Hey guys, honest question:
I put some effort into a piano piece that I recorded on a real piano — almost 100 years old, from Germany, as seen in the thumbnail — which I really enjoy playing and whose sound I deeply appreciate, at least when I'm at the keys. Now I’m wondering: is it actually worth it?

One special thing about this recording is that I played it in a single take, with no editing. That took a fair bit of time, even though the piece itself isn’t that difficult to play. So overall, the process was quite different from producing music on the computer, which is what I usually do:

For comparison, here are some alternative versions of the same piece where the piano parts were done using sample libraries (you can ignore the other instruments for now):

I think the library pianos sound pretty decent too. So the question is:
Does the real recording add something the samples just can’t deliver? Or is it simply unnecessary effort?

 

First off, I think that's a very nice piece you've written...kudos!

For me, playing a real instrument is always my first stop on the road to creating a song. As a multi-instrumentalist my artistic leaning is to capture the performance honestly in the room that it is recorded in. If I wish a Native American flute in a song I'll pick my flute, choose the mic and placement so that it resides in a place in the mix that I have in mind. I wouldn't use a sampled flute unless it fulfilled a special need. For instance, if I had a piano at home I would use that piano and not a library. In the case of the piece that you are showcasing I think that any of the pianos that you have recorded with sound wonderful. If you wished the mic'd recording to be less warm you could always us a good eq to highlight those frequencies that fit the bill and dimish those that don't. Though like I said before, I myself would always look first to the wood, brass or tin route.

 

It adds a sense of inner sanctum and fragility.
As in Nothing is as perfect as imperfect

 

The choice of sound and instrument is always a very individual choice. Personally, I think the piano you have chosen to use for your composition is a fantastic choice that suits your composition really well.

It is a beautiful composition by the way

 

If possible, using a real instrument is a good choice, for example recently I found an upright piano in a local city library and nobody uses it. I tried it and found its' tuned and has a decent sound, plus the room is small, so, I can add reverb later to my taste.
So, maybe, I'll hire a good pianist to record my piece, because I hate the sound, played by samples:

 

Is it worth it? In the end it all depends on your artistic vision and craft. I'd say yes, it's worth the world.

Could your playing be replaced by samples? Sure, sometimes you do it for artistic reasons, sometimes for technical reasons, and sometimes for cost-effectiveness, but this is YOUR expression. In the end, we choose an instrument, a DAW, a mic over another because it makes us more productive.

At the end of the day the only question left is, does my artistic vision and my using a given piece of gear justify the cost? You know sales won't back you up, so it all comes down to cost vs. personal satisfaction.

I applaud the bravery of going over the hassle of recording live in one take. That's kind of rare.

 

Hard to tell. It feels like each version has a different intention behind it, wouldn't be fair from my part to compare them imo. Also, i don't think i'm trained enough to be able to tell the difference in pieces like this (slow, fairly regular in speed and intensity, piano only). I would imagine most listeners fall in the same category.

Well In terms of appeal to others i don't think it has a great impact in this case (like i said, hard to tell), i actually prefer the alternate versions simply because i have very sensitive ears (to pain) and the midrange on the real piano recording kinda bothers me a little, but that's my problem.

So what's left really is what it did for you. Did it feel better? was it a more enjoyable experience? If so, then it was totally worth it.

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2025

Generally - depends on the genre such piano will be in. In your case, I would definitely go for the real thing.
Sounds incredible btw and you can still shape it a bit more in post-process if needed.
If it's some pop song, sample pianos can deliver the result quicker.

 

i know recording my piano at home got easier the more i did it. recording also takes practice like anything and is a skill worth learning, it gets easier the more you do it - though personally i do think the upright piano sounds a little more rich in harmonics and fuller than the software

 

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, it really helps me! (And I'm glad that some of you also like the pieces so much)

@aleksalt: You have a beautiful piano piece. But could it be that you have completely ignored the use of the pedal? It sounds like that to me... it would enhance the samples enormously if you used pedal.

As for the acoustic instrument vs. library, maybe it really is the case, as some here say, that apart from the different sonic result, it's mainly a different approach during production.

 

I think this is not really a binary question, it really depends on what you want to achieve, and most importantly how fast you want to achieve it. I play both real and fake piano, and even though there is a difference, it pretty much comes down to how much of the focus that piano is. Does it have stuff going in the background? Is it solo piano? I think solo piano deserves a ton of attention, like mic positioning and hard manual mixing, if the point is to preserve the performance. The issue that I see is that a lot of people believe that realistic instrumentation is not possible in the box, and that's just plainly wrong. I do personally think Pianoteq sounds extremely realistic, and I've seen Kontakt libraries that take setting up a recording for a run (Imperfect Samples, recent Native Instruments stuff). The biggest issue is that in the box, we're just conditioned to quantize and fix the imperfections, and even worse, we're used to using things the way they come out of the box. It takes real effort to master a VST library, it's all about the minute adjustments that make it sound realistic. For once, I can't deal with Native Instruments own pianos, they sound fake and boring when I play them, but I get incredible mileage from Pianoteq and Imperfect Samples, with much less editing than any other piano libraries. For me, it's all about weighting your options and doing what gets to the place you want faster.

 

Last edited: Mar 14, 2025

Lovely.

I can hear your feet (pedals) too. While there are certainly sample libraries that do some pedal sounds, I can tell the difference because it's not like a lot of them go to a lot of trouble to sample all the varying frequencies that do change based on how hard, or how soft, or how long or short you release the pedals. A few do, but they do not sound as real as this.

There is a real beauty in the overtones of acoustic instruments that many libraries painstakingly remove because they consider them to be in the mud frequencies, being frequencies that you cannot bring back authentically if you do want them present, because they have been removed. This is because they've already been taken out so they can be used for nearly any genre, in many library developers opinions. The great thing about real instruments, especially a full piano, means you can add or subtract easily because the entire spectrum is present if recorded well. It takes a little more effort, but nothing worthwhile is quick.

While this style of recording and sound won't work for some styles or genres, for this it works beautifully and it is wonderfully human. I definitely prefer the real one.

 

Last edited: Mar 14, 2025

I maybe biased, but I think it needs more cowbell....

 

i think its worth it, theres nothing like playing the piano. the feeling of the keys, the resonance's within the piano and in the room. the vibration you can feel in the low notes, humming and moving the air around you.

I used to have nearly unlimited access to a 1913 steinway grand, that lived in a beautiful scoring stage. i would play that thing for hours and hours. I miss it so much. that piano and period in my life truly helped shape me into who i am today.

 

Yes, you're right, I should use a pedal...
now I work on another piece, where there are multiple changes of everything: pedal, key, meter, rubato... and pedal does matter

 

The first recording is best for me because it is the interaction of human with their instrument including all the subtilties of pedaling, playing and harmonics. I can even hear the dampers raise when you pedal. It makes the other recordings sound sterile and appeared a little faster. And I hear this type of piano sound everywhere - it is starting to get nauseating. A lovely piece, why wouldn't you try a 100year old German piano?