XPERIMENTA Audio Due [KONTAKT]

When Flavio and the team decided to make this sample library, they had in mind to create something special, something unique, that could really keep the real essence of the acoustic piano. We combined the art of sampling and the art of scripting to make the best sampled piano we could, made for satisfying the most demanding composers and musicians.

XPERIMENTA Due is our new-philosophy piano library, containing two premium pianos recorded with top-end gear and unique detail.

– 2 beautiful sampled pianos in one library: a C7 Gran Coda and a C3 Half Coda
– 14 Dynamic Layers chromatically sampled
– 16,6GB, 9.500 samples and 1 year of work
– Up to 3 Microphone positions: Close, Player (only C7), Room
– Real Sympatetic Resonance, Overtones and advanced Repedaling simulation
– Shape your sound with “Formant”, “Tone balance” and an integrated envelope.
– 15 noise layers (cotton, leaves, etc.) and 9 instrument layers (choir, kantele, etc.)
– New! “Feeling” simulates the responce of a weighted keyboard
– New! now Due supports Half Pedaling

Clean and versatile: an all-around piano, good for jazz and classical music.

Warm, smooth, intmate: perfect for cinematic music.

Every pianist knows that not all the pianos are the same. Each instrument can have a so different touch and color, and sometimes it is important to find the right piano for the right piece.

This is why we sampled two instruments so deeply: we wanted to give to our customers the freedom to choose between two different instruments, recorded both with the same quality.

The art of recording

After endless sessions of testing, we recorded the pianos using only top-end microphones as DPA, Neumann, Gefell, in two beautiful-sounding rooms in Sibelius Academy Studios, Helsinki.

The art of scripting

We simulated the acoustic behaviour of the piano, with a combination of fine sampling of the mechanics (i.e. hammer and pedal noises) and a phisic-modeling philosophy of scripting.

The game of the resonance

We believe that a piano is not just a sum of its sounds: indeed, all the strings “interact” each other when played, in a complex game. We recreated this interaction in two ways:

Overtones: We sampled the “overtones”, that are the harmonic resonances that the strings generate by sympathetic resonance, controlled by a special engine. We also sampled the sound of the strings with the sustain pedal down.

Impulse Response: in collaboration with the Sibelius Academy Music Technology Department, we sampled the impulse response of the strings and the body of the C7.

Formant control

“Formant” allows you to make the sound of the piano “bigger” or “smaller”, by changing the formant of the sound. It can be used both for shaping the sound and for creative purposes. On maximun/minimum values, you can create a slow-down effect (like in the demo) or a chipmonk tune.

Microphone settings

We sampled the pianos with multiple microphone positions.

– “Close”: the microphones are close to the strings, and the sound is modern and clean.

– “Player”: the microphones are in the same position of the player. The sound results incredibly natural and well balanced.

– “Room”: the microphones are far from the piano, so they will capture the reflection of the recording room. The sound is wide and it fits well with classical music.Layers

Expand your possibilities: Due allows you to add a noise or an instrument layer to the sound of the piano. With this feature, is possible to create a felt-like piano (with a cotton layer) or a full sound preset (with a choir layer).

– NOISE LAYERS: Cotton 2, Cotton 2, Cotton Soft, Paper, Sponge, Leaves, String Perc, Key, Metal, Plastic 1, Plastic 2, Warm Plastic, Glass, Bells 1, Bells 2

– INSTRUMENT LAYERS: Bells, Kantele, Piano, Harmonics, Choir, Guitar, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, E. GuitarOldify

“Oldify” is a collection of effects that allows you to simulate an old recording.

– Tape adds an harmonic distorsion to the sound

– Flutter simulates a fast modulation of the tape

– Wow simulates a slow and random modulation of the tape

– Filter is a band-pass filter: here you can easily simulate crappy speakers, like a phone-callConvolution Reverb

Choose between 17 convolution reverb, and place your piano where you want!

IR Reverb:Room 1, Room 2, Large Room 1, Large Room 2, Large Room 3, Hall 1, Hall 2, Wood 1, Wood 2, Large Hall, Opera Hall, Parking 1, Parking 2, Church 1, Church 2, Arena, Spring.

Ver 1.0

Removed the “Metallic” item in the Layers

Adjusted some samples start

Improvements on CPU performances

Ver 1.1

Fixed a sample issue on Piano One Note: B3 Velocity: 106-112

Ver 1.2

Fixed a sample issue on Piano One Note: D2 Velocity: 106-112

Changed some EQ parameters in First Piano – Close mics

Fixed the default vaules for “XPERIMENTA First Piano”

Little fixes on “XPERIMENTA First Piano (Light)”

Removed G3 samples in First Piano, because the note was harsh, and repleaced with the nearest note.

Ver 1.3

– Fixed “Group Solo” issue

Ver 1.4

– New Layers: String Perc, Key, Metal1. Plastic 1, Plastic 2, Warm Plastic, Glass, Bells 1, Bells 2

– New feature: “Tuned layers” feature

– New Tuned layers: Kantele, Bells, Piano, Guitar, Harmonics, Choir, E. Guitar, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone

– New: Labels on “Settings” and “Mic” pages.

– Fixed a sample issue on First piano: C#3 key, Second Piano: C4

– Fixed lenght of the highest notes

– Better response

– Fixed Standard volume for all the patches

– New Feature: Formants control.

– Improved denoising

– New .nki paths

– Other little fixes

Ver 1.5

– Fixed the delay on the Second Piano Samples

– Fixed all the Second Piano patches

– Fixed some layer samples

– Warmer responce of the First Piano

– A little change of sound of the Second Piano

– New! Feeling option

– New! Ultra light patches

– New! Bonus patches

Ver 1.9

– Fix: Resonances in the 4st octave of the First Piano

– Fix: Noise control in First and Second Piano

– New! now due supports Half-Pedaling

– Sound improved

– New! Now you can purge the release samples

– New! Two type of resonances; Impulse Responce and Samples. NOTE: IR Responce works better in Kontakt 5.

Ver 1.9.2

– Fix: Resonance Knob off by default. Recommended on Kontakt 6.

– New! Soft Pedal support

– Fix: “Flutter” label

Ver 1.9.3

– Fix: no more patch, better latency responce.

Ver 1.9.31

– Fix: the part1 of the .rar was having issues with some unarchiver softwares

Requires the FULL version of NI Kontakt v5.5.1 or higher!