Topic: Miniature harpschord, dulcitone and ship's piano samples

I feel as though I'm sinning by linking to even an inexpensive, labor of love, sample library, but many people here seem to be interested in older instruments: On KVR, I ran across this link to a site created by someone who sampled a miniature harpsichord, a Dulcitone, and a ship's piano (a portable, but not a toy, upright piano).

The miniature harpsichord isn't all that old, but it sounds old, and has a timbre all its own. Not sure how to describe the Dulcitone. A bell-like, whacked-out xylophone with a thump? My favorite is the ship's piano, which is from the late 19th century. Its sound is fairly complex, though the bass of course suffers from the small cabinet. Much richer than I expected, though no claim is made of perfect turning.

(About the site: Some of the demo's have an additional sound layered in--a synth or strings. Wish he hadn't done that, but it does suggest how these sounds might be used in a modern "alternative" song or John Cage type of thing. Clicking on one of the jpegs takes you to a page of additional photos of the instruments.)

The drums at the bottom of the page sound good, too.

http://www.virb.com/dulcitone1884

Last edited by Jake Johnson (05-03-2008 18:13)

Re: Miniature harpschord, dulcitone and ship's piano samples

Huh... I was about to make a post about that Ships Piano (http://www.virb.com/dulcitone1884) but decided to search first and found your post.  I really like the distressed/disturbed nature of these samples.  I wonder if Pianoteq could be tweaked/mangled/prepared into anything like that Ships Piano or the Dulcitone...?  I'd like to try them in concert (layers) with Pianoteq -not to advertise another's product, -it's more a companion than a competitor.  I tell ya, I think what we want is a hardware controller for pianoteq that has strings that we can stick stuff under and hammers that we can funk up.  Not the whole mechanism, maybe just one hammer assembly...  OK.. the nurses are coming with the jacket if I don't back away from the group computer...

"Downing a fifth results in diminished capacity."

Re: Miniature harpschord, dulcitone and ship's piano samples

Preset request: a ship's piano?

I do like the sound. Wish it had more of a bass, though--I wonder if anyone has tried mixing its midrange and treble with bass samples from an old upright.

Re: Miniature harpschord, dulcitone and ship's piano samples

this is my ships pianoteq )

http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/uploaded/ships piano.fxp