Grand Synth Piano

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2 comments, last by lain_lain@live.com 12 years, 11 months ago
I've heard a lot of impressive instruments that were made using subtractive synthesis. For example, this grand piano emulation. [media]
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I started wondering if I could have just as good results using FM Synthesis. Well, I tried my hand at it.

Click here: Grand Synth Piano

It's nowhere near sounding like an original grand and I see a lot of room for improvement which is why I call it a work in progress. Still, I'm really satisfied with it.

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Ok, I worked on it some more. Added a couple more operators. Tried to add some flavor to it. Here's an update: http://soundcloud.com/lainalain/grand-synth-piano-update

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Some suggestions to make it somewhat more realistic, if that's what you're after:

On a real instrument, the amplitude envelope varies with pitch, becoming faster with higher pitches - in the case of a piano, the envelope gets roughly 50% shorter for every octave up you go.

The lower-end notes are all single-stringed, but the mid-range are double-stringed and the high end are triple-stringed, and for multi-stringed keys, the strings are slightly out of tune with each other - and the more strings a key has, the lower the sustain level is. The bass strings are also wire-wound, which greatly strengthens the higher partials.

Finally, the overtones of struck and plucked strings are not perfectly harmonic, so it may help to slightly detune the modulator or carrier.
Oooh, thanks a lot. On some of the modulators, I didn't turn the key velocity up all the way. I'm gonna have to fix that.

The string advice is really helpful. I've already got ideas about how to fix that.

Game Music Life


Because Game Music Is Life

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