Andrew Ward has announced the release of 1911 Bechstein Upright, a freely downloadable upright piano sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt and all sample players capable of loading WAV files.
The library captures the sound of a C. Bechstein Model 9 upright piano manufactured in 1911. This is Andrew Ward’s childhood piano which was fully refurbished in 2013 and sampled for the Piano Book website by Patrick Ytting in March 2019. The sampled instrument sounds quite authentic and natural which is a pleasant surprise given that the download is only 432 MB is in size. That’s quite a lightweight package when compared to something like the Piano in 162 by Ivy Audio which takes up over 4 GB of HDD space.
See also: Download Free LABS Electric Piano by Spitfire Audio1911 Bechstein Upright is a compact and excellent sounding upright piano library which won’t put too much strain on your computer and won’t break the bank either. what more can you ask for on a pleasant April afternoon? The included NKI patch is only compatible with the full version of NI Kontakt (it will work in demo mode in the free Kontakt Player) but you can use the provided WAV files in almost any sampler instrument on the market. Creating a custom mapping manually in a freeware sampler like Grace shouldn’t be too much trouble at all, especially considering that the library consists of 104 samples in total (which are all neatly labeled, by the way).
If you like the 1911 Bechstein Upright sample library, be sure to check out the other Kontakt freebies featured on Andrew Ward’s website. It is a proper goldmine of piano libraries, covering everything from toy instruments to uprights and concert grand pianos. You’ll also find a music box sample library and some experimental instruments which are sure to inspire your future music endeavors.
1911 Bechstein Upright is available for free download via Piano Book (432 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 1 instrument patch in NKI format for NI Kontakt, 104 piano samples in 24-bit WAV format).
