While many DAWs ship with naturalistic virtual pianos that are up to making the final mix, the options for built-in twisted sounds are either limited or non-existent. We look at one potential option that does both.

The Ultimate Instrument?

Perhaps thanks to its role as one of the the most relied on of composers’ tools, and irrespective of genre, it could be argued that the piano provides the most prevalent harmonic anchors in recorded music bar none. Certainly in western music, alongside guitar, drums, strings, and synths, it provides one of the main voices recogniseable to any listener, regardless of taste or listening habits.

Subverting The Piano

The beginnings of sound design have their roots in the experimental prepared piano sounds beginning in the mid-twentieth century. Of these, John Cage’s experiments saw various mechanical tweaks and additions in an era where audio processing was in its infancy. As the antithesis of the kind of piano that most recordings aim for, these instruments were all about advancing sounds beyond naturalism for both performance and posterity.

The Hybrid Piano

In the virtual instrument world, any potential candidate ideally needs to provide a decent, well-recorded full-length grand piano or two, and (as recognised increasingly by developers) also the option for upright sounds. Sometimes overlooked, this latter category can provide sound designers and composers with something with a bit more home-spun charm than a nine foot concert grand…

Having ‘prepared’ or lo-fi instruments to hand is also a requirement for engineered honky-tonk or ‘tack’ piano flavours. Going further, prepared sounds courtesy of nails, lengths of tape, or even ping pong balls can further transport the sound towards more unhinged territory. While no DAW is complete without its own arsenal of audio processing plugins, having onboard tools with the specific intent to bend the piano into something new maintains the flow.

In the video, we go through some of the sounds available in Arturia’s Augmented GRAND PIANO. We take in its undoubted naturalism to rival or surpass stock options, before going off road with its more oddball sounds for composers and sound designers.

Arturia On Augmented GRAND PIANO:

From the authentic to the impossible, unlock premium piano sounds for cinematic score & library composition, immersive game soundscapes, and slick modern DAW production with an intuitive & inspiring piano experience that transcends virtual instruments.

Augmented GRAND PIANO Features:

• Dynamic hybrid piano instrument; a practical piano sample library with an experimental edge.

• 2 Layers within each preset; each layer contains 2 customizable sound sources.

• Morph control moves between Layers A and B, and/or affecting up to 8 custom destinations.

• Detailed piano sample library with expressive and contemporary articulations including real piano samples, processed piano samples, and additional abstract samples.

• Flexible synth engines: virtual analogue, granular, harmonic, wavetable.

• 2 LFOs, 2 Function Generators, 2 Random Generators, 4 Keyboard modulation sources, dedicated Vibrato & Tremolo.

• 2 FX slots per layer with 14 FX including ParamEQ, Bitcrusher, BL-20 Flanger, and more.

• Dedicated Delay and Reverb sends with 5 spatial/time-based algorithms.

• Built-in 16-step arpeggiator.

• 300 factory presets included.

The Stock Piano Killer?

For a lucky few with access to the real thing, virtual instruments, no matter how good, can never replace the genuine article when realism is the goal. That said, getting a sound from a VI that is superior to a mediocre real acoustic piano recording is entirely possible. Those who have pointed mics at the wrong instrument may concur, and ending up with an unusable VI sound is no longer an issue.

Augmented GRAND PIANO could beat your existing DAW’s bundled piano thanks to its broad palette of sounds straight out of the box that simply extend beyond what the stock piano was designed to do. Not only does it offer an extensively sampled Steinway grand for realism, but also it lets users supercharge the mix with synth layers as well.