New pianos library for Kontakt (Player), Abbey Road Classic Upright Pianos. Recorded at the world famous Abbey Road Studio Two in London, and mixed by our very own Tim Starnes, the Abbey Road Pianos library brings two of the record industry’s most iconic upright pianos — and the legendary studio where they reside — right to your fingertips.
The 1901 Upright Studio Piano is the most comprehensive deep-sampled Upright ever created. Recorded and processed at 24-Bit / 96Khz at our famous British Studio through a large custom NEVE desk. The 1901 Upright Studio Piano contains both standard and prepared articulations. All standard sustain samples were recorded with both pedal up, pedal down and half pedal positions. In addition we also added staccatissimo (w/ round robin) for fast playing styles and our gorgeous Una Corta (Soft Pedal) articulation, which has to be the warmest- and softest piano articulation ever recorded.
Vintage Upright is a beautiful “character” piano, subtly out-of-tune, bursting with realism, and filling a gap between the pristinely sampled pianos on the market and novelty “junk” pianos. Its haunting tone shines beautifully as a solo instrument or in the mix, and lends extraordinary character to any style of music including jazz, rock, blues, pop, ragtime, and film applications. Vintage Upright is a deeply sampled instrument containing over 3000 samples in 24-bit, 10 dynamic levels per note, two microphone perspectives, and multi-velocity mechanical noises. Advanced features include true “repedaling” and various sympathetic resonances. Designed for the full version of Kontakt 4 or 5
Upright Piano was sampled from a (slightly used) Schafer and Sons VS-40 upright piano using Oktava Mk-012 (in cardioid pattern) and AEA Ribbon microphones in wide stereo into Grace M101 and AEA TRP preamps. The piano was sampled with both small diaphragm condenser and ribbon microphones in order to capture both the transient details and warmth of an upright piano. This approach also allows the user to blend between microphone positions, in order to achieve a more percussive SDC sound, or a laid-back Ribbon warmth, depending on the needs of the track. With both mic positions equal, the piano library achieves a punchy, present, balanced sound useful for pop and solo piano tracks.
The UPRIGHT PIANO is ideal for productions that derive their charm from little eccentricities and imperfections. When something other than the “perfect” piano sound is required, this Powered by Kontakt instrument offers a distinctly charismatic signature sound – perfect for use in a broad range of styles including blues, jazz, country, pop and rock. Adapted from Native Instruments’ legendary AKOUSTIK PIANO software and manufactured with the same attention to detail as the BERLIN, VIENNA and NEW YORK grands, this is an instrument that sounds original in every way.
