# A new Piano appeared! 'The Upright' by Audio Brewers



## AudioBrewers (Dec 22, 2020)

Hi everyone, we are the Audio Brewers, and we launched as a company focused on creating Sample Libraries recorded, mixed and delivered in Ambisonics!

We are thrilled to announce that our flagship product, 'The Upright' is now available!





'The Upright' is a 1989 vintage upright piano with a unique and intimate feeling, thanks to our recording and mixing techniques, the result is a rich sound that makes you feel completely involved with the music you're playing.

'The Upright' comes in Ambisonics! Meaning that if you have a head tracker, you can hear and feel the piano as if you were sitting right in front of it!
It also means that you can decode the signal to Stereo, any type of Surround (including height channels and Atmos), Binaural and even keep it for VR applications natively. No need to use baked microphones and reverbs to achieve realism.
Finally, The Upright also comes mixed in native Stereo, so if you have a workflow in which you want to remain, you can absolutely use the beautiful and mellow sound this vintage piano offers.

'The Upright' was recorded in Sustains, Una Corda, Felt Keys, and an ambitious amount of Prepared articulations - a total of 100GB (Compressed to 49GB) @ 24/48.

The first volume of this unique library (Sustains) is available now at an intro price.
New volumes will come out through this and next month, and regardless on when you decide to get 'The Upright', you will receive all five core volumes as they come out, at no extra cost!

If you want to listen to The Upright in 360-degree, we've prepared some demos where you can experience its magic (best viewed at 8K). The demos below use EXCLUSIVELY 'The Upright' and its engine, there are no third-party sound processors or effects! What you hear is what you get!


​


If you have any doubt about Ambisonics, its compatibility or want to know more, please do not hesitate to visit our official site, where we have prepared a large amount of https://www.audiobrewers.com/support (documentation and tutorials)! If you still have doubts, you can drop us a line. We are a small boutique company and our main aim is to connect with you and try new things that could help you achieve beautiful music.

We also offer additional discounts to students and educators! So don't hesitate to reach us if you are either! 

The Upright is available at www.audiobrewers.com

*EDIT*: Click here to download the Demo "After The Fall" in RAW *Ambisonics *and decoded to *Surround 5.1* and to *Surround 7.1.4*, no processing done, simply decoded with Nuendo.

Channel assignments are Nuendo's default:
5.1: L R C LFE Ls Rs
7.1.4: L R C LFE Ls Rs SideL SideR TopFrontL TopFrontR TopBackL TopBackR

If you cannot download by clicking, try right-click "save as..."


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## mojamusic (Dec 22, 2020)

Hmmmm... this sounds AWESOME!!!!


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## Rory (Dec 22, 2020)

Hi, could you provide some details about how you did the ambisonic recordings? I didn't see that information on your website, but perhaps I missed the page.


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

Great question - so the Ambisonics recordings were preceded by an in-house months-long research on how we could achieve pristine sound but at the same time, staying "decent" in size, as there would be no point on releasing a several-hundred-gigabyte unplayable library (looking at 2nd order Ambisonics and above, where each sample would have been humongous in size, and that, multiplied by hundreds of voices, would kill any average computer). 

Clearly, the easiest way would be to simply place an Ambisonics mic at players' head, but we felt that killed the balance on the instrument's harmonic richness. The Piano is not only what comes first as direct sound, but it emits sound all around, it fills the room, above an instrument, it's an art installation, it connects the brain and the heart to music like no other instrument, and this was exactly our dogma. Our team doesn't only have sound engineers, but also musicians, and they are picky when in control, and we had to obey 

Additionally, there was the option to simply use "spot" mics and then place them in a virtual 3D environment, but that would have been an easy way and kinda pointless.

So we grabbed the best parts from each world (what the musician needs to hear, what the sound engineer wants to express, the Ambisonics mics, the traditional mics), and recorded the piano using several Ambisonics microphones along with several traditional microphones to capture dozens of channels.

Oh also to mention, we tried using machines to sample the piano but we felt the human touch was unbeatable - trust me, we tried dozens of methods, but although machines would have given us twice the velocity amount, they made the attack sound hollow, it was a completely different sound - so we went the traditional path of "play each velocity and meditate for the next 60 seconds".

Now - how to translate those hundreds of gigs into a product? Traditionally "acoustic" libraries have usually had microphone positions, but we felt that for this approach, the user would spend many hours having to tweak the sound to get something good, and people have different setups, different speaker-arrays, different needs - when you leave the Stereo spectrum and join the three-dimensional one there are many things to consider.

So we went with the "Mixes" approach instead of the mic positions - we mixed the Piano so that it sounded great not only in several environments but also with several speaker arrays - be it binaural, stereo, 5.1-7.1, and even including height channels like 7.1.2 and in infinite-perspective for VR applications... every decoded environment had to sound rich and beautiful, so our mix was monitored constantly on each. 

