Jake Johnson about pianos and filters

[KingIdiot]

Lets try and keep new topics seperate http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

About Filters. I dont know of a book that discusses filters with regards to Pianos. What you may want to look into is some older topics on this forum from people like Sam that talk about piano\'s alot and how to add filters to some of them.

Usually you want to use a low pass filter either controlled by a Continuos controller (Mod Wheel Breath, Etc) of by Velocity scaling. This helps take off the \"bite\" of some of the sound. If you create specific filters for each dynamic level (piano, Mezzo, forte..etc) you can actually gain smoother transitions through the dynamic range of an instrument. many Devlopers dont like this because it changes the \"character\" of the piano, but I tend to like it becuase it gives more options and also more dynamic range.

I personally am not a pianist, nor do I know enough about pianos to know what exactly is the \"best sound\" for a piano

I do know that with low filters you tend to also lose some \"air\" in the recording becuase you are \"shelving\" high frequencies. this is to say you are removing high frequencies. While its not much, especially if you use reverb, and it can be mimic\'d with some fancy PLug In\'s.... another possibility to fix this in the mix stage is with Multiple passes in the record phase and EQ tricks. One with filters engaged, and one without. Then \"high pass\" filtering the non filtered recording with another EQ. Usually chopping out anything lower than around 10-14k. this will bring back some of the \"air\" in the recording. I would say to do the high pass in Giga and do port layering, but I\'ve tried this. Giga\'s HighPass doesn\'t have a high enough cut off frequency.

I\'m not sure how Giga\'s EQ would sound either

Quite another possibility is to actually edit the wave samples that comprise the instrument. Doing this is a bit more work, but usually grants better results. This requires much more detail and specifics to pianos and the results one is \"shooting for\". still some trial an error and batch processing might get you some pretty nice results http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif Not to mention learn alot.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[Chadwick]

Jake,

According to the flimsy web manual, the ZR-76 has \'programmable velocity\'.

My take on this is that it allows you to tailor the velocity output of the keyboard to your style. eg, Say you don\'t like having to bang the daylights out of the keyboard in order to get fff response from a sound or external module, the ZR lets you change the curve so that you get high velocity output with relatively softer keystrikes.

Ultimately though, none of this matters too much. Gigastudio has extensive user control over the velocity response of a sample/key/instrument. It\'s unlikely, but say you can\'t find a curve on the ZR which works the way you like with Michiel\'s piano. All you\'ll have to do is go into the editor and noodle with the response options until it feels good. However, my guess is that you\'ll be able to just plug and play, and that\'s that.

When you\'re simply trying to play a nice sounding piano, you shouldn\'t have to get too wrapped up in synth programming, unless that\'s where you want to go or you have a problem getting the sound you need. It\'s really the developer\'s job to use Gigastudio\'s facilities to make the piano sound its best.

If you can\'t resist, try these:
http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/tutorial.html (\"http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/tutorial.html\")
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Birdland/3547/analog.htm (\"http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Birdland/3547/analog.htm\")
http://www.synthesizers.com/links.html (\"http://www.synthesizers.com/links.html\")

Good luck
Rick