Coming Soon - The Hammersmith - Our Piano

[soniccouture]

Hi All,

We'd like to share some information about our upcoming piano instrument, and some audio demos, on our blog.



All feedback and questions very welcome.

Cheers
James

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Any non-classical demos to come? I'm still waiting for that piano library that's just as good at rock/pop/blues (particularly more classic stuff) as it is at classical music and modern jazz. Seems like most piano libraries are geared towards the latter two and getting the types of pristine recordings that work well in those genres, versus the more character type sounds that would work better for rock/pop/blues/etc. I know classical and jazz pieces are probably good ways to show off a piano in a demo, but I'm much more interested in hearing pianos in rock/pop mixes. What sounds great solo, can sound terrible in a mix.

When I think of sites like this one, Gearslutz, etc., I'm inclined to think there's fewer people making classical and jazz recordings than dance, rock, pop and hiphop, so I'm always surprised that piano libraries are always being sold to classical players. Maybe it's just what you have to do for sales, but when I first heard the Broken Wurli demos (especially with Where it's At), I knew it was the Wurlitzer library for me (still the best I ever used). Would love similar demos for this piano, or if it's not the best piano for the job, maybe a more colorful take on a piano in the future. Anyway, mini rant over.

Also, what kind of features will this have in terms of sympathetic resonance, half-pedaling, etc.?

[soniccouture]

Hi,

There will certainly be some rock demos. One of the mic options is a mono AKG D19 in the soundboard hole - a very rock and roll trick. The recording was engineer by Peter Henderson, Supertramp & Paul McCartney engineer, at British Grove studios - so it has all the rock credentials you want!

Sympathetic resonance - the piano has a complete set of sustain pedal samples, as well as the usual non-sustain samples. So it has completely natural sympathetic resonance on each note when the pedal is down, which sounds very realistic. As far as we know this is the only library to have this, even though many claim something similar.

James

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Sounds good. I'll be looking forward to this.

[dredd i knight]

Sounds fantastic! You're being very quiet about it...
How many round robins are there? Can't seem to find that info, although I noticed it has intelligent anti-repeat, which I suppose must cover that...? How does it work? And If I first buy the normal edition, and then want to upgrade, will I be able to only pay the remainder of what it would have cost in the first place?

[soniccouture]

Hi,
we're not being at all quiet on Facebook and Twitter! This forum doesn't get used much anymore.

Our recent products don't use old-fashioned round-robin, as it is a huge waste of data. A round robin layer doubles the amount of samples but is only used occasionally, if there is a fast repeat of one sample. all the rest of the round-robin data sits dormant, adding nothing to the detail of the instrument.

We can't go into too much detail of how it works, but I.A.R. repurposes sample data from the main layer to ensure you never hear machine-gunning from the rapid repetition of the same sample attack, but makes sure you have the maximum amount of samples available for all your playing, not just repeated notes.

Upgrades - Yes, this is fine, but while you try out the Std Edition, don't register the serial, run it in demo mode. that way we can easily swap the serials over if you decide to upgrade.
If you want to upgrade much later, that's still fine, but we will need to get your serial de-registered by NI which takes a day or two.

James

[dredd i knight]

Well I'd better like you on Facebook Then!
Congratulations on a superb job; my piano teacher thinks it's incredible!

[lingyai]

I got the LE version. A grand piano it is. I have many of the usual suspects, but this is the best I've ever played. Thanks for this!

[soniccouture]

That's great to hear - thanks!

James

[mr.rock]

Hi All! I'm really curious on this new Hammersmith which seems to be a new standard in Acoustic Pianos, I have some questions though. are you planning to ad more options in the future? I mean, re-pedaling, single note Harmonic Resonances, etc. all features which makes a sampled Piano more and more realistic. from what I can hear from your Demos it seems really a wonderful sound and 21 velocity layers made by a MIDI machine is really interesting for having the Best feeling ever, but to play Piano Solo like Classical Pieces, certain features are quiet necessary. it's really sad to know you decided to make such a wonderful and extra-detailed job on one side and not the same on the other. if the Hammersmith had such features, like many competitors have (fake or not), I would surely buy it.
really Thanks, any thought or comment would be appreciated.

[soniccouture]

Hi there,
There are no plans to add 'fake features' at the moment, as we do not believe they would add anything to the sound of the product. We examined many such features in competing libraries and found that they did not work well or very realistically, generally speaking. For the most part they are there to add marketing points.

I'm sorry you find it sad, but we made a judgement about what would work well as a piano instrument, and hopefully it does!

James

[Deep Purple]

Isn't Hammersmith where the Clash were from or something like that?

[soniccouture]

They have a song "white man in the hammersmith palais", but not sure if they are from there - probably somewhere around west London, though, i think.

I also used to live right near Hammersmith bridge, so it has lots of connections

[mr.rock]

Hi James, let me thank you for your ultra-fast answer, I'm really sorry if I made any misunderstandings, I was not advicing you to ad "fake" features to your Hmmersmith and I did not want to criticize. as I said ,it seems to me a wonderful sound. I was only curious since, you know, many competitors claim to have things as re-pedaling, etc. also, I see on Pianists' Forums like "Piano World" ,many people say your Hammersmith sounds wonderful but such features would have been much appreciated. yet, I'm not a sample-library maker and for sure you know better than me what can be done and what not with technology.
Thanks again, asap I hope I can give it a chance.
Gianni

[Deep Purple]

They have a song "white man in the hammersmith palais", but not sure if they are from there - probably somewhere around west London, though, i think.

I also used to live right near Hammersmith bridge, so it has lots of connections

I know the song, but thought they had some kind of personal connection with Hammersmith. Just a vague memory in the back of my mind so thought I'd ask.