Modartt user forum - Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-11-07T19:32:08Z

I usually use the Klevgränd Daw LP for very good results.
https://klevgrand.com/products/dawlp

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-11-06T17:29:02Z

Pianoteq plus the Air Flavor Pro plugin is Lo-Fi heaven!
Bonus is it nails the LoFi drums too!
Highly recommend this combo!
https://www.airmusictech.com/effects/flavor-pro/

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-09-11T05:56:20Z

Ah - this thread returns! Wow - timely - I was only recently noticing a pop track (top 30-ish) which had really heavily featured a piano with tape-glitch production.. pretty interesting timing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ0li1e...p;index=32

A lot of auto-tune on vocals - [insert Scotty meme "we canno' hold Captn!"] but, don't cry.. piano with tape glitch FX begins around 15 seconds in. You may cry then, if you must

[note: the linked vid is potentially a little nsfw for some perhaps - ]

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-09-10T13:15:40Z

moshuajusic wrote:

I voted yes even though I'd prioritize a number of other things. In the meantime Izotope Vinyl is a great plugin for that effect and it's free.
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/vinyl.html

Another free options is https://www.samplescience.info/2023/03/...rator.html

For me, it really took a something like Pianoteq to form a variety of different tones that these fx plugins can extend.

The future is both bright and dusty

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-09-09T06:32:50Z

I voted yes even though I'd prioritize a number of other things. In the meantime Izotope Vinyl is a great plugin for that effect and it's free.

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/vinyl.html

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-09-08T18:25:47Z

Wow, timely mention of of ChowDSP, I have been following his GitHub for months now while studying DSP theory. If any devs from Modartt are reading this, have you seen any of Christian J. Steinmetz's talks about new methods to abstract/extract DSP profiles via neural networks specifically for audio fx? It's worth exploring his papers and repositories.

Anyhow, after much experimentation with Pianoteq settings and the golden tip from Qexi about flanger use, I've come up with some interesting lofi-ish tones and started uploading them to the FXP Corner. I hope to inspire someone.

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-26T06:03:24Z

Heya, Keys. Sure enjoyed Chow Tape - it's full of realistic tape controls which swung my head, quite like real machines.. used to have to manually do strange things to get those effects.. like alter azimuth (the angle the record/play heads ran across the tape).. the 'gap' from the tape head.. and 'thickness' of tape etc.. really engrossing stuff - a very sincere thank you! .

I don't think everyone needs every plugin - even the UAD ones are interchangeable with others for uses beyond lo-fi.

Yeah, funny enough, a lot of music still gets run through tape (there seems to be a kind of return to the ideal - possibly after years of going for such clean digital sound.. people DO get some kind of 'vibe' from the way tape just can work.. retro? Or just different, velvety and sweetly pumping and not so glassy etc.. infinite varieties and mix types though.. but.. maybe worth adding.. I love not just one tape plugin on the end.. but, things like tape on each track or mix groups.. esp. when you can control some 'crosstalk'.. so a fraction of neighboring track gets 'glued in'.. for example.. on a drum setup.. a mic on the snare may leak in some of the mic on the hats.. or anything in the mix might slightly have some bleed from any number of other things.. 'crosstalk' is like, in the tape days, when the record/playback head may pick up a little bleed from the next-door track.. turn that up or down per track with today's tape plugins, and you're able to do something which was in the past more 'fixed'.. really not a thing to avoid for complexity IMHO.. but something really worth it, to get mixes of a certain type to work better - and also worth adding.. often I'm talking about like 1% of something, not like having things mixed in at 48%.. very subtle things in series, or paralell - mixing everything with 1 macro etc.. all interesting and fun - but hellish for others I know).. I think there's a big diff between using it tastily for commercial release (IRL or plugins) for lo-fi - but it's a lot of territory for creative fixations, all those tape options. Fun thing is, tape is like only one tiny aspect of generating all kinds of creamy/dreamy choices, to wobbly or entirely destroyed. That old hardware rack stuff is not just for making broken lo-fi tones

BTW just noticed, I included that 'mix checker pro' file by accident in the process of putting those up... it's not tape induced lo-fi leaning but more tiny speaker style of sound - but IDK, no harm - I kind of like how plugins like it can print some interesting lo-fi results too. Cheers!

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-25T06:53:29Z

Qexl,
I listened through your examples, thanks for sharing - I've made my own comparisons over the years. You should try the Chow Tape in my link, it's pretty easy to get very similar results to the UAD tape sims with a bit of adjustment. If they put the full version of the UAD into a half price sale I might be tempted eventually. The freebie is nice for fast results. So many ways to get warm and wobbly already but the UAD is well worth having.

Despite my comment in the last post sometimes a very subtle hint of faux tape colouration or iron transformer effect can warm up a mix without going into this lo-fi territory and will probably still appeal to those folks desperately trying to get away from these imperfections back in the day - not that that is anything to do with intentional lo-fi!

My personal preference in lo-fi is at the somewhat exaggerated warm and overly wobbly end rather than the harsh destroyed end in your later examples.
Harsh glitches are not redolent of a bygone era for me - I cannot drift away to anywhere!

Boards Of Canada got it right most (if not all) of the time. It's almost as if the music becomes meditative through all the grunge.

Anyway interesting experiments.

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-24T07:08:05Z

Another epic length post Qexl. I've skimmed through and will have to have a proper look and listen later.

I know these types of plugins are a head scratcher for engineers who tried to work desperately around the limitations of the old analogue equipment.

Yes indeed saturation, tape wobble, iron core saturation FX, vinyl distortions blah blah- obviously non of these improve reproduction. It should go without saying that these just bring back nostalgic inaccuracies of knackered playback formats and imperfect analogue recordings. Usually best used to grossly exaggerate these issues as high quality vinyl, high-quality tape machines, high quality analogue recording are far less distinguishable from good quality digital recording and playback systems. These plugins are about nostalgia for the weirdly pleasing warm and wooly obvious failings.

This developer has some pretty decent free FX for this:
https://chowdsp.com/news.html#feature

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-23T18:49:03Z

Nice of you Keys! Thank you.

Have had the United Audio marketing newsletters taunting me all this month

I'm probably going to break and end up getting the full version - has 'warble' control which is not in the freebie but also, full ver has final output gain control as well as of course more choice (and I think actually nicer results for more variety/fine tuning things). But - good free plugin indeed for a little (or a lot) quick/easy analog hype.

I haven't yet bought these (or leapt on the freebie) because I've over-satisfied all my needs in re these types of tools (for me they didn't add to my workflow, only kind of tempt me to not get as creative in my own way with more editable tools with more control) - but they are easy to use and can make it so that really, probably most users don't need to fuss with infinite options in tape emulators to get a desirable sound.

Any such simplification of processes, to enable exceptionally easy usability like that however does come at the expense of, I believe anyway, some good amount of choice (not a snob thing - a genuine creative necessity), and effectively also some realism. But that won't concern many I'm sure.

I really enjoy one of their other tape products, Studer A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder plug-in

There's also a 'gang control' in the Studer 800 plugin, which means you can place an instance on as many tracks as your projects have, and control them all from one instance (think getting the broad kind of sound you wish to hear by the end).. but not to limit us, once basically happy, you can turn off 'ganging' and further individually tweak each track's tape unit to suit their own individual tracks if desired (like a little more/less, some different tape speed for drums, or more sparkly tones for a certain instrument) etc. It's handy - and may save a lot of time bothering with super specific EQ plugins (in analog times, for sure, you may EQ too on the strip - but if you have the option to put sizzle on tape, you may not want to lift trebles with EQ.. just a 'do two things with one action' kind of comfort). This (and maybe about 3 other tape plugins I really think get 'old-school' emulation into a particularly realistic range) have their use cases - some do better with certain instrumentation, or for a certain 'market/genre'.

I don't turn to that plugin for heading toward Lo-Fi so much though.. but nothing wrong with a nice tape wrapper on anything really.. I guess it's worth blathering on some more for anyone curious..

There's also 'Tape' from Softube - emulates 3 different pretty fine tape machines, but instead of a 'gang' control, has a similar way to work in Studio One (on the 'MixFX' insert). For glitch sounds, it saturates pretty hard, pretty quick - like the compressor claps out in a not-too-harsh kind of way, leaving a nice flat ceiling with that vintage burn.

Plenty of plugins are out there emulating more particularly glitchy tape types.. in like cheap cassette players etc. - but the world of glitched audio is full of so many amazing saturation/tape plugins, seems actually would be difficult to list even a short-list of fav ones.

Quick aside - kind of like tape saturation inre Lo-Fi.. this got my attention today..

This morning, got wind of this nice saturation sim, Bad Speaker from Softube. I have tomorrow to check it out - but it solves a lack of 'speaker' break-up in 'digital saturation' (at least it sounds and looks to do that), so far. Don't want to read too much into it just yet (haven't heard enough yet).. but hoping this scratches a long-time itch of mine.. I have all the circuitry emulations I need but, other than 'cabinet simulations' (aimed at guitar use-cases but.. no rules!), I don't have something which alone deals with 'that kind of side of distortion' which is not so much about driving internals, but 'what the speaker' does.

If anyone likes the sound of that kind of speaker driven glitch, it is also in a good Lo-Fi leaning bundle the Dirty the Bad the Wasted - Softube collection bundle - I have already the Wasted Space 80s-like reverb (actually does take me back to the 80s). But - there's a 'Dirty Tape' plugin in this bundle, which is why I mention all this here really. I don't have that but like the 'Tape' one, for glitch use-cases, it seems to have a nice 'collapse' when driven (I just imagine it easy to run of dozens of loops with it, with less need to tame things in a longer workflow). Anyway - nice pack if you want a glitch toolkit going pretty authentic in the retro sense. I'll probably cross-grade just to get the Bad Speaker one in the end.

Actually - on seeing this nice old thread again, and Key Fumbler's helpful link - I ended up quickly going through some tape plugins I use (and some others) to give any curious readers here a little bit of inspiration perhaps.

It should be stated though.. that these audio files are quick and dirty Lo-Fi leaning uses of these kinds of tape plugins - and if you kind of like aspects of one or another maybe that'll help you decide if you want to go grab a tape emulation plugin to get Lo-Fi things in that range. It's possible to push things to even more glitchy Lo-Fi oriented 8bit kinds of sounds too.. but with nice glowing saturations which can make very plain glitch piano more creamy and dreamy.

Caveat though.. none of these are meant to make the piano sound 'nicer', nor more perfect, nor more realistic.. it's all about that kind of Lo-Fi leaning recording domain.. It often happens that people mistake this.. "well that doesn't make the piano sound more realistic" - not supposed to do that.. if anything most of these are what I call 'pushed' or 'hyped' - just hoping to solve a few people scratching their head and thinking "Wow tape sounds awful"... but of course, you can use various of these tape plugins really respecting 'good practices' of old.. and get some tastefully delicious or nearly completely in-obvious top-shelf politeness from them too - but that's not what these are 'hyped' to kind of showcase..

List of tape emulation audio examples (same 20 second block of piano) with no other FX. The source piano is the default Grotrian "Recording 2" preset:

Some great tape machines of old incorporated various kinds of echos (extra read head trickery), slapback, ping-pong and the Abbey Road one probably gives the most options both quite realistically and in some artistically exciting ways. Nothing stopping anyone from leveraging that 'real' kind of machine created sound with other FX.

These 2 below are some 'multi FX' combinations made up with up to 6 other FX types to further take the sound into sound design territory (I think of these FX arrays for use in a track building, using the source more like an electronic 'pad' than piano and each of these 2 are rather like starting points for further working into a piece. I guess genre would be something unclassified at this stage of those 2, but could go in a lot of directions, if playing more or different parts etc. They're not finished things in short but give an idea of how you can use digital tools to get Lo-Fi granular FX and "soften" them up somewhat with tape emulation plugins.. really nice to 'smear' any particularly clippy digital choppiness.)

Piano-loop-tape-Personal-multi-FX-A.mp3
Piano-loop-tape-Personal-Multi-FX-B.mp3

Hope anyone thinking about this stuff can get a feel for how Pianoteq is an absolute dream for processing for all kinds of music, and Lo-Fi, Glitch, Electronica of all kinds - just so much better than struggling with other software pianos.. both easier, smaller in footprint, more editable, more playable and did I mention it's good? Well, anyway - I think it's still the one virtual instrument keeping my focus even after many years now. SO good imho.

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-23T12:31:29Z

For some quickly added wibbly wobbly tape effect goodness this is currently free from UAD:

https://www.uaudio.com/verve-analog-machines.html

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-22T03:49:16Z

jblongz wrote:

I just wanted to come back to this thread and thank Modartt for the amazing features, Qexi and others for the tips.

Thank you - That's so cool, after quite a long time-line too. I think Modartt folks will be happy to see you're enjoying Pianoteq

I'm thankful too, to you, Modartt and all here (a genuinely fun thread). Still inspired practically daily by Pianoteq here.

You're a natural cool talent JB and an all 'round decent chap. All my best to you!

Should add (because I feel it) I like what you've done with your website, and hope things are really zooming. Enjoyed your piano playing btw (among other accomplishments incl. cool multiple instrumentations, fine productions etc.).

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-20T12:06:54Z

jblongz wrote:

I just wanted to come back to this thread and thank Modartt for the amazing features, Qexi and others for the tips. I spend so much time playing lofi tones in Pianoteq that I forget to produce music. It's such a pleasure, and I'm thrilled about what Pianoteq will evolve into over the years. I have a lot of popular brands of sample libraries and a few other modeled, but I am most satisfied with what Modartt has provided.
Thanks again!

it’s great to see musicians being happy with their virtual instruments ! Some of the demos sound on thread are actually very nice . As you say there I the low-fi 8bit or 16 bits are trendy at the moment . In a way it similar to the remaster of old vinyls record from the 70’s made with the most recent producing tools . Pianoteq is the perfect VI for that as you can work a raw sound without any added effect which is impossible to have with any sampled library .

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2024-04-20T01:51:06Z

I just wanted to come back to this thread and thank Modartt for the amazing features, Qexi and others for the tips. I spend so much time playing lofi tones in Pianoteq that I forget to produce music. It's such a pleasure, and I'm thrilled about what Pianoteq will evolve into over the years. I have a lot of popular brands of sample libraries and a few other modeled, but I am most satisfied with what Modartt has provided.

Thanks again!

Re: Suggestion: Lo-fi Pianos

2021-06-11T15:36:21Z

I haven't the foggiest what LoFi is, but if one means low resolution, then PianoTeq can do that no problem...

Here's the first step I took:

..and the second:

..and this is what it sounds like...

LowRez Joplin Demo - "Swipesy" (snippet)