Straight Ahead Samples offer The Real Piano library as a free download for a limited time. It’s a vintage Jazz piano Kontakt library compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Piano players should be excited by Straight Ahead Samples’ latest offer. The “Real Piano” is a fantastic collection of jazzy, experimental, and vintage-sounding pianos for the Kontakt Player.
Inspired by the “Real” book of Jazz standards, this software instrument sets itself apart from other digital pianos by sounding real – from pedal sounds to warped piano strings, this collection of presets is diverse and full of character.
Whilst other software pianos often sound perfectly clean, often modeled on concert Steinways – the “Real Piano” comes with the charm of an old piano found in a cellar of a Jazz club. It is the imperfections that give this instrument its charm.
With this sound library, piano players who don’t have access to pianos can find a sound much closer to the real thing.
The engineers at Straight Ahead Samples have constructed the “Real Piano” by recording and sampling a 1903 Chickering grand piano. You can tell that a lot of effort has gone into how to capture the different characters of this piano, especially when it comes to capturing an authentic feel that is not overly polished.
Usually, sampled grand piano libraries are based on clean, concert-level grand pianos. They sound bright and clean – great for playing concert-style pieces. However, when it comes to playing early 20th-century jazz, through bebop and modern r&b styles, the traditional grand piano software instruments can often sound overly polished.
Straight Ahead Samples have filled the gap by creating a grand piano software instrument that reflects the kind of pianos heard in classic jazz records – characterful, playful, with enough dirt to make it sound authentic.
There is a good deal of presets to play with here – “Balls Of Fire” is particularly fun-sounding – a bright and impactful piano sound inspired by the likes of Jerry Lewis. The “Charlie Brown Piano” preset sounds as you would expect – a Vince Guaraldi-like tone – warm and roomy – otherwise known as the sound of Peanuts and Snoopy.
“Ethereal Piano” and “Lo-Fi” piano are the more experimental presets, with a long reverb applied to the “Ethereal Piano” – perfect for ambient or new-age pieces. A high pass filter gives the “Lo-Fi Piano” a fun, grainy quality.
This is a fantastic software instrument and is available for free for a limited time. It’s compatible with Kontakt Player. You’ll need the latest version of Pulse Downloader to download and install the library.
Download: The Real Piano
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9 Comments
Tomislav Zlatic
onThank you to BPB readers Angie, Shebil, and OldDoGO for the info about The Real Piano!
Angie
onSonixinema offers a free patch from Hang Drum for Kontakt Player
sonixinema.com/products/hang-drum-freebie?utm_source=drip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Save+30%25+on+Hang+Drum+-+Beautiful%2C+Characterful+%26+One+of+a+Kind+%7C+Made+for+Kontakt+Player
Brenny C
onAwesome, thank you Angie.
Numanoid
onBut wait, there is more on this Friday: Audiolatry just released Zumzet a free Lofi virtual instrument featuring 23 presets such keys, leads, pads and synth (it is the same as the full version, but that got 82 presets)
audiolatry.com/zumzet-lite/
Brenny C
onThanks, Numanoid.
Darryl Lim
onThanks for reporting another Kontakt Player freebie!
Lucian
onHello ! I recently downloaded The real Piano trough Pulse. I have kontakt 6 full version but when i open this library it appears in demo and it doesen’t produce any sound when i press notes on the keyboard.
Tried to contact https://www.straightaheadsamples.com/ but the contact us page is not responding when trying to submit a message.
Numanoid
onDid you register the serial you got in Native Instruments portal ?
Gavz
onHere is a link to some GPU powered Beta modulation FX for PC users only, on Attack Mag site:
https://www.attackmagazine.com/news/gpu-audio-announce-a-free-suite-of-modulation-plugins/?mc_cid=f402244ff7&mc_eid=9b0c463b16
I am not sure of the relevance of ‘GPU powered’, but sounds interesting. I have a mac though :/