Old Busted Granny Piano

About

The Old Busted Granny Piano captures the heart and soul of an old, worn-out piano with wobbly keys, a couple of broken strings and many decades of hard use and abuse. Of course there are many other great piano libraries out there, with their shiny lacquer and prized strings, but none of them have ever captured the authentic beauty of a cheap, dusty, worn, rusting, long-out-of-tune piano. This is the kind of piano you remember from your grandmother’s house.

We recorded 3-4 velocity layers on all keys, with added round-robin variation on the two middle octaves in the mf range. There are actually two independent release trigger samples for each note to better emulate the instrument’s natural behaviour as we recorded it. Each note has separate string release samples and key release samples. The “key” release trigger is the soft, distant mechanical wooden “thud” that naturally occurs when a key is lifted, even after the resonance has faded. The piano was so old and wobbly that you had to release the sustain pedal very slowly, otherwise all the hammers came crashing down onto the strings and could occasionally even get stuck there if you lifted your foot too quickly. Over the years, our Old Busted Granny Piano has become something of a cult classic, finding its way into an endless string of soundtracks, trailers, commercials and records.

Contents

• Notes and releases for all 88 keys, including the broken strings
• Pedal SFX
• In tune and tamed
• Out of tune and raw
• Bright and cheerful
• Soft and muddy
• Special Effects
• Atmospheric “Geriatrocity” pads and drones

Product Specs