DimensionalTips: Shifting The Piano

Hola friendus,

Back in the early 90s, the best available piano sound in a synthesizer was in the fantastic Roland Sound Canvas. Noone was using it of course, SC didn't qualify as 'pro' unfortunately, how one might imagine anyone who would consider him/herself professional using such a consumer thing. It was funny when Keyboard mag rated it higher than anything, right there with the bosen in the Korg 01W-ProX. Not always the best things are labeled 'pro'


Hmm... what was I about to write anyways? ah! shifting the piano.
It happens very often when you have only one piano sound in your synth/sampler, that it sounds great, but... you get bored of it. You turn it on every day of the week, and it happens to sound always identical. Temperature and humidity doesn't seem to affect samples as much as the real thing. It never goes out of tune, and you can't use duct tape on samples. It also happens with other sounds, but the piano is... well... the piano.

Here's a trick you can use on Dimension pianos to have a new one anytime you want it. It's a trick some synthesizers have used for a while, so it's not really an invention, but very handy.

As you surely know, when you load a multisample in Dimension you're actually loading many wav files. Those wav files were recorded for several keys in the keyboard, then mapped so when you play say G3, the real sample taken from G3 from the original piano plays.

Dimension features two parameters to define the pitch of a multisample: Transpose and Shift, both in the main display. Transpose moves the whole multisample up or down, while Shift changes the pitch of the notes without changing the mapping.

The trick of 'shifting' the piano consists of transposing the multisample, and shifting the multisample map in the opposite direction. This might sound chinese but it's very simple: Just set Transpose to 4, and Shift to -4.

When you transpose a multisample down, and shift the pitch high, the result is a multisample playing at the same pitch but the tonal characteristics are affected: the original G3 sample is now playing B3, but tuned to G3, for instance.

I don't think it's that easy to understand till you experience it. Therefore, I've prepared a small p5p project featuring a quick piano improvisation in a shifted to 'dark' piano. Just open the Dimension instance and tweak Transpose and Shift so you can observe how it works.

Shifting The Piano (p5p)


Here's a mp3 for those who didn't receive their P5II yet. And for those who didn't buy it yet, if such a thing exist. This is one of the smallest pianos in Dimension (14Mb), no effects or processing whatsoever. No mistake-fixing nor quantizing either, sorry. Natural is natural

Shifting The Piano (mp3)


Hope you like it. Shift the world!


-René

Nice one, Rene. We fooled with that one here with the DS864, but without such ease of implementation. For the currently Dimensionally-challenged (OK, OK, this one's for me): Range of possible shifting values [+/- 12; 24 semitones]? And how about the results when you don't mirror the values exactly, including quasi-random value changes? [I see a prepared (Dimensional) piano.]

Nice one, Rene. We fooled with that one here with the DS864, but without such ease of implementation. For the currently Dimensionally-challenged (OK, OK, this one's for me): Range of possible shifting values [+/- 12; 24 semitones]? And how about the results when you don't mirror the values exactly, including quasi-random value changes? [I see a prepared (Dimensional) piano.]

Both Transpose and Shift are +/- 48 semitones. For realistic results though, only a few semitones will do it.

And how about the results when you don't mirror the values exactly

They need to, otherwise you get the pitch changed (transposed).


When you getting your P5II/Dimension? You know I'm waiting to hear your comment don't you?


-René

Thanks René, nice tip.

Just for an A/B comparison, I loaded a "clean" instance of the same patch. The difference is quite striking and quite natural sounding.

Then for fun, I panned your original track hard left, the clean patch hard right, and copied the lane pattern. Very interesting...


Bradster

ORIGINAL: Digital Aura

mmmmmmmmmm....your playing is very yummy Rene!! MAN..this is good!

I agree, and this is my chance to say that I thought the smooth jazz demo song was incredible as well. That was right up there with Peter White and some of the other great smooth jazz artists, yet it was all done with Dimension! Amazing.

ORIGINAL: Digital Aura

Absolutely brilliant!!

I never even thought of this and it seems like a simple thing now that you've explained it! I like this!

René,

It doesn't seem like a "simple thing" at all to me. You really have to know your instrument in order to even know what is possible.

Obviously you are master of this synth, and quite the musician as well. I bow to your genius. Thanks for all the tips and advice you share. You add great depth to the forum!

Thanks Rene, if Digital Aura's sample hadn't already convinced me, this would have. I always start with piano (hmm..well, I almost always end with it too). I love the concept, I've spent lots of time trying to get more bass and mid while keeping the high bright...this does the trick very easily.

Pretty neat!

Can you do this with multiple zones -- e.g. shift the piano one way for 2 octaves of the bass, another way for 3 octaves around middle C, and with yet another shift factor for the treble octaves? That would provide a nice way of independently adjusting the timbre of different piano registers.

- Jim (Dimension/P5v2 newbie)

do it in a per-note/per-velocity basis, but that's hardcore.

This whole sampsynth is hardcore. I want to go further in the V2 features, but I'm trapped in some inter-Dimensional struggle, and can't escape. I do want to relay my first impressions, Rene, but I just keep getting deeper and deeper into the implementation, and one discovery tops the next. This ... is ... incredible ...

Slackened dropped jaw; unblinking eyes; head shaking violently side-to-side in disbelief; and every so often a barely audible "wow ..." breaks through the monitor mix. I expected great things from this plugin, but you may have succeeded in accomplishing what was formerly thought impossible: I'm at a total loss for words.

that's a beautiful dark piano

there was quite a thread on kvr some time ago about the Swedish Malsmjo Piano that Steinway ran out of business in the early 20 th century. I havd the soundfont and it's a nice change of pace -- but now we don't have to leave the confines of the program to get that darker sound

my monitor is covered with post-it note tips and b-rock just got his copy

so any tips on how to learn to play like that in 4-6 weeks?

can I assume that's a weighted keyboard?