Spotlight Piano follows on from our highly regarded series of “character pianos” (Woodchester Piano, Midnight Grand, Glacier Keys). Drawing upon our countless hours of experience sampling pianos in recent years, we set out to create the ultimate scoring piano.
We returned to the same hall as Midnight Grand and Glacier Keys, and captured the same glorious Steinway D Concert Grand – this time in its pure form (without the felt, cotton or extended techniques of our previous pianos) but still retaining Fracture Sounds’ sonic signature and ease-of-use, and with even more detail and nuance than our previous pianos.
Spotlight Piano was designed with delicate, emotional, cinematic scoring in mind, but with its plethora of intuitive sonic shaping and performance tweaking controls, in addition to the 21 carefully curated presets included, this concert grand will fit comfortably into a wide range of musical styles.
A Streamlined Interface For Instant Results
Spotlight Piano’s interface includes everything you need to easily shape the sound and feel of the instrument, with no distractions to get in the way of your creative flow.
Although it has a refreshed look compared to our previous pianos, it has a familiar set of controls for sonic sculpting and performance tweaking, along with some innovative new features.
A World Class Instrument In A Stunning Space
The Steinway Model D is widely regarded as the pinnacle of concert grands and is the first choice for pianists and composers around the world.
We captured this majestic instrument in an equally beautiful acoustic environment, with the perfect controlled yet spacious sound (not too wet, not too dry).
16 microphones placed close to the piano and further back in the hall were carefully mixed into four distinct perspectives – Close (hammers and body), Mid, and Far, giving you a vast range of sonic options, from an intimate ‘studio’ sound, to a classical recital ambience.
Advanced Mixing
The library features our familiar streamlined mixer panel, with 3 signals which can be easily controlled with their individual sliders, or by using the ‘perspective’ slider to seamlessly transition between a close and distant mix.
Those users who want to take the mix further can make use of our new advanced mix settings panel, which includes controls for time alignment (compensating for the natural delay between the close, mid and far signals), and close mic blend between the body and hammers positions.
Be sure to watch the in-depth walkthrough to see these controls in action!
Ultimate Dynamic Control
New in Spotlight Piano is the ability to fully customise the dynamic response of the instrument, whether to modify the character of the piano to your taste, or to match the feel of your MIDI keyboard.
Using the intuitive graph controls, you can control the timbre (sample selection) and volume scaling independently. Want to reach the loudest dynamics with less effort? Drag up on the middle of the timbre scaling graph to adjust the curve. Want a more intimate ‘felt piano’ sound but with full dynamic control? Drag the ‘max’ slider down to limit the instrument to the softest dynamics.
Atmosphere Layers
Possibly the most loved feature of our piano libraries – Atmosphere Layers make a triumphant return in Spotlight Piano. These pads and textures have been carefully designed to blend perfectly with the raw piano, giving the instrument charm and character beyond the piano itself. Or mute the Raw piano layer completely and use the instrument for beautiful ambient pads.
The 10 included Atmosphere Layers range from rich granular textures to soft, moody sustains, and can be loaded in any combination into the 3 slots on the mixer.
The overall intensity of the Atmosphere Layers can be controlled in real-time by riding the mod wheel (CC1).
Attention To Detail
We captured each nuance of the piano, down to the key/hammer noise, the sound of the pedal being pressed and released, and even the sound of the room itself, all of which can be dialled in to create a more realistic performance.
For those who want to dive even deeper, the settings page gives you control over the finer details of the piano, allowing you to disable some of the advanced features to save resources.
NKS Support And Kontakt Player Compatibility