Anyone built a good piano patch

#1

Hi, I want to build a dedicated piano sound module using axoloti, possibly embedding inside a controller keyboard. Has anyone made a good piano patch that I can use?

#2

Simulating an acoustic piano sound without using samples is not so easy.
Doing it with samples on the Axoloti wouldn't work too well (it isn't the best solution for big long samples).
You could always try and get close using FM and subtractive synthesis, maybe wavetable too, but it won't sound very realistic and may be quite limited in polyphony.
Electric piano's are easier.
If only someone like Pianoteq open-sources how they manage to synthesize real piano's so well, we could hope to have nice piano's everywhere.

I was thinking about doing a piano these last days, as I was seriously thinking about launching a General Midi collaboration job. So I started looking into it.
I did find this video, but it says nothing about how he supposedly created the sound (apart from having to sample his synth sound to get real polyphony).

I think there are a couple of Nord Modular piano patches, but I've never heard them, so I can't talk about them.

So it's a good question, and a no real answer from me, sorry :frowning:

#3

I have a patch that sounds somewhat like an electric piano, but getting close to a real piano is indeed difficult without a massive sample library.

An electric piano can be built with a sawtooth oscillator fed through a HPF and VCF.

#4

the old nord modular archive has some synthesized pianos that sound pretty good, I guess they wouldnt be that difficult to recreate on the axoloti... might be worth a try...

#5

Old thread... but I've been working on a piano patch (modeled, not sampled) which is starting to sound a bit like a piano that I'll share here. It's a 'work in progress' and I welcome tweaks and improvements. If you come up with one, or have a better patch of your own, please share!

Piano_1v0.axp (16.0 KB)

#6

Nice start !
The acoustic piano is one of the hardest sound to synthesize.

Nice electric pianos sounds can be created with FM or phase modulation synthesis.

#7

Thanks!

Agreed, a nice electric is not that hard and there are lots of examples of presets in VTSs that one can use to build a model from. Not so with an acoustic piano (as you say... one of the hardest sound to synthesize!).

Anyway, that's my goaI. I found a mistake in my first model. A net got disconnected and once I connected it, I couldn't help but continue to tweak. Here's an update. I think it's better, but unfortunately I have to give up a few voices to accommodate an additional filter.Piano_1v3.axp (18.1 KB)

#8

Will have to check out 1v3 when I get home tonight but was digging the 1v0 enough playing with it last night that I replaced the epiano I had in my bank with it - thanks for sharing!

#9

You're welcome. Let me know what you think. As previously stated, this is a work in progress. I have two other ideas ATM I want to pursue, so I hope there will be further refinements in the future.

#10

One more update. This version is probably it for me. I've squeezed about as much as I can out of my skill set and it's at a point where I think it's quite usable. Don't put it up against a Bosendorfer though!!

Piano_1v4.axp (21.7 KB)

#11

That's quite impressive, especially in the lower range !

#12

Okay... I said I was done, but here's one more. Same model as the previous, but just some parameter fine tuning to try to improve the upper mids, dynamics and the simulated soundboard/pedal resonances. I also turned up the default volume setting. I have to admit I'm very pleased with this patch! :blush:

Piano_1v42.axp (21.8 KB)

#13

I think that you will be done with this in a month or so... with such a project, little ideas will shine in your brain at random times day and night... that the curse of modular synthesis.

#14

You have proven to be correct. :smiley: I am not satisfied with this patch and have continued to tweak it. I think I can improve it, but it's still a work-in-progress, so I'll hold off on posting further versions until I'm happier with it.

In the mean time, I did an FM-based E Piano which I'm kind of digging. It features CC controlled tremolo intensity and speed. Here:

FM_E_Piano_1v1.axp (36.2 KB)

#15

Another shot at the acoustic piano patch. I think this is my best so far and a step up from the last one. Worth grabbing if you're interested in a piano patch. Cheers!

Piano_7v31.axp (21.6 KB)