We aimed to offer composers something that simply worked, we know how musicians sometimes have to spend hours tweaking the sound to achieve what they're looking for - yes, you can do that too with 'The Upright', but the important thing is that as you load the library, it works!

So that's more or less the approach we followed, we joined both worlds to try and offer something interesting and full.

We're unveiling pictures of the sessions throughout the days in our socials, so feel free to follow us to keep updated!


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

mojamusic said:


> Hmmmm... this sounds AWESOME!!!!



Thank you so much!


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## FlyingAndi (Dec 23, 2020)

AudioBrewers said:


> 1989 vintage upright piano


Now I feel old...


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## Rory (Dec 23, 2020)

Thanks for explaining the recording approach. Which mikes did you use?


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

Rory said:


> Thanks for explaining the recording approach. Which mikes did you use?



So for the mics arrays we used a combination of Rodes, a couple of pairs of 414s, CM4s and B&Ks. Finally we used a custom array of microphones that we are still experimenting with for a future product so we cannot give much details as of yet (but don't worry, we will  ). Everything ran through RMEs as well as Sound Devices pres directly to the DAW.

Although extremely important, mixing also played a massive role in translating into a unique environment! We hope you like what you hear


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## Rory (Dec 23, 2020)

AudioBrewers said:


> So for the mics arrays we used a combination of Rodes...



Thanks, I've done ambisonic recording myself and that's what I wanted to know. For people who aren't familiar with it, this is the RØDE ambisonic mike: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1403003-REG/rode_nt_sf1_soundfield_ambisonic_microphone.html


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## sostenuto (Dec 23, 2020)

Rory said:


> Thanks, I've done ambisonic recording myself and that's what I wanted to know. For people who aren't familiar with it, this is the RØDE ambisonic mike: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1403003-REG/rode_nt_sf1_soundfield_ambisonic_microphone.html



...... and backordered as well !


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## Rory (Dec 23, 2020)

sostenuto said:


> ...... and backordered as well !



Here's some background...

In 2016, Sennheiser launched its AMBEO VR microphone as a cost-effective way for people to record ambisonically. That mike sells for US$1295:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1288520-REG/sennheiser_507195_ambeo_3d_vr_microphone.html

In 2018, RØDE launched an ambisonic mike to compete with the Sennheiser at a lower price point, currently US$999: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1403003-REG/rode_nt_sf1_soundfield_ambisonic_microphone.html

Both of these mikes contain four microphone capsules and are what are known as "first order" ambisonic microphones. There are a number of other "orders", but you are quickly talking about a lot more money.

I took the photo below while testing the Sennheiser AMBEO VR last spring. As you can see, the normal orientation of these mikes is vertical.

AudioBrewers notes above that they used a Sound Devices audio recorder. Sound Devices has a plugin for its recorders that decodes an ambisonic recording into a number of components. The blue bag in the photo contains a Sound Devices MixPre 6 II recorder with the plugin installed.

A good place to explore what ambisonic recording is about is Sennheiser's AMBEO pages at https://en-us.sennheiser.com/microphone-3d-audio-ambeo-vr-mic


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## sostenuto (Dec 23, 2020)

Rory said:


> Here's some background...
> 
> In 2016, Sennheiser launched its AMBEO VR microphone as a cost-effective way for people to record ambisonically. That mike sells for US$1295:
> https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1288520-REG/sennheiser_507195_ambeo_3d_vr_microphone.html
> ...



Recall this pic from earlier post(s). Applications are many, but is VR the main driver in recent times ?


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

So the thing with ambisonics is that unlike traditional recording methods, where a microphone represents a speaker signal, in ambisonics the signal recorded is a three dimensional sound field, much like the MS technique doesn't represent the left and right channel but instead, it's a two dimensional (to some degree) representation of a stereo signal. 

So this makes ambisonics absolutely suitable for vr, because no mater how you rotate your head, the three dimensional sonic sphere gets decoded to your ears position in a way where it follows your head rotation (rotation on the x y and z axes). 

However, in music this also means you can hear how an instrument sounds depending on the rotation of your head as a listener (or interpreter), meaning you can really translate an organic panning without it being "hard", but also meaning you can listen to the sound frequencies as they approach the listener from every corner. This means that if for example you had rear speakers, or height speakers, you could listen the way the sound of the instrument reaches you as it resonates and interacts with you in real life. 

The beautiful thing about The Upright, for example, is that when you decode it, say to a binaural signal and "rotate" the signal (or rotate your head if you have a head tracker) you can feel the piano on your side just as if it were really there, it's hard to explain, and this is why I invite you to listen to our demos using a mobile and good quality headphones: while you rotate the mobile, YouTube will relocate the signal of the sonic sphere using the gyroscopes of the mobile itself. 

Its a beautiful and realistic approach and all you had to do was play the library 😊

And the best part is that you don't even have to have any equipment or special set up, composing in a traditional stereo setup and then decoding the same project in any other speaker array, will adapt the signal automatically!


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## Rory (Dec 23, 2020)

sostenuto said:


> Applications are many, but is VR the main driver in recent times ?



I think that video games are the main market for ambisonic recordings. It's also being used for 360° films, but the market is limited. The audience has to be wearing headphones to experience the effect, and ambisonic sound is labour intensive during both recording and post production. As AudioBrewers points out, one can turn an ambisonic recording into a stereo recording, but the question is, do you have an audience that justifies ambisonic recording and processing? That said, I think that ambisonic sound is interesting and worth exploring.


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

Rory said:


> I think that video games are the main market for ambisonic recordings. It's also being used for 360° films, but the market is limited. The audience has to be wearing headphones to experience the effect, and ambisonic sound is labour intensive during both recording and post production. As AudioBrewers points out, one can turn an ambisonic recording into a stereo recording, but the question is, do you have an audience that justifies ambisonic recording and processing? That said, I think that ambisonic sound is interesting and worth exploring.



You don't have to be wearing headphones...
you only have to be wearing headphones if you are decoding to binaural. But in reality you can decode to anything, even to 7.1.4 and above, and the signal will always keep faithful.

EDIT: To expand a bit, unfortunately YouTube is limited to two channels so we did the 360 videos, in our page you can hear the same demos in stereo (SoundCloud) but we could get some of the demos decoded in surround 5.1 for you to experience, too.


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## Rory (Dec 23, 2020)

AudioBrewers said:


> You don't have to be wearing headphones...
> you only have to be wearing headphones if you are decoding to binaural. But in reality you can decode to anything, even to 7.1.4 and above, and the signal will always keep faithful.
> 
> EDIT: To expand a bit, unfortunately YouTube is limited to two channels so we did the 360 videos, in our page you can hear the same demos in stereo (SoundCloud) but we could get some of the demos decoded in surround 5.1 for you to experience, too.



The experience of ambisonic sound requires either headphones or a room designed for ambisonic playback. Binaural sound*, surround sound and stereo aren't the same thing, and decoding ambisonic sound to those formats does not result in an ambisonic experience. This is why ambisonic sound works with video games. The players are wearing headsets.

Ambisonic recording has been around for almost half a century. There are reasons why it is not widespread, starting with playback requirements.

* People who record binaural sound are likely to take the view that decoding an ambisonic recording to binaural does not in fact result in a binaural recording. Indeed, Sennheiser's own position is that one should use its Neumann KU 100 microphone for binaural recording. You can see what the Neumann mike looks like by looking at my avatar, which comes from a photo that I made while recording with the Neumann.


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

So the thing is that any room is designed for ambisonic playback as long as you decode it's signal to your setup 🙂 

Clearly if your deliverables are in stereo, quad or 5.1 that is what you're going to decode to.

Anyway, I'll just jump in with the demos decoded to 5.1 so that people can hear the same demos in their setup if they have it 

If you want, we can open a discussion in another forum to talk deeper of Ambisonics, our findings and exchange ideas, it would be our pleasure! That way, we can keep this thread on-topic.


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## Rory (Dec 23, 2020)

AudioBrewers said:


> So the thing is that any room is designed for ambisonic playback as long as you decode it's signal to your setup 🙂
> 
> Clearly if your deliverables are in stereo, quad or 5.1 that is what you're going to decode to.



I think it's great that you guys are doing this. If I recall correctly, there's an Ontario, Canada producer of piano sample libraries that has also released an ambisonic library, and I applaud that too.

However, I think that it's also important to be clear about how this works, and I can't concur with your first sentence.

If you decode an ambisonic recording to another format, such as surround or stereo, it is no longer an ambisonic recording and what you are hearing is not ambisonic playback. That kind of decoding actually removes the ambisonic qualities. Your Sound Devices recordings present a clear example. As you know, Sound Devices's plugin, when it makes a stereo decode, turns a four channel recording into a two track stereo recording. I know this because I've used a Sound Devices audio recorder, and the Sound Devices plugin, to make ambisonic recordings myself.

I certainly agree with your second sentence. Then the question is, if your deliverable is a stereo recording, do you have a reason to make and process a four or more channel* ambisonic recording?

* Higher order ambisonic recordings, with more channels, are used to get greater spatial resolution. My understanding is that ambisonic sound recording for a game might involve 16 or more recorded channels. Note that ambisonic recording is a method, not a type of microphone. The Sennheiser and RØDE mikes discussed above were created to make ambisonic recording reasonably inexpensive.


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

Of course it's not an ambisonics signal that you deliver, but it's an ambisonics signal that you work with.

So that would be up to the composer's desire to play with the signal XYZ rotation, its sonic field, its proximity - there are many properties that come into play when you have an ambisonics signal. The sound and its mix can benefit greatly when you start messing about with the spheric field, and of course, this is an extra tool. The Upright also comes mixed in Stereo for those who don't need this approach. 

It all comes down to the sound of the Piano, it's got a beautiful touch and was sampled and mixed through