Who would you recommend to help recreate a particular piano sound?

A link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rOR_Ja...tDAfzdzOge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-5U0POfSA

The Steinway B perhaps. I've recently been recording with the "Wide" preset.. I have to say, the videos Key Fumbler kindly posted reminds me of that Wide preset, but reversed (like A/B is to B/A) so the treble notes are on left, bass on right.

If you want, could go a long way just to alter the mics so they do the opposite..

(Ah - @Julien - I'd like a simple "Flip channels" button in there come to think of it).

Other than that, I'd try loading some different compressors in the FX section..

don't be afraid of that - and don't be afraid to try some EQ settings too -- and to raise key release noise and damper noise - and set velocity curve so it sounds softer (silky dark tones at low velo rather than sounding harsh too early).

Last one... "Amp". I think a low drive at 1 to 5% without too much tweaking of the bass/mid/treble (keeping them fairly even seems safest) can go quite a way to getting a kind of 'console' warmth. I have faith in the Amp in Pianoteq - and believe or not, have today used a preset with 3 instances with different settings and mix levels - and this got me some stunningly sweet album-like feel on the NY Steinway D. That all may sound odd - but often the 'nice' piano we like the sound of will have much more outboard processing and enhancements which are quite duplicable to a good extent with Pianoteq alone. Experimenting is key - and although may take time, you eventually find various go-to configurations to re-use and adjust.

It's a pretty nice intimate sound I quite - those are things I'd try first - hope this gets you off to a good running start.

Cheers y'all.

Ah, thank you. So kind. I'm also pretty limited for time.

I can upload an imagined Steinway B for you (hopefully in some few hrs from now)..

Payment for this would not be necessary.

I also encourage others to upload their pianos edits for pkward88 to give some options which may be preferred - and help out in this way if poss. Or if time permits, taking up a generous offer like this might be a wonderful thing to do. Or to accept the generous offer of payment on a piano which suits the project.

Hoping that this may be enough for you to work with?

Not sure how you finalize production.. please excuse the on-the-fly ideas if not useful.. (will just type quickly some thoughts)..

Often, I get the piano to a point where it's in a good state to record with - I think of any VSTI like Pianoteq as having the instrument 'on tape' as it is.

But always, in the end it comes down to the production values desired (very clean or very 'album piano' enhanced in vastly different ways) which makes it go from a recording of the instrument, to a kind of finished production with often some deep changes, not so much because of the instrument, but because of the music/mix requirements.

For the kind of production (heard in the posted videos) I'd probably go for a rich soft but capable bus compressor with headroom for miles, - I would probably go with Pulsar MU and Pulsar Massive on master bus.. and like I often add, a good console emulator (some are built into the DAWs now - like Cakewalk has a better than expected choice of 3 - SSL, Neve, API. // other DAWs may have similar/different, and many plugins are exceptionally good these days). That can help with finalizing (at least pre mastering, if you intend to also run that process through). Some will love 'no analog emulators please.. too fuzzy' but.. many have a choice between 'analog vs. digital' behavours for some/all of their components. What you get is a sense of the old, current and better.. if going for vintage use/boost analog emulation, or use the console but without the added 'grit' or saturation from the analog emulation but choose digital and keep what other benefits you get - which may be many from tasteful default EQ/compression and stereo field, and so on. I may try first Waves' NLS (choosing 'Mike' to see if I can keep the depth/darkness in the compressed signal - but on hearing it, may flip left or right to the other console styles which seems a nice workflow in this region of things) - making sure to have their component plugins on channels and master bus and in a proper order.

A lot of goodness can be gently enhanced for the kind of music in those vids with some simple spread of tools even with near default settings - you can achieve wonderful broadcast ready results without seeming to overly re-compress a whole array of already compressed tracks.. but I guess all that is getting into personal artistic ideals.

This is I think a malleable preset for Pianoteq which I hope you can use (for this or other things). Inspired me as a non-vintage yet somehow vintage feel - to me it has a Neve-like desk 'vibe'. I like the headroom of it also.

Recommend relatively low velocities with punctuation as playing style. I guess roughly similar to the pianist in the videos' style might fit OK.

Every altered control is prob near it's max value I'd want to use.. so indeed anything you hear as too much can be backed down.

Mainly intended for a DAW with further stylings in mind. To me, it gives a good piano recording 'on tape' to work with..

FXP preset:

Red Wide and Blue preset FXP (made with Piantoeq 7.5)

Audio:

Red Wide and Blue audio snip.

It's a stereo setup I kind of like, esp. with additional soft silky reverb in your DAW. (the reverb in this is a player bubble in my way of working it.. it runs well through other distant reverbs/echo chambers etc. quite transparently but carries some charm with it into those sends - of course adjust to taste - or turn off if your DAW based reverb is 100% handling things.)

It has a kind of centred sound (vs the piano in the videos), but with width I find works nicely with Mid/Side processing (for cementing centered heft to taste, add or reduce width etc.). I hope this will work for you in more music overall.

Hope you like - and def. let me know if I really missed the mark - it's likely with some quick decisions (I can imagine getting closer to the textures in those videos' piano sounds with this in a DAW setup the way I like).

I guess from today's flight, it's possible to imagine getting closer to the video's sounds just with Pianoteq - would take some more time though (need to break and return a lot to know for sure if that great new tweak is not just way too far).

Main things to beware, the lowered velocity curve may need adjusting to any other dpiano keyboard (but theory of course is softer low velocity notes for comfy accompaniment) - and compressor allows raised hammer noise to thump nicely with those low velo tones. It should cope well with any jump in velo with staccato notes. Probably not too much need to lean on the sustain pedal for its best 'on tape' self I think. (raising sympathetic resonances may match the videos better - but in recording, would depend on what's played and how much the pedal is down I think.) I made others with all kinds of altered res and changes but kept finding this one survived each time.

BTW - flipping the B Wide mics didn't give the result expected. This preset is not too far pushed in any other ways that mentioned above - but you could work the Equalizer mildly to push any range to suit the piece/performance.

Things altered:

Unison width a little wider

Unison balance -0.67 (I like this on many pianos)

Impedance lifted a little to go with the closer-mic sound

Noises, pedal and key release raised about as high as I'd like - lower to tase of course.

Compressor - one of my usual go-to ones I like, with a few alterations.

Reverb - all elements altered variously

FX gain down a little to accommodate the extra gain in compressor

Limiter - set lower threshold, softer sharpness - gives a taste of stable console behaviour with high headroom requirements (not for digital super clean recording perhaps, to taste)

Mics and stereo width - various things.

Cheers!