I am here to offer you the first listen of the library sampled from Paolo Ferrarelli's Steinway B 211 (here on the pianoexpert forum).
To those who have had the chance to listen to it, the work is excellent, but for us, also very exhausting!
Piano
Steinway & Sons B 211 by Paolo Ferrarelli, whom I publicly thank for lending himself with such enthusiasm to the realization of this my project and more... I can say that in my successes, but also sometimes in my failures, he and Marina Mercuri (his wife) have always been present, and this is something that not only makes me proud but moves me, since I feel them closer to a degree of kinship than some of my real relatives who, on the contrary, only seek me out when they need something, especially since I call Marina "Aunt Marina"... Setting aside these personal opinions that distract us from the topic at hand but which I felt the need to share, we can get back to business... Paolo meticulously prepared the instrument in terms of voicing and tuning.
Furthermore, tuning and voicing were refined during the capture process (any tuning drops, even those imperceptible to the less trained ear, or inconsistencies in voicing when transitioning from one layer to the next).
Audio systems for capture
Microphones: no. 2 Neumann KM 184 Stereo Pair
Microphone: no. 1 Neumann U87 Ai
Preamplification stage: no. 2 Audioline 2 Ch Preamplifiers by Livio Argentini, particularly crystalline and therefore suitable for classical music; faithful transient response up to 300kHz.
Analog-to-digital converter: T.C. Electronics Konnekt 24D
DAW Interface: Logic Pro 9.1.8 on a Mac i7 quad core 8 Gb DD3 500 Gb SSD
Recordings made at 88.2kHz - 24 bit
Post-production
Sound restoration and denoising via spectral subtraction
DeClick & DeCrackle
Phase and Azimuth corrections
Sample editing in Pro Tools
Layer equalization
Saving samples with resampling to 44100Hz, 24 bit
VST Development for Kontakt 4
Import of "samples with dampers" and "samples without dampers" groups
MIDI mapping of the sample "Zones"
KSP coding
Creation of the library's graphic template and User Interface coding
Purpose of the library
I have sought to rediscover the sound typically used for solo classical piano. Commercial libraries produced for purely economic reasons tend more towards creating general-purpose items. The library is certainly improvable, considering that the sample capture was done in just two days and therefore some articulations are missing because we did not have time to sample them due to time constraints.
What interests me for this project, therefore, is the connotation of the sound within the classical music landscape.
In the future, we will certainly go on to create more refined and complete sample libraries from both a production and qualitative standpoint. Even in this case, we have already received the following feedback from industry professionals:
- Maestro Massimiliano Ferrati (http://www.massimilianoferrati.com) - "I don't think I have ever heard such a beautiful sample"
- Eng. Gianluca Susi (Electronic and Sound Engineer) - "A wonderful sound, you worked with heart!"
- Francesco Lanza (Pro Audio Recorder) - "Great job!"
AND TO FINISH THE LISTENING... I VERY MUCH WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK, THANK YOU!
http://www.pianoconcerto.it/condivisione/libreriachopinetude.mp3
