ModeAudio Quiet Piano Ambient Loops: Cinematic upright piano samples

ModeAudio has released the Quiet Piano Ambient Loops, a collection of 833MB worth of royalty-free music loops and MIDI. 

The piano is arguably the most versatile instrument; a single performance can be percussive, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic all at once, with as much polyphony as your fingers can manage.

But despite having all that potential under your fingers, simplicity is often best, and that’s what we have here from ModeAudio.

Quiet Piano Ambient Loops showcases all the above-mentioned elements of music, but does so in a way that allows the piano’s character and its surroundings to be the stars of the show.

As a pianist and somewhat obsessive film score fan, sample packs like this one are right up my street.

So, before I walk you up and back down that street (whether you like it or not! I’m joking; it’s entirely your choice, or is it? It is), I’ll just tell you what’s in the pack.

The pack contains:

The pack comes in at 833MB unzipped, with 209 music loops in total.

Quiet Piano costs £20, and all samples are 100% royalty-free.

These loops range from around 13-19 seconds in length, covering various tempos and key signatures.

As the name suggests, these loops are less distinct melodically and harmonically despite being in tune, and focus more on atmosphere and texture.

Each loop offers a different texture, some fairly static, some with more undulating movement.

Beyond covering different key signatures, the loops range from dense, low-pitched textures to more piercing drones.

What I like about these loops is that they work perfectly well on their own.

Although they are more ambiguous than any melodic piano loop, they are ready to drop right into any cinematic cue and drive the emotion.

Of course, they also fit perfectly under some of the melodic/chordal piano loops in the pack, adding depth and character.

Quiet Piano comes with twelve field recordings, including birds, water, wind, and rain.

It’s fair to say some composers have made a career from emotive piano recordings and the sound of rainfall.

ModeAudio is based in Scotland, and, as shocking as it may be to some of you, we aren’t short on wet and windy days here. They are perfect for looking off into the distance, deep in overly dramatic reflection.

The piano loops make up the bulk of the pack and include bass, chords, melodies, and riffs.

There are 101 piano loops, and instead of highlighting individual loops, or even small groups within the pack, I’d rather say what I like about the collection as a whole.

Some piano samples are overly clinical, and I don’t mean that in terms of a clean sound; I mean clinical right from the performance. Samples are often too uniform or rigid, and although everything has its place, that’s rarely what you want (and no amount of processing will make it interesting).

What I like about these samples is that there’s lots of variation right from the performance, and not just in the sample type.

For example, chordal loops have lots of broken chords, and sometimes the bass moves through chord tones. You get the right harmonic quality, but it’s more rhythmically interesting than playing a block chord on every beat.

Similarly, both chordal and melodic loops have push and pull through varied phrasing and note lengths.

There are lots of nice harmonic choices, like melodic lines in major 3rds.

The arpeggiated patterns offer a nice range from shimmering and dreamy to dry and angular.

For me, before thinking about recording techniques, etc., the best thing about these samples is the well-thought-out variation in the performance stage.

One of the best things about any piano sounds you’ll find in this pack is that they are often very context-dependent.

The same sample could carry a reflective/compemplative emotional scene by itself or provide harmony/melody for a modern, largely electronic, soundtrack.

The Sub Bass samples help you explore that versatility, and maybe lean into alternative ideas.

The Toy Piano samples are a nice addition, and another example of the importance of context. When I think of a toy piano in the cinematic sense, I think more 80s horror than Disney.

It’s easy to get a piano sample library wrong because you have to offer something users can’t easily reproduce themselves.

Sometimes it’s tempting to achieve that goal by creating complex parts, and, again, everything has its place, but that’s rarely the right path. It often leads to impressive but unusable samples, no better than unimpressive and unusable samples.

To offer something a little different, ModeAudio has captured every detail of the instrument without sugarcoating anything.

ModeAudio recorded Quiet Piano using a vintage Chappell & Co. upright piano, which comes from an iconic and sadly discontinued British piano builder.

The tone is slightly softened by a thin layer of material in front of the strings, and you’ll hear every mechanical noise, from the pedals to the hammers and keys.

The samples were captured using a pair of condenser microphones, positioned close to the soundboard to get right to the heart of the instrument.

ModeAudio references a few composers who favour the same recording technique, one of whom is Ólafur Arnalds, and I think that’s a very relevant reference in a few ways.

In addition to the shared recording technique, Ólafur Arnalds is a great example of an impressively technical pianist who isn’t afraid to play the simplest thing. He makes tasteful decisions, and I think that’s something that applies to this pack, too.

ModeAudio is a developer and sound design team that I automatically expect good things from, and I often reference them among my favourites.

But that expectancy didn’t come overnight; it came through pack after pack of impeccable samples.

Before I sign off, I want to highlight a few of ModeAudio’s collaborators who share my appreciation for stellar sound design: Native Instruments, Image-Line, and Ableton.

So you may have heard ModeAudio samples more often than you think.

Last but not least, if you haven’t tried the Airspace hybrid reverb and delay plugin yet, check it out; it’s excellent (free trial available).