How do I get this type of sound through samples?

[MDesigner]

http://www.samhulick.com/Keane.mp3

Piano, bass, and drums. I've got the Bardstown Imperial Boesendorfer, but obviously this piano in the mp3 is more of a pop piano. Any sampled pianos that sound very close to this?

Also, what would you recommend to approximate the bass guitar and the drums?

Thanks!

[Scott Cairns]

Hey Sam, my suggestions;

Trilogy or Scarbee for bass.

For drums, pretty much any standard rock kit from a decent drum lib should fit the bill. There's a tambourine playing 16ths at the start with a ride cymbal by the sounds of it. Later it goes to hats.

Im not much of an expert on piano libs but it almost sounds like you could load up a "standard" piano lib, roll off some bottom end with EQ and brighten a little to cut through in the mix.

There sounds like there might be a bit of synth and clean guitar tucked in there too.

[MDesigner]

Hmm, the Scarbee bass guitars seem too "funky" for this. Slap, fingered, slap'n'fingered. All three of them seem to have a funk edge to them.

Care to recommend a good drum library? Something that preferably has this kind of mellow rock stuff..and also maybe some jazzy brush kit stuff too. Peter Erskine maybe?

[Link F.]

Sam,

I have Keane's album, I'll see if I can do a mock-up with some of the libraries I have and see what you think. Look for it this evening.

[MDesigner]

Thanks! Too kind of you

[midphase]

In the video the guy appears to be playing a Rhodes type thing...perhaps a Yamaha stage piano. If you have Logic I would try EVP88 on the stage piano settings.

[SWL]

He uses several pianos ... perha[ps the one in the video is for show ?

I'd try an upright piano. More of your Coldplay type tone.

[Ian Dorsch]

Yeah, the piano sounds like an upright. You could probably get good results from most any kind of decent piano lib and some judicious EQ and subtle detuning.

I would think that the fingered Scarbee lib would fit the bill pretty well for this sort of music. There's nothing about a fingered bass that's inherently "funky", and I think the Scarbee lib is pretty versatile. I don't know, though, this bass line is not very exposed, you may be able to get away with a pretty bare bones sample. Sonic Implants has some basses for download that are in this style...especially check out the Hofner and Rickenbacker fingered basses. Even the Heavy Pick Bass might do the trick, though it could be a little ballsier than you need.

As far as drums, you might also check out the Sonic Implants drums. They offer individual kits for download...they are affordable and the quality is quite good. Any of the big drum libs would stand you in good stead (BFD, DFHS, Artist Drums, Scarbee) but they are probably overkill if you don't plan to do a lot of this kind of work.

It sounds like there are some subtle organ-ish pads in there filling out the piano chords toward the end of the selection, and there are some sort of saw-wave/nylon-guitar-sounding synth plucks that sound very much like something from Reaktor.

[Nick Harvey]

A few days ago I finished a Keane-inspired piece for a TV Drama that I'm writing the score for. For the piano I used the Vintaudio Steinway Upright doubled with the EVP88 (much lower in the mix). The drums were from the Backbeat SAGE expander for Stylus RMX (part loops/part programmed) and the bass was from Trilogy (later replaced by the real thing). I can't sing the praises of The Vintaudio Upright Collection highly enough. They've just got such character. They are my pianos of choice and I've got more piano sample libraries than I've got hairs on my chest...and I'm RIDICULOUSLY hirsute!

Nick


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www.messhead.com

[EricM]

Hi there. My first post. Actually, Keane almost entirely relies on a Yamaha CP80 for their piano sound. Ahhh, reminds me of those great Peter Gabriel sounds. Prominy (http://www.prominy.com/) has a CP80 sound library that looks great, though I haven't used it. The Kurzweil PCR2 Vintage keys expansion also has a nice CP80 which I like a lot.

Eric Matlock
Musician/Editor
sideeffects.tv

[Link F.]

Sam,

Here's my mockup utilizing a midi file found online:
Somewhere Only We Know (http://www.indiedos.com/LinkF-Keane.mp3)

You can contact me privately about some of the libraries used. The piano is the PMI Emperor and the bass guitar is the Lastufka Libraries Acoustic Bass.

Hope you enjoy.

[janila]

I'm RIDICULOUSLY hirsute!I'm glad we got this cleared up. :D

[MDesigner]

Ok, I'm gonna be nitpicky about this one.

The piano and drums sound too thin. Not full enough. It's a pretty close match to the original song, but not quite...