KeyPleezer releases LivingRoom Upright Piano Complete Edition for Kontakt

[Larry Shelby]

KeyPleezer has released LivingRoom Upright Piano, a vintage character upright piano library for Kontakt aimed at being an alternative to more pristine and perfect sounding pianos and intended to offer a very natural and realistic sound through slight dissonances and imperfections.

LivingRoom Upright Piano Complete Edition features 3 close microphone positions to give you a range of options in the stereo image and tone/response of the sound and is further enhanced by a fully featured mixer with adjustments for each acoustic effect for each mic position. String dampening / muting, mechanical key release sounds, piano body & string resonances, sustain pedal sound effects, advanced polyphony handling limiting excessive voice build-up and selective sample purging are among the features.

KeyPleezer say:

The original piano is a large body vintage upright piano from a South Swedish local piano maker that was tuned to around 98% perfection for a realistic and natural piano sound. It embodies the essence of a naturally sounding upright piano as it is when it was played for around a year since the last tuning.

It was sampled in 3 close stereo microphone positions. The first one in "player position", the second one below the keyboard and the third on the rear of the piano. The sound is the most dry sound we could make and embodies the closest and most intimate sound uptakes of the piano.

Suited for rock and pop as well as for composing for film or TV or replacing a perfect grand piano if your composition or production needs a different timbre and tone. The piano is just slightly out of tune giving an extra distinct realism over perfectly tuned pianos, without ever disturbing a mix. A versatile upright piano with a realistic sound.

The LivingRoom Upright Piano Complete Edition for Kontakt features:

Intimate & detailed sound rich in piano body.

A fraction out of tune here and there, for maximum realism (not broken nor honky-tonk).

3 close microphone positions for a multitude of nuance possibilities while retaining intimacy of sound character.

14 Velocity/sensitivity recordings, 2 layers of sustained notes per key (7 layers for pedal off, 7 Layers for pedal on).

Acoustic fidelity and realism enhanced by string dampening / release, mechanical key release sounds, piano body & string resonances and pedal action sound effects.

Made for Kontakt sampler 5.4.2+ (for backwards compatibility) full version. SFZ and EXS24 / Sampler support coming soon.

Dynamic Range adjustment for velocity triggered volume range (all formats).

Includes a original-all NKI and also a "clean" NKI instrument file that removes "character" keys (keys less than perfect in mechanical quality).

Includes a total of 39 Kontakt Snapshots for a quick start.

Custom piano playback engine for Kontakt features:

Advanced polyphony voice handling for each key.

String dampening & Key release acoustics - multiple recordings for each key to match original note velocity and time elapsed.

String dampening 5-8 layer matrix - both Staccato (shorter shocks) and normal (longer held notes) sounds for nuanced releasing of notes.

Piano Body and String Resonances recorded through Impulse Response / Convolution Reverb for added realism.

Open-close panels/lids adjustment for sounds ranging from a "living room sound" to a clean intimate uptake.

Analog-style user interface with performance view and mixer with adjustments for each mic position.

Library consists of 23GB of full length samples in 24-bit / 44.1kHz WAV files. 10GB when using ncw (lossless compressed).

Upcoming Formats

According to KeyPleezer, this release is for the feature rich Kontakt instrument but more formats are being released at a later stage, like SFZ, EXS24 and possibly the Decent Sampler format, which has excellent platform support. These formats can bring support for systems not eligible for Kontakt sampler, such as Linux. The features will be elaborated on according to each format's own capabilities.

Intro Offer

The standard price is set at $119 but an introductory offer of 26% discount is available the first month of release and sets the price at $87. The offer runs until Sunday 17th of July, 2022.

Listen to demos and read the full product specs and features at KeyPleezer's product page.

https://keypleezer.com/livingroom-upright-piano/

[David Baay]

6 hours ago, cclarry said:

KeyPleezer has released LivingRoom Upright Piano, a vintage character upright piano library

This sounds like an SNL ad spoof...

"Remember how much you loved that old upright piano you inherited from grandma? It hadn't been tuned since the Wilson administration, the keytops were the color and condition a chain-smoking vagrant' s fingernails, and the sustain pedal sounded like a coffin being opened in a horror movie, but you somehow managed to learn all the Bach Preludes on it! Well, we found that piano abandoned in the alley behind the Mic Stand Bar and Grill in beautiful downtown  Huntingdon, TN, drained the water, evicted the rats and spent a full afternoon sampling every 4th key at two velocities in mono using the microphone from a 1971 Realistic cassette recorder to produce this faithful replica of you childhood piano!"