humanizing a piano

[Chimpazilla]

Chimpazilla, is your only intention to make piano solo tracks? I wonder why because you say you don't play piano. Or perhaps it is just to improve your piano sequencing...

I don't wish to tell you your efforts are futile but you are really going about it the extremely hard way. Being pianistic and realistic is easy when you play piano, pianistic midi-input by hand is not.

Another thing that gets in your way is the piano samples you have - they're a little synthetic and have quite a bit of reverb on them. Admittedly in the originals (space junk and midna's lament - great choice by the way) there's some unnatural reverb/delay on the piano BUT if you want to fool us into thinking this is a "REAL PIANO PERFORMANCE" i'd say find a better sample or take off the excessive delay/reverb.

If you are merely doing this to better your piano writing in the context of larger pieces you want to write or remix then sure you've done well enough to move on and do that. It is possible to make a convincing midi piano track BUT by doing it by hand you're really being a little hard on yourself!

In conclusion, the things you've done to try make the piano realistic comes off worse - like the tempo changes which are likely very linear and robotic - also velocities. HERE ARE YOUR OPTIONS: WORK LIKE A DOG AND BECOME THE MASTER OF PIANISTIC PLAYING WITHOUT A PIANO/KEYBOARD INPUT OR LEARN PIANO AND MAKE THINGS MUCH EASIER FOR YOURSELF OR STOP YOUR PIANISTIC ENDEAVOURS HERE AND START WORKING ON SOME GREAT REMIXES THAT DON'T RELY ON HYPER-REALISTIC PIANO PLAYING.

I realize I'm never headed for Carnegie Hall with my Fruity Loops program, haha! I'm just practicing. I have piano parts in two of my remixes, they can both use improvement, so I'm just trying some stuff out. I'm taking a little "detour" into piano, just because I'm finding it fun at this point. Also I think there are concepts here that are helpful to me in all my sequencing endeavors. One day, and seriously one day I will just wake up and say "today's the day," I will get a midi keyboard and really try to play it. Look for my post entitled "why did I wait so long?"

[Rozovian]

In contrast to Calum's allcaps.

I'd say you should just go for a deliberate, emotive sound rather than realism. There's three parts to a good solo piano piece imo: arrangement, performance, production. The arrangement ought to play to the strengths of the instrument and avoid awkward and unrealistic writing; the performance, which is what most of this thread has been about, must be deliberate and in line with the emotion of the arrangement; the recording techniques for a real instrument or for the samples used, or the synthesis of those in a piano model needs to be thought through.

Before I got a midi keyboard, I was sequencing stuff. I found that using the sustain pedal cc and focusing on rough velocity changes and making sure chords roll in makes for a good enough piano track and saves me the time and trouble to do more. The exception would be breaks with piano or other parts with a prominent piano, where some more attention to individual notes and melody lines would be useful. Still, don't waste time by trying to make it more realistic than it needs to be, at least unless you get paid by the hour.

In other words, don't go for the level 9000 skills (such as über-realism) before you can do all the basics. Be deliberate, go for emotive rather than realistic, and don't overthink it.

[Chimpazilla]

In contrast to Calum's allcaps.

I'd say you should just go for a deliberate, emotive sound rather than realism. There's three parts to a good solo piano piece imo: arrangement, performance, production. The arrangement ought to play to the strengths of the instrument and avoid awkward and unrealistic writing; the performance, which is what most of this thread has been about, must be deliberate and in line with the emotion of the arrangement; the recording techniques for a real instrument or for the samples used, or the synthesis of those in a piano model needs to be thought through.

Before I got a midi keyboard, I was sequencing stuff. I found that using the sustain pedal cc and focusing on rough velocity changes and making sure chords roll in makes for a good enough piano track and saves me the time and trouble to do more. The exception would be breaks with piano or other parts with a prominent piano, where some more attention to individual notes and melody lines would be useful. Still, don't waste time by trying to make it more realistic than it needs to be, at least unless you get paid by the hour.

In other words, don't go for the level 9000 skills (such as über-realism) before you can do all the basics. Be deliberate, go for emotive rather than realistic, and don't overthink it.

Thank you Rozo!

[Garpocalypse]

HERE ARE YOUR OPTIONS: WORK LIKE A DOG AND BECOME THE MASTER OF PIANISTIC PLAYING WITHOUT A PIANO/KEYBOARD INPUT OR LEARN PIANO AND MAKE THINGS MUCH EASIER FOR YOURSELF OR STOP YOUR PIANISTIC ENDEAVOURS HERE AND START WORKING ON SOME GREAT REMIXES THAT DON'T RELY ON HYPER-REALISTIC PIANO PLAYING.

I like this.

Of all the instruments to work so diligently on Piano hardly sounds like its worth it. If you spend the hours to get it perfect, at best no one notices. at worst, which is far more likely to be achieved, everyone will pick it apart.

I would use your piano parts here as blueprints for a remix. Spread out what you have over a few more instruments, add a "dumb-chick" beat to it and voila instant remix!

[Chimpazilla]

I like this.

Of all the instruments to work so diligently on Piano hardly sounds like its worth it. If you spend the hours to get it perfect, at best no one notices. at worst, which is far more likely to be achieved, everyone will pick it apart.

I would use your piano parts here as blueprints for a remix. Spread out what you have over a few more instruments, add a "dumb-chick" beat to it and voila instant remix!

"Worth it" is a matter of perception! At this point I am just enjoying the sequencing, as I said I am learning more than what is apparent to everyone else. For example the song I'm doing now is forcing me to learn to read music for the first time. So for me, it is totally worth it, at this time.

Please don't worry about my wasted time people, to me it is not wasted! (but thanks for the concern)

As for making a remix out of the two piano songs on soundcloud, I really hadn't considered it, but yes that is a possibility! I liked your suggestion!

(I'm not gonna attempt a piano-only remix, so no worries about picking it apart!)

*puts up umbrella to avoid vulture droppings*

[SnappleMan]

Well just keep in mind that all the time you're spending trying to learn to fake it could be better invested in learning to actually play.