"Secret" Digital Piano sounds

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dkernohan
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"Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by dkernohan »

A while ago we were all excited about the discovery of some "secret" new Nord piano sounds. They were (briefly) on the mothership site (though only discoverable via google) - we managed to preserve the files for you to download on the forumnord-user-samples-nsmp-samples-f14/gosp ... 15312.html.

The consensus was that these were a part of the abandoned "Gospel Piano" release promised for NAMM 2017 http://soundtechuk.blogspot.com/2017/01 ... ntage.html.

But though these are foundational sounds for a lot of gospel and worship music, they're also all over late 80s and early 90s popular music. The association with church music may well have put a lot of you off trying out what are - in fact - excellent sounds.

So I did a bunch of short demos for you, which may spark your interest in these very specific, beautifully recorded, and fun to play "secret" pianos. I've used a touch of chorus 1 and a touch of "soft stage" reverb from my NE5D - I used a Kawai VPC1 to trigger the sound. There's no additional processing, and (other than the sound) the same settings are used for each recording. I start each time with the same sustained chord, and then play something that seems to fit the sound for about 30 seconds.

The Roland MKS20 was a rack unit that featured very early attempts at digitally modelling piano and rhodes (Epiano1) sounds, plus a digital piano (Epiano2)
Image
The Roland Rhodes Mk80 was a very controversial "digital Rhodes" from the short period when the trademark was owned by Roland. It used similar technology to the MKS20 to provide what were, at the time, very expressive and realistic piano and rhodes (Epiano1) sounds, plus a very familar digital piano sound (Epiano2) and a combination of the two (Epiano3).

Image
The JD800 was a 1991 Roland digital synth that featured a very bright (like, ridiculously bright) dyno-rhodes sound called "Crystal Rhodes".

Image
Attachments
MKS20Epiano2.mp3
Roland MKS20 Epiano2
(502.21 KiB) Downloaded 2197 times
MKS20Epiano1.mp3
Roland MKS20 Epiano1
(654.05 KiB) Downloaded 1781 times
MKS20Apiano1.mp3
Roland MKS20 Apiano1
(596.5 KiB) Downloaded 1656 times
MK80Epiano3.mp3
Roland Rhodes MK80 Epiano 3
(574.46 KiB) Downloaded 1464 times
MK80Epiano2.mp3
Roland Rhodes MK80 Epiano 2
(538.54 KiB) Downloaded 1233 times
MK80Epiano1.mp3
Roland Rhodes MK80 Epiano 1
(596.91 KiB) Downloaded 1209 times
MK80Apiano1.mp3
Roland Rhodes MK80 Apiano 1
(547.93 KiB) Downloaded 1206 times
JD800.mp3
JD800 Crystal Rhodes
(554.46 KiB) Downloaded 1467 times
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dkernohan
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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by dkernohan »

Just in case anyone finds it useful, I also demoed the "official" versions - the "Layer" pianos and the newer DigiPianos - in the same way.

I'm pretty sure Digital Piano 1 has a relationship to the Korg M1 Digital Piano 2 sounds closer to the Roland modelling attempts in the post above - this is quite close to the MKS20 Apiano1 to my ears. I find both of the Ballad Eps pretty non-descript. As you can hear they record beautifully, and I think they would work in context for any late 80s-early 90s ballad. So a couple for when you get the phone call from Diane Warren. On the hybrid I can certainly hear the JD800. I think it is layered with a Rhodes of some description. This feels like the MKS20 Apiano layered with a Roland "Rhodes" epiano. I could be wrong though. I used the same settings and process as for the files above. One think that struck me was even though these are "Small" files the layers especially sound huge - much more polished and much richer than the "secret" pianos. Depends what you need, really. I think these record well but are less inspiring to play, but you may think otherwise.
Attachments
SilverEP.mp3
Silver Epiano
(577.31 KiB) Downloaded 843 times
HybridEP.mp3
Hybrid Epiano
(585.48 KiB) Downloaded 792 times
Digigrand2.mp3
Digital Piano 2
(696.91 KiB) Downloaded 871 times
DigiGrand1.mp3
Digital Piano 1
(470.38 KiB) Downloaded 958 times
BalladEp2.mp3
Ballad EPiano 2
(534.87 KiB) Downloaded 773 times
BalladEp1.mp3
Ballad EPiano 1
(438.13 KiB) Downloaded 884 times
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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by Schorsch »

Very cool, thanks! :yourock:
Regards Schorsch

Check this awesome website to visualize NS2/3 programs and re-create them on the other instrument!

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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by MartinJ2EX »

Edit: read again.. sry

Awesome example recordings :yourock: :keyboard:
Last edited by MartinJ2EX on 07 Sep 2018, 20:37, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by analogika »

MartinJ2EX wrote:You could also link the post where you got those “secret” samples ;)
Would be very cool for everybody who unlike me doesn’t have those insanely awesome samples :)
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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by tillco_77 »

dkernohan wrote: 01 Sep 2018, 18:23 Just in case anyone finds it useful, I also demoed the "official" versions - the "Layer" pianos and the newer DigiPianos - in the same way.

I'm pretty sure Digital Piano 1 has a relationship to the Korg M1 Digital Piano 2 sounds closer to the Roland modelling attempts in the post above - this is quite close to the MKS20 Apiano1 to my ears. I find both of the Ballad Eps pretty non-descript. As you can hear they record beautifully, and I think they would work in context for any late 80s-early 90s ballad. So a couple for when you get the phone call from Diane Warren. On the hybrid I can certainly hear the JD800. I think it is layered with a Rhodes of some description. This feels like the MKS20 Apiano layered with a Roland "Rhodes" epiano. I could be wrong though. I used the same settings and process as for the files above. One think that struck me was even though these are "Small" files the layers especially sound huge - much more polished and much richer than the "secret" pianos. Depends what you need, really. I think these record well but are less inspiring to play, but you may think otherwise.
Hi ,
could you please upload the ".npno " files for these beautiful instruments?
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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by maxpiano »

tillco_77 wrote: 15 May 2025, 10:09 Hi ,
could you please upload the ".npno " files for these beautiful instruments?
Those are from standard Nord Piano Library, under Digital Piano category, just get them from Nord website https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sounds/pi ... ategory=41 or via Nord Sound Manager (Sound Library function)
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Re: "Secret" Digital Piano sounds

Post by tillco_77 »

maxpiano wrote: 15 May 2025, 10:10
tillco_77 wrote: 15 May 2025, 10:09 Hi ,
could you please upload the ".npno " files for these beautiful instruments?
Those are from standard Nord Piano Library, under Digital Piano category, just get them from Nord website https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sounds/pi ... ategory=41 or via Nord sound Manager (Sound Library function)
Yes, I just realized it now. Thank you very much for your patience and speed.
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