Nord User Forum

I know a piano is in a mono instrument..however is there a stereo grand sample out there? I play in stereo and all my other boards
have stereo piano sounds.

most all the pianos in the Nord Piano Library are stereo -- in fact, I'm not sure that there are any mono pianos left in there (and too lazy to look at the moment)

besides, I'm sure that a great many people will not agree that a piano is a mono instrument...myself included

bless, pablo

pablomastodon wrote:most all the pianos in the Nord Piano Library are stereo -- in fact, I'm not sure that there are any mono pianos left in there (and too lazy to look at the moment)

besides, I'm sure that a great many people will not agree that a piano is a mono instrument...myself included

bless, pablo

Yes most hif not all) grands in the Nord Piano library are stereo sampled.

I also agree and find it difficult to define the piano as a "mono" instrument, because it has quite a size so the sound does not come from a single point and changes with the key being played (unless the listener is very far from it), particularly from the player perspective. In the end a piano, when recorded/sampled, can be stereo or mono depending on the microphones positioning and their mix, but to reproduce it realistically some stereophony should always be there, imo.

maxpiano wrote:

pablomastodon wrote:most all the pianos in the Nord Piano Library are stereo -- in fact, I'm not sure that there are any mono pianos left in there (and too lazy to look at the moment)

besides, I'm sure that a great many people will not agree that a piano is a mono instrument...myself included

bless, pablo

Yes most hif not all) grands in the Nord Piano library are stereo sampled.

I also agree and find it difficult to define the piano as a "mono" instrument, because it has quite a size so the sound does not come from a single point and changes with the key being played (unless the listener is very far from it), particularly from the player perspective. In the end a piano, when recorded/sampled, can be stereo or mono depending on the microphones positioning and their mix, but to reproduce it realistically some stereophony should always be there, imo.

I'd say all acoustic instruments are stereo until you have to put it through microphones and a left/right audio system and have to decide to make them mono or stereo.

For the OP, I can assure you that at least 3 out of the 4 most recently released grand piano sounds from Nord (Italian Grand, Silver Grand, Royal Grand 3D) are all in stereo, because I have tested them and noticed this myself. The others might be as well, I just have not play-tested them myself.

If you care mostly about how your acoustic piano sounds work in stereo, then Nord keyboards are a good place for you to look.

fieldflower wrote:.....
I'd say all acoustic instruments are stereo until you have to put it through microphones and a left/right audio system and have to decide to make them mono or stereo.

I have read interesting discussions about stereo and mono in forums about sound mixing and mastering, where they point out that when using mics and a PA, every sound source is mono, and there is no stereo until the mixer decides to route the signal from certain sound sources more to the left or right. (I never would have agreed with that perspective until I started recording and mixing our covers band on a multitrack recorder from multiple mics and line inputs). I would agree that for the person playing a grand piano, they get a considerable left/right stereo effect, but I would also say that for a listener 30 feet or more away, there is virtually no left/right effect, and that listener is really having a mono listening experience for the piano.

I think the use of stereo vs. mono sound for virtually all recorded music is more about it sounding more pleasing, but not really more realistic, when you are comparing it to what a band sounds like live.

harmonizer wrote:

fieldflower wrote:.....
I'd say all acoustic instruments are stereo until you have to put it through microphones and a left/right audio system and have to decide to make them mono or stereo.

I have read interesting discussions about stereo and mono in forums about sound mixing and mastering, where they point out that when using mics and a PA, every sound source is mono, and there is no stereo until the mixer decides to route the signal from certain sound sources more to the left or right. (I never would have agreed with that perspective until I started recording and mixing our covers band on a multitrack recorder from multiple mics and line inputs). I would agree that for the person playing a grand piano, they get a considerable left/right stereo effect, but I would also say that for a listener 30 feet or more away, there is virtually no left/right effect, and that listener is really having a mono listening experience for the piano.

I think the use of stereo vs. mono sound for virtually all recorded music is more about it sounding more pleasing, but not really more realistic, when you are comparing it to what a band sounds like live.

For close-miking I'd agree that it becomes mono, but room-miking is taking also the room acoustics into the equation which is often done in XY to get the stereo feel.
My argument is that listening to an acoustic instrument is a lot more like room-miking than close-miking.

And when we play around with stereo panning of individual instruments in songs, or having stereo samples of pianos for that matter, what we usually try to achieve is the feel of the perfect room-miking of the whole band.

IMHO.