Team DECiBEL | 28 Apr 2020 | 18.92GB

Scoring Piano is a Steinway Model B piano, sampled in a great studio near Florence, Tuscany.

This instrument will find a perfect spot for any kind of soundtrack and, like My Piano, for jazz and classical music. We have tried to take the softest dynamics particularly into account. Moreover, thanks to our Dynamic Range Control, it is very easy to achieve that "Thomas Newman" cinematic sound. In addition to this, Scoring Piano features a great dynamic range, enabling you to play any kind of music genres.

Our new instrument features lots of sound crafting controls, EQ, Reverb, three mixable mic positions and controls for pedal resonances and noises. We have avoided to include fancy effects, like delay, compressor and so on. Not only the quality of these effects in Kontakt is up to debate but also we have simply aimed at a great natural sounding piano.

Sympathetic Resonances

When you strike a single note with the damper pedal down, you hear a richer sound. This is the sympathetic resonance of all strings having some harmonics in common with the note you have pressed. This happens also when playing without pedal. If some notes are already down and some overtones are in common with the new note, they will resonate. These complex interactions are essential to a stunning lively piano sound.

Self Masking

In many libraries, when repeating a note with the pedal down, sustains usually build up, thus increasing polyphony dramatically. This taxes CPU and disk streaming and it can also lead to sound inconsistencies, like phasing, and a noticeable noise floor rise.

Our system compares each note with the previous one on the same key and determines which is the loudest. This is not a simple problem as the decaying part of a loudest note can be softer than the attack of a softer note. After the script compares the two notes, it discards the lowest by slowly fading it.

Mic Positions

The instrument features three mic positions: Close, Mid and Far. Close microphones are our favourite, with their peculiar dark sound. Mid microphones are terrific in combination with Far mics. The latter contribute to a sense of space for the whole mix.

For these reasons, it sounded natural for us to add a fourth Mix position: 100% Close, 50% Mid and 70% Far mics.

FEATURES

6578 Samples

8 included NKI presets

20 GB installed (compressed with in NCW format)

Sampled with Schoeps and AudioTechnica Mics and Millennia Media preamps

Three Mic Positions (Close, Mid, Far) + Mix Position

24 bit / 48 kHz stereo

From 7 up to 40 velocity layers per key (average 15 velocity layers per note)

Sympathetic Resonances and Pedal Resonances control for maximum control over instrument warmth

Release Samples

Equalizer, Dynamic Control and Convolution Reverb

Complete control over velocity response

Self Masking for polyphony control

Separate pedal down resonances and pedal noise control

Nice occasional crackles knob to emulate the realism of a live recording

Full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or above is required

Windows XP / Vista / 7. Intelmac and Mac OS 10.5 or higher.

4 GB System Ram, 5 GB free on HD