Newsletter: What’s New in March 2022

March’s Highlight Introducing… Mike Georgiades Mike is an Ivor Nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist who has recently composed the score to Outcasters – a game available on Stradia. He has also collaborated with The Flight on their soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.  Soft Nylon Guitar Intro Price until April 1st: 79 (GBP, USD, EUR). RRP 99. Free Kontakt Player. Today we’ve launched the first in what we hope will be a series of paid Pianobook libraries. Whilst we absolutely aim to keep the platform free, this new direction allows our best samplists to earn a living from their work with the full support of our platform and the help of our partner, Spitfire Audio.  “I am very happy to introduce Soft Nylon Guitar, offering the beauty and warmth of an intimately recorded nylon string guitar, whilst replicating all the behaviours and nuances of a real guitar through detailed scripting and careful calibration. As its name suggests, the samples were performed with emphasis on the soft and delicate.”  Learn more The pack is purchased via the Spitfire Audio cart and is downloaded using the Spitfire Audio App (Mac OS 10.13, Windows 7 or above). The pack uses the free Kontakt Player (version 5.8 and above). New Discord Channel We’ve been thinking of ways to offer the best platform for our community to interact and help each other and the Forum has unfortunately become a bit of a mess! Right now, we’re focussed on delivering the best experience on our website from the download and upload aspects and the amount of control Samplist have. So unfortunately we simply don’t have the bandwidth or resources to improve the Forum to a state we’re all happy with.  We’re therefore happy to announce that we have come up with the best alternative solution- The Official Pianobook Discord. This will allow us to produce specific channel content for those interested in different aspects of Pianobook, whether that be developing sample packs, composing demos, or simply enjoying the content. The server is going to be moderated by community members and will be updated regularly. We’ll also be hosting a huge community event soon via Discord- so join ASAP!  https://discord.gg/2QnrYGSCvw  Website Improvements Thanks to all of your reviews, we’ve now collated enough data to activate our full filter system on the Sample Packs page. You can now filter by specific characteristics you are looking for (best sound, most inspirational, or overall) whilst also stacking this with the plugin type you require (Decent Sampler or Kontakt).

Samplist of the Month Hunter Rogerson Hunter is our Samplist of the month for March. He’s recently released The Wildmother’s Dulcimer, which is our second highest rated pack on the website. Not only is Hunter a brilliant Samplist, he is also an accomplished composer:  “Creating stories is a uniquely human activity and one of the most important traits we have to offer.   Composing is storytelling, and, as a composer for media, I feel intimately responsible for not just dressing a story with pretty sounds, but adding another pillar to the story’s architecture.”  See more The Wildmother’s Dulcimer This particular hammered dulcimer means quite a lot to me. It has a focused warmth that surprises me every time I drop it into a mix (I’ve remarked to anyone who will listen that, every time I track it, I never bother processing it—it always just sits).  Learn more Hunter’s Ampex Ecosystems My great grandfather passed before I could really say I knew him, but he left behind a 1950’s Ampex reel-to-reel machine than I use often. The tape component hardly functions, but the tube pre has a ferocious, noisy tone when pushed.  Learn more

Pick of the Packs Dice Game – Obelig  This atrocity of an instrument should have never been made. It’s unfriendly user interface makes the user play a lousy dice game in order to adjust the processors… Learn more Mini Tongue Drum – Harriet Ford In an effort to expand on my musical and compositional voice, I decided to buy a cheap tongue drum off the internet and sample it in a dry studio environment, courtesy of the University of Gloucestershire… Learn more Evolutions: ONEMatthew It was sometime in January while processing the massive amount of samples for ‘The Synths’ release when I came up with a technique for making evolving type pads/atmos which lead me to making this sample library… Learn more

And the Top Tracks Ryan Weeks – Beads This is a track I made using Warty Dulcitone. I also have Korg sounds in there. Listen Here Geoff Ereth – All the Delights This also uses the Pianobook instrument: The Lobby Piano – Playable Techniques Listen here Andrea Giordani​ – Spinning CogsThis track was created as a part of Pianobook project. This time showcasing the free sample instrument Warty Dulcitone by Christian Henson. Listen here Follow our SoundCloud page to hear more of our community’s work and to find out how you can submit your own demos.