 Bechstein Upright (most download piano in 2019) Angus Roberts-Carey: Sonva Piano, Sonva Upright, Infinite Guitar (plus Kontakt versions of 9000ft Piano and Tracked Piano) Christopher Scullion: Tatak – Toy Piano, Tatak – Felt Piano (MVP and Full), Tatak – Muted Felt Piano Conner Sawchuk: Decrepit Toy […]
CHARACTER AND (CHRISTMAS) SPIRIT As a Christmas gift to the community, Christian put together his version of Max’s Bentley piano, plus had a moment playing through some of last month’s submissions. DEMO HIGHLIGHTS Here’s a playlist with all the tracks submitted in December. If you would like to create a demo then check out […]
EXPLODING WATERMELONS! Christian walks through more submissions, makes a drum kit from cutting room audio clips and explodes a watermelon. BOYBAND PIANO Returning to the idea of close mic’ing a piano to generate a tracked piano, this time with more microphones and duck tape! DEMO HIGHLIGHTS Soundcloud is brimming with new demos – check out […]
CELEBRATING 100 FREE INSTRUMENTS Marking the 1 year anniversary of Pianobook, Christian walks through some of the latest submissions to the Pianobook library. BAGPIPE COMPETITION SHORTLIST Not only did we learn that Christian spits fire and audio, but also you can actually make a whole range of unique instruments from 29 Bagpipes tuning up. DEMO […]
CELEBRATING ONE YEAR OF PIANOBOOK In September 2018, Pianobook was officially launched with a Prologue video from Christian. One year later and we now have a website with a massive sample library of community contributed pianos and other instruments. Upright pianos, grand pianos, felted and prepared pianos plus a range of other interesting pads and […]
MAKING MUSIC FROM POOH? Whether the term “Pooh Breakfast” has anything to do with the sound of 29 Bagpipes tuning up is up to you! Christian teases the upcoming Pianbook competition and walks through another set of submissions to Pianobook. PROGRAMMING ROUND ROBINS WITH A KALIMBA Christian discovers the simplicity of programming […]
PADS FOR PIANOS I think it would be fair to say that in July Pianobook got a bit “paddy”, as reflected by Christian’s vlog and the large number of pad instruments submitted to the library (which now has its own Pads section). MAX’s BENTLY PIANO (CONTINUED…) If you remember from the June […]
KONTAKT MASTERCLASS We began June with a beast of a masterclass with Jonjo and Leo from Spitfire Audio on how they go about creating a piano instrument in Kontakt. AIR PIANO Following on from the recording session in May, Christian unveiled the Air Piano, along with an in-depth look into the way […]
Rusty Gates Who would have thought that a Rusty Gate would have inspired such great creativity! Whilst walking through the most downloaded Pianobook pianos, Christian set a competition to see if the community could create instruments out of some raw audio clips recorded on holiday. Check out the video explaining it all below: […]
What an incredible response we got to the Piano Day special – so great we broke Dropbox and had to rapidly move samples over to S3 to allow everyone to download the awesome pianos from the community. A little tweet from Ólafur Arnalds may have helped bump up the numbers! Happy #pianoday here […]
Pianos are unique instruments: both a set of complex mechanics and a beautiful piece of furniture. The complexity of building a piano means that no two pianos are completely alike. Different manufacturers have their own methods of building pianos, which leads to a whole range of tonal differences. As a piece of furniture, they […]
The Spitfire Audio LABS programme is an infinite series of software instruments, free and easy to use; made by musicians in London for anyone, anywhere. They release one every month, with a lot of content coming from Christian Henson’s private collection of curios, as well as a bimonthly creative compendium, The Notebook. And in […]
CHRISTIAN HENSON (EXCERPT FROM SPITFIRE AUDIO): Whilst I knew the piano was a complicated instrument, I didn’t quite believe how mind-blowing my trip to Schimmel would be. How do they make pianos? How did these monumentally complex bits of machinery become the ‘king’ instrument, top of the food chain, ‘Musicus-rex’? I guess the scale […]
Thanks to these brutally romantic images from Andrew Ward, who had this to say about them: “I took the photos on 19th August 2014 at the beach in Aldeburgh, Suffolk – I’d dragged the family on a pilgrimage to Orford Ness to explore Thomas Dolby’s “Invisible Lighthouse” (https://vimeo.com/92960064) and we happened upon this scene on […]
The photo was taken in 2012. I was living in Beijing at that time and was lucky enough to travel and some parts of Asia. The photo was taken in the foyer of the School of the Arts Singapore, which itself is an amazing architectural building with jagged angular walls and greenery flowing within and […]
WE HAVE A LOGO Mihail Mihayylov reached out to me but minutes after I launched the Pianobook project about a logo and typography plan. What was amazing about Mihail’s work is he got the concept instantly. After a massive thumbs up from me about the logo Mihail created this document for us to hone down […]
