Hi !

Sorry for the graphic title, i've been warping my head to get this piano sound, that seems simple to get but i cant seem to figure it out.

Been trying kontakt libraries, keyscape, it seems to me like the basic sound is from a Nord, but there is some processing on it to make it sound fat, somehow controlled, and kinda wide.

I've tried layering it, mid/side method with different libraries, just one keyscape with some compression and lush verb on the side, but it just sounds weak compared to what i wanna get. You can hear it in the 1st verse of this song, but i'm pretty sure there's a thousand songs with this kind of very fat piano.

Havnt come close so far, the few instances i tought i was, it was taking far too much on the lead vocals.

Would appreciate any input ! Tried to find a similar thread but didnt, if there is already one let me know i'll delete this one.

Thank you all !

 

Try experimenting with compressing the reverb(s) on the piano you choose as well as equalization to tweak it where you'd like it. There might also be some widening movement so perhaps check that out too.

 

Check out the last demo (5/5) song of The Grandeur of Native Instruments. This will get you pretty close to what you're looking for, I think?
https://www.native-instruments.com/...m7J8J0-uEbycqNCKtnloE_-_ks3TW2ZaLAN0prOjtrywY

 

Will try all that thank you ! I never got my grandeur to sound like that tho, will try stuff on it and see if it sticks !

 

Kinda...in the demo there is left/right keytracking, in the song it doesn't seem to be the case. I've been using The Granduer as my go-to this last month and found that if narrowing the stereo field the tone begins to get phasey and loose the character of this particular piano.

 

I managed to get closer, it's what i ll keep for the moment, but will still try to tweak and find better ways to achieve this sound. Basically went for the grandeur levitating preset, got rid of the reverb, tone a bit down air +10 db, lowering a lot the dynamic range and compressing lightly the piano at the end. An eq boosting highs on the side, and a low shelf till 350 hz at -4db. All that with a send verb getting compressed, seems to do the job for the moment. Thank you all and dont hesitate to answer if you have a closer sound !

 

It's kind of funny you got suggested the exact same kontakt library as ChatGPT suggested without any attribution to it. As a "guess".

You might as well do the rest of its mix recipe for it.

 

I guess grandeur is a common enough piano library that it might be suggested quite easily, be it ai or a real lad. But i actually got closer with it than with keyscape and co, so i'll take it for the moment. I dont think that LLM are able to listen to online demos, and redirect you to them so it seems a bit farfetched to me

 

LLMs don't listen to audio, but can transcribe speech to whatever they use internally, so any audio advice is hallucination, based on training data and internet scraping on request.

 

I tought controversy would have come from the sleep token snippet, but i guess i was wrong

 

Fat: Wave shapers like Sonnox Inflator and saturation like Soundtoys Decapitator. Can even double the track with the same or different pianos, keep one centered/mono and the other one with your widening stuff.

Wide: Delay. Chorus. Widening tools like Izotope Imager. Also boost the mids and the highs with an eq on the side channel.

Make sure that the level of the track is eventually at max on the channel. Like not as high as the fader can go, but hitting the db level you've adjusted your fader at.

 

Last edited: Dec 4, 2025

You must have a very interesting life crosschecking every advice that people give here on ChatGPT?

I don’t use ChatGPT actually but you seem to be an expert on it? So you might as well ask how it's done while you're at it?

 

It's funny the guy suggests that piano as he was "guessing", when really it was the very first thing ChatGPT suggested; then goes and creates an anti-AI thread. I figured that you guessed the Nord because they do use one live. A Nord Stage 3, but I think that is more for gear reliability because Clavia build them like a tank. You probably would get a better starting source with Keyscape grand piano. Or UA Ravel, maybe even VSL. When someone's reaction to someone saying their guess is directly from AI output, and then they go on to make an anti-AI thread about it, should tell anyone all they need to know.

They can absolutely take apart online media files and give guesses to not only what synths were used, but how to recreate stuff. It's of course, impossible to be right all the time with something as bread and butter as a piano library. But when someone tries to specify a Kontakt piano lib? Almost always wrong. Bands on major labels using the most pirated libraries they can think of? Not a chance.

 

maybe try the dimension effect from the helix