The Vienna Symphonic Library has released an immersive “prepared piano” style sound library featuring a huge array of meticulous recordings of alternative playing techniques on a Yamaha CFX grand piano, with audio captured in the controlled environment of Stage B at Vienna Synchron Stage.
The piano’s strings were manipulated with objects such as screws, bolts, rubber, felt wedges, chains, paper, and Ebow sustaining, allowing for an incredibly diverse set of sounds to be produced and recorded.
VSL’s piano tuner, Max Kubizek, conducted extensive research to unlock the sound possibilities of the piano. No recording boundaries were set, with bass strings slapped or plucked, the piano body struck, screw and bolts creating sharp metallic overtones, or felt dampening vibrations to produce muted, drum-like beats.
Preparations
- Screws inserted between two of the three strings at octave position
- Screws inserted between two of the three strings at fifth position
- Screws with loose nuts inserted between two of the three strings at octave position
- Felt wedges normally used for tuning inserted between strings
- Eraser parts cut to size are inserted at half string length, resulting in a flageolet sound
- Chains of about 30 cm length with 5–7 mm link size put on the strings
- Paper strips threaded between the strings behind the damper to inhibit their free movement
- Aluminum foil lying on the strings is caused to vibrate when they are struck
- A small piece of sheet metal centered on the string and bouncing along
- A glass plate put on the bass strings makes enormous noise
- A water glass pressed onto the strings and moved after the keystroke, similar to a guitar bottleneck
- A hard glockenspiel mallet was used to play the strings from above for a dulcimer-like sound
- A rubber mallet was used to play the strings with screws inserted between the strings
- Timpani wool mallets were used to perform rolls on the strings
- Single strings were plucked with a Wegen Gipsy guitar pick
- Strumming all three strings of a note with the Gipsy guitar pick, with dampers on the strings
- Leather pick glissandos
- EBow string stimulation for pad-like sounds
- EBow with a nut put on the oscillating strings
- A fishing line was rubbed with rosin and threaded between the strings several times so that they could be bowed like a cello
- Fishing line crescendos
- Fast and slow up and down glissandos played with a leather pick between the trusses
- Rasping bass strings with the fingernail
- Glissandos played with percussion brushes in several positions
- Dragging the inner tube of a bike across the strings to achieve something like whale song
- Hits with the open hand on the bass strings in several positions
- A gong mallet was used to play on the trusses from the side and from above. The hits gain a lot of body and reverb by pressing the pedal.
- The piano body is hit with a timpani mallet in several positions
The standard download usually costs €249, while the full set is €399. You will need a lot of storage space, from 92-196GB, and 16GB or above is highly recommended.
Find out more and listen to sample recordings at the product page.
