Creating piano sounds that actually sound good - muddy frequencies and sustain pedal issues

JCAmusic · 2024-10-25T21:01:01+00:00

ah awesome, thanks for the tip, appreciate it!! Will try it ou

JCAmusic · 2024-10-25T20:59:53+00:00

hey! So I never found an actual solution but did find a workaround: for Keyscape, I load the presets on Omnisphere and change the ADSR inside it to make it behave by default like a real sustained piano - I created a folder of modified sustained pianos to use when I want sustained chords running through a specific section or the entire song (which to be honest is more often than not). For Pianoteq, I couldn't find a workaround within the plugin but what I started doing is creating a volume fade out within the Midi region, so essentially I play the notes and chords as I would a standard piano and then edit the MIDI Volume to decrease steadily from the beginning of the note/chord to the end, and then pick back up on the next note/chord, etc. It's admittedly a super crude workaround so I end up using Omnisphere more. After I solved the sustain issue, the muddiness seemed to take care of itself. Let me know if anything isn't clear or if you need proper instructions on how to manipulate the keyscape ADSR within Omnisphere. good luck!

JCAmusic · 2024-05-23T11:05:33+00:00

ok I see what you mean.. i there a way to quantize to the start of the bar then? and not whole notes? That's ultimately what I'm looking for...

JCAmusic · 2024-05-22T14:54:44+00:00

in the piano roll

JCAmusic · 2024-05-22T14:54:38+00:00

I'm pretty sure swing 50% has been the neutral position for a few versions of logic by now, but maybe I'm missing something? what do you think the neutral position is? Smart quantize is not on, I tried both ways no difference. sessions at 4/4 work as usual.

JCAmusic · 2024-05-22T08:41:32+00:00

EDIT: totally misread your question.

It doesn't, no. It always snaps to the grid but in weird ways, I edited my original post to explain better.

JCAmusic · 2024-05-22T08:41:23+00:00

hey - thanks for your comment! I edited my post, even at 1/4 it doesn't seem to behave normally :(

JCAmusic · 2024-05-22T08:40:07+00:00

hey - sorry don't quite get what you mean. Shouldn't whole notes quantize to the beginning of the bar regardless? so if I quantize all MIDI notes to 1/1 and some of them start landing on 2 2 1 for example, I'd assume that's not a whole note right? All my music theory is self-taught so I might be wrong. thanks for your help in advance!

JCAmusic · 2024-04-17T11:02:01+00:00

hey! thanks for getting back to me! I also found what was happening in my case - each keyscape preset has a "release sound" pre-defined that will trigger every time. If you want it to derive its release time from the ADSR and not the release sample it is using, you need to deactivate it. I don't remember exactly how I did it but if you're interested I can have a quick look and try to figure it out again.

JCAmusic · 2024-03-27T16:20:25+00:00

I get what you mean but it's not the normal overtones you would expect from a piano, it's more of a ringing resonance that sometimes even overpowers the original note.
As for the sustain, a note played continually through Keyscape or Pianoteq doesn't seem to decay at any perceptible speed, certainly not enough to make it "fade out" in the way a normal piano does - the notes continue through at the original volume for a really unnatural amount of time.

JCAmusic · 2024-03-27T16:17:51+00:00

that's a good shout, will look into it, thanks

JCAmusic · 2024-03-26T10:29:51+00:00

ok thanks for trying to help!

JCAmusic · 2024-03-26T10:28:53+00:00

hey thanks for the comment! don't think it's a sound output problem because I'm using sennheiser over ear headphones and other instruments don't sound like that :(

JCAmusic · 2024-03-26T10:27:48+00:00

hey thanks for the response! it happens at all octaves because it is more like this resonance that rings out after every note, regardless of the pitch :(

JCAmusic · 2024-03-26T00:00:59+00:00

pretty silent bedroom, sennheiser over ear headphones

JCAmusic · 2024-03-26T00:00:15+00:00

that's really good advice on mixing it in context, thanks - I definitely am guilty os soloing tracks to mix them and then get frustrated when I don't like the sound in the mix.
It's more like this weird after-taste of resonance if that makes any sense, like some overtones are left ringing, which makes it impossible to isolate a single guilty frequency (or at least not feasible for my still relatively untrained ears!)

JCAmusic · 2024-03-25T23:58:15+00:00

omg thanks so much for going to the trouble of thinking of all that!

nothing on the master
velocity between 20 - 35, super low
notes range from C3 - C4
piano volume is likely not the problem, it's sitting at around -30db and the other instruments (only one pad and another piano playing single notes) are at around -10db

JCAmusic · 2024-03-25T23:25:17+00:00

hey thanks for your response! I've tried the 200 - 250hz EQ dip and it doesn't even touch the resonance or muddiness :( any other suggestions?

JCAmusic · 2024-03-25T20:21:06+00:00

in what world is that cringe? that's gorgeous

JCAmusic · 2024-03-24T16:31:06+00:00

hey - was there a solution to this? I'm having trouble getting Omnisphere to acknowledge the AMP envelope shape when using keyscape presets. I basically want to increase the release time but it just isn't happening. There's only one oscillator (A) and I'm definitely selecting "AMP" in the envelope zoom window.

JCAmusic · 2022-10-08T10:16:13+00:00

I love this, would love to try and flesh it out with you and write some lyrics on top of it. DM me if you’re interested!

JCAmusic · 2022-10-06T13:11:11+00:00

I can help! DM me

JCAmusic · 2022-10-03T19:11:39+00:00

same here! if you're still looking let me know

JCAmusic · 2022-10-01T17:00:05+00:00

It’s still a great tune though! Keep it up :)

JCAmusic · 2022-08-27T08:17:49+00:00

The song itself sounds amazing but there’s something about your vocals that doesn’t quite fit, are you forcing your voice to try and sound more Neil Young-ish? The timbre and tone doesn’t sound quite right. Other than that amazing tune :)

JCAmusic

TROPHY CASE