The new Felt Piano - let's review it!

[Hlaalu]

Finally tried it (the XL version). Doesn't do it for me.

Without any EQ (nor the piano section EQ neither the main EQ), it feels so muffled it sounds almost like one of those "underwater" effect filters. I guess it could have some uses this way in certain peculiar settings, but it isn't my way. Definitely a niche piano.

But the real problem I have is when I try brighten it up a bit with the EQ, or even playing with the touch settings. Then it brings out some electric piano-ish "tine-y" kind of sound tail that I really dislike (but then I dislike electric pianos in general, so I may be biased).

The only useful application I have found so far is layering it with other pianos to give them a bit more body and thickness. For example it seems to be working great in pair with the Bright grand, in a way that EQ wouldn't suffice at giving it girth. Yet, layering (Nord) pianos is not something I like to do anyway.

So I don't think that's enough for me to keep it for now...

By the way: it doesn't show up as "Instrument name" on the OLED screen, as someone said it would, but with its name "Felt Piano"...

[Berretje]

By the way: it doesn't show up as "Instrument name" on the OLED screen, as someone said it would, but with its name "Felt Piano"...

Maybe only a NS2/NE5 issue?

NS - Felt Piano name

IMG_9855.JPG (1.43 MiB) Viewed 1935 times

[Hlaalu]

...or a Large issue. I had the XL loaded. I won't be able to check that out today.

[Spider]

Found a low-fi youtube video of the Yamaha in question, and it didn't sound anything like the Felt Piano.

That video is a "regular" model, not the prepared felt piano. No surprise it sounds totally different.

Without any EQ (nor the piano section EQ neither the main EQ), it feels so muffled it sounds almost like one of those "underwater" effect filters.
...
The only useful application I have found so far is layering it with other pianos to give them a bit more body and thickness.

I guess these are all perfectly fine uses. A great "effect" piano, good for special uses (ambient, lounge, intimate solo performance) and great for layering.
I haven't tested the Felt yet, but I use the Velvet and Mellow a lot that way, layered to give more body to bright pianos and balance their harsher tones.

By the way, I found the Anderton video very interesting. Not only the Felt piano sounds great, but to my ears it sounds quite a bit LESS muffled than the Spitfire VST. Everything is relative...

[Hlaalu]

great for layering.
I haven't tested the Felt yet, but I use the Velvet and Mellow a lot that way, layered to give more body to bright pianos and balance their harsher tones.

The only problem I have with layering Nord pianos is that I feel a lot of the idiosyncrasies that make them human and real get lost in the layer. I'm not saying that it ends up sounding like a polished digital "abstraction" of a piano, like many other brands' do. But they do lose some of their reality and identity, so to speak.

By the way, I found the Anderton video very interesting. Not only the Felt piano sounds great, but to my ears it sounds quite a bit LESS muffled than the Spitfire VST. Everything is relative...

In the video it sounds good, and so it does in the YouTube presentation Nord did. And also the short demonstrations on Nord website are good. But that's always too indirect. In many other cases what you hear on the Nord page isn't quite the same thing as to when you actually try it. Amplification certainly plays a big role. Differences among headphones are big too after all...

[Pianolin]

By the way: it doesn't show up as "Instrument name" on the OLED screen, as someone said it would, but with its name "Felt Piano"...

Maybe only a NS2/NE5 issue?

IMG_9855.JPG

Also showing that on my end, XL on NE5

[Hlaalu]

Also showing that on my end, XL on NE5

You mean you have the "instrument name" or the correct "Felt Piano"?

[Pianolin]

Also showing that on my end, XL on NE5

You mean you have the "instrument name" or the correct "Felt Piano"?

It's showing "instrument name".

[Gambold]

>But the real problem I have is when I try brighten it up a bit with the EQ, or even playing with the touch settings. Then it brings out some electric piano-ish "tine-y" kind of sound tail <

I don't like EQ for acoustic samples and almost never....well, never...use it. I feel that the samples should stand on their own without needing to be "fixed" with EQ, which as this poster said, inevitably pushes the sample into a more digital sound. The Velvet has often been mentioned with "all it needs is some EQ." If that's the case, then it probably wasn't sampled that well.

Brian May authorized a signature VOX AC/30 amp with one knob. Volume. That's really all you should need for a good acoustic piano sample.

[Hlaalu]

>But the real problem I have is when I try brighten it up a bit with the EQ, or even playing with the touch settings. Then it brings out some electric piano-ish "tine-y" kind of sound tail <

I don't like EQ for acoustic samples and almost never....well, never...use it. I feel that the samples should stand on their own without needing to be "fixed" with EQ, which as this poster said, inevitably pushes the sample into a more digital sound. The Velvet has often been mentioned with "all it needs is some EQ." If that's the case, then it probably wasn't sampled that well.

Brian May authorized a signature VOX AC/30 amp with one knob. Volume. That's really all you should need for a good acoustic piano sample.

I didn't meant to say I "liked" to EQ it. But I haven't a strong position against EQing anything either, if that makes it sound better, acoustic or not. I never EQ Nord pianos not because I am ideologically against it, but because I have never been able to make them sound anything more beautifully than they already do.

EQing the Felt was an attempt like EQing any other piano to see what I could get out of it, since what I got out of it with no EQ I wasn't liking very much. And again, results weren't pleasing this way either. I am not sure the reason is bad sampling. Maybe I just don't like this piano and/or the kind of mood it evokes (now that I think about it, the Velvet isn't loaded in my S3 either).