Results for prepared piano

Andreas Busk-Jepsen has recently launched the Are You Prepared website.

Andreas writes:

Pieces of wood, strips of plastic, rubber, bamboo and cloth as well as weather stripping, bolts, screws, nuts and coins… placed between the strings of a grand piano… This instrument is one of many ingenious musical inventions thought out by sound philosopher, inventor and revolutionary composer John Cage (1912-1992).

This original arrangement of everyday objects placed between the strings of a grand piano has become known as the ‘prepared piano’. Although the instrument sounds amazing and like something out of this world, it is largely overlooked.

Live Packs for both Simpler and Sampler are available for download from the website.

Are You Prepared Live Pack features

• 37 prepared piano samples of unusually high quality.
• All samples are recorded in the renowned concert hall of Esbjerg Music Conservatory, Denmark.
• No streching or looping has been made in the digital sampling process; each note has its own unique sample.
• The careful choice of microphones and their placement in, over and under the piano results in an intimate feel for the instrument.

AYP will be available as an EXS version for Logic soon as well.

Visit the Are You Prepared website for more information, mp3 files, some movies and the download links.

Some interesting things I found on June 10th, 2008:

# The Weather Box –

Gian Pablo and Lesley Flanigan’s final project for Networked Objects.

Our original idea had been to retrieve weather information from the Internet for different cities, and use this as the basis for a simple melody. This basically what we delivered:

The Weather Box is built into a tea box. Inside is an Arduino-based polyphonic synthesizer, with an XPort Internet access module. When dialing up one of the 8 cities, the box retrieves the weather information for that city from an NOAA server, and turns it into a simple melody.

Pressing the red button will replay the melody.

# ArcAttack – Home of the Singing Tesla Coils – Creators of the original Singing Tesla Coils, the crew of ArcAttack uses high tech wizardry to present music in a whole new light. ArcAttack employs a unique DJ set up of their own creation (an HVDJ set up) to generate an ‘electrifying’ audio visual performance. The HVDJ pumps music through a PA System while two specially designed DRSSTC’s (Dual-Resonant Solid State Tesla Coils) act as separate synchronized instruments.

# Star Wars music played by a floppy drive – Don't throw out your old floppy drives just yet!

# Evolution2 Contest – Win 3x $30,000 – Due to the overwhelming success of the first Evolution contest in Europe, we are launching a worldwide version: Hobnox Evolution2. Submit a project into one of three categories and compete for one of three Artist Support Packages worth up to $30,000 each.

# Sound Design for Imaginary Instruments: A Kore-Prepared Piano

Peter Kirn writes:

In the last installment of “sound design for imaginary instruments,” we saw some experiments with guitar sounds. This time, I’ll talk about how nice it is to be able to throw together sampled sounds and effects quickly in Kore.

# SUB SUB WOOFER – capable of reproducing sound down to 1Hz – The speaker requires installation into a purpose built attic or basement space which works as an infinite baffle/resonant chamber so you don’t actually get to see the cone of the speaker oscillating at 1Hz, but you’ll feel it.

reFX has released two new expansion packs for NEXUS: Analog and Peter Siedlaczeks’ Total Piano.

Analog features 128 analog sounds created on real analog equipment, such as Minimoog, Andromeda, Oberheim, TB303, and many more… Fat, round and warm – these attributes reflect the basic sound of this expansion.

Snappy, biting electro basses; saturated leads and synths; fat, droning pads and many re-creations of well-known legends – all of them minimalistic, pure and raw. All sounds have the pleasant frequency response and the natural depth which analog-experts prefer.

Peter Siedlaczek’s Total Piano is the first library containing – in addition to the classical samples of acoustic pianos – new, unconventionally created, original piano sounds, which can be subdivided into four groups:

1. Acoustic Pianos
2. Unconventional playing techniques
3. Prepared Piano Sounds
4. Piano Effects

The samples are identical to the already available Total Piano sample-CD collection. The presets however, are totally new.

The expansions cost $69.99 USD each.

Visit reFX for more information, and mp3 demos.

ILIO is now shipping Special Keyboards, a virtual instrument comprising 8 GB of samples, which offers a state-of-the-art approach to capturing exceptional, rare, but also classic sounds that every sound designer or composer should have.

The harpsichord has a famously bright sound, rich in overtones. This set is great for TV and filmscores, classic rock, and of course this is the definitive instrument for going “Back to Bach.” Recorded in Vienna’s own Silent Stage, the following single notes and repetition performances of a two manual harpsichord were recorded: 8’ register solo, 8’ double, and tutti (a combination of two 8’ registers and one 4’ register).

The harmonium is a free-reed instrument, meaning that air streaming past reeds of different lengths causes them to vibrate. Unlike organ pipes, the harmonium’s reeds produce more disharmonic overtones, creating a unique undulating sound.

The prepared piano is a technique introduced in 1949 by John Cage, where objects like erasers, nails, wire, paper, etc., are inserted between a piano’s strings in certain places, causing them to produce additional tones, harmonics, or percussive sounds. The Vienna team also treated the Bösendorfer grand piano with bare hands (e.g., glissandos over the strings) and with wood mallets in order to get a multitude of creative sounds and colors.

Note: There are no Standard and Extended Library options, as in other Vienna Instruments collections; the Special Keyboards Standard Library includes the full sets of samples along with the software instrument, featuring Vienna Symphonic Library’s exclusive Vienna Instruments engine.

Special Keyboards has a MSRP of $385.

Visit Vienna Symphonic Library for more information and sound demos.

Gersic.com has released Preparation P, a VSTi collection of 61 high quality prepared piano samples.

All of these samples were recorded by Tom Gersic on a baby-grand piano, and include a variety of strummed strings, plucked strings, and many other sounds of various objects lodged in the strings.

Each sample can be tuned individually, and you can also adjust the attack, decay, sustain, and release characteristics of the sound by using the envelope controls.

Preparation P is released as freeware (Paypal donations are welcome).

Check Gersic.com for more information and a link to download Preparation P.