Topic: Better reference recordings of close up pianos

A larger site with twenty-one mostly close-up piano recordings. (A sampling of 175 similar solo piano files that the company sells.) The sample files can be downloaded by right-clicking if you've installed RealPlayer. They are of course copyrighted. Again, I'm posting these as reference files for the sound more than for the specific songs, although many of these are hard not to like:

http://www.audioaddictionmusic.com/solo_piano.html

Try the third one down, "Pondering" for a sense of the sound. But each one is a recording of a different piano.

The VOLUMES in the audio files vary a lot. If they sound immediately bad, reduce the amplitude. They also vary a lot in terms of saturation--many of them sound as though they were recorded to tape, which may be good for creating their specific sound? And their stereo field is often narrow? I don't love all of these sounds. I'm posting them as examples of what has been done, not what should be done, as specific sounds to reference when we speak of what we want or don't want in a piano sound.

I found these, by the way, by googling for "piano tracks." There's apparently an ongoing industry providing backing tracks for singers or just background music. I'm glad to find these recordings--it's hard to find extended, acoustic, close-mic'ed, non-classical piano recordings, without a vocal or other instrument on top, that can be shared as reference sounds.

But after writing all of that, I did run across another site, which has uploads from many piano players. Many of the cuts have other instruments as well. The mic distance, recording quality, and pieces vary greatly, but there are some great sounding recordings that you can find by trial and error:

http://www.1001pianos.com/?q=last_tracks_more

Last edited by Jake Johnson (03-12-2009 18:12)