Montclarion Hall Grand Piano

The Montclarion Hall Grand Piano is a classic Steinway 1926 parlour grand that lives in one of our favourite recording halls. We captured in wide stereo from three distinct microphone distances (internal, external/mid and far/hall) to allow custom and surround mixing and provide different ambient flavourings. It has a crisp, solid tone ideal for classical composing, yet works equally well for soul, jazz, rock and pop. But this 7+ GB library goes well beyond a simple classical grand piano library. It also includes a wide selection of extended "prepared piano" and very useful creative FX articulations, such as percussive pounds, slams, string scrapes, steel guitar slides, mallet and pick glisses, sweeps, plucks and much more.

Originally released in 2010, the Montclarion Hall Piano was recorded in a steep A-framed long hall in the hills above Oakland, CA. It's a place that truly resonates with us, in the same space that Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble were captured in, along with a whole host of former Tonehammer epic percussion and choral libraries. It has lush, rich, clear, well-defined and balanced natural acoustic reflections. In our ears, something about this magical room combined perfectly with this piano, creating the right holistic balance. The true instrument here is the piano and the hall together as one.

Contents

We recorded in wide stereo from three distances. The close microphone pair is ideal for more intimate scoring. The mid microphone is great for a larger acoustic live feel and the far microphone has an incredibly dreamy texture to it. We also included a selection of live sfx ambiences, abstract atmospheres and evolving soundscapes that can accompany the piano in real-time, just to provide a bit of added inspiration.

We recorded sustains and release samples, as well as pedal sfx, bench, lid and sheet music sounds. Then we popped the hood and went to work, capturing a decent selection of sweeps, scrapes, glisses, rumbles and other effects. Then we prepared the piano for a little special treatment, capturing 3 buzzy, resonant and raw tuned string percussion sets. Finally, we decided to to a little bare-handed 3-man ensemble percussion at the piano's expense.

• Grand Piano recorded at 3 microphone distances: Close (player perspective), Mid (6m), Far (30m)
• 20 Sustain and release samples Natural pedal sfx recorded at multiple velocities Full effects section
• 3 unique experimental prepared piano sets (tuned) Glisses, scrapes & sweeps piano body percussion Player sfx
• 10 Ambient room tones, both from the hall itself and a variety of interesting locations and environments
• 20 specially designed custom FX presets
• Includes a selection of 34 custom convolution reverb impulses.
• A full multi-effects rack, with EQ, filter, phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp speaker simulation and more.

Kontakt Format

This library is designed for the full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5.2 or later. Kontakt is an industry-standard advanced virtual instrument software platform. This library is packed with features to provide you a wide range of sound shaping parameter controls, each one totally automation-ready in your host environment or Kontakt's stand-alone mode.

Product Specs

• 8.98 GB Installed
• 3,011 stereo samples
• 1 master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format
• 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
• 24-bit, 48 kHz Stereo PCM Wav Format
• Flexible and intuitive user interface controls with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator.
• Unlocked Kontakt presets and wav samples to allow user customization
• Includes a bonus collection of custom sound-designed ambiences, drones and special FX presets, as well as our favourite custom convolution reverb impulses and an advanced Kontakt user interface with full automation support.

System Requirements

• The full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt version 5.5.2 (or later) is required to use .nki instrument presets included in this library.
• The free Kontakt "Player" and "Add Library" import processes do not support this standard open-format Kontakt library.
• Windows XP or higher.
• Mac OSX 10.6 or higher.
• Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB System Ram, SATA or SSD hard drive recommended for this library.

Important Notes:

• The FULL Version of Kontakt 5.5.2+ is required in order to use this instrument.
• You will be stuck in DEMO MODE if trying to use this instrument in the FREE Kontakt Player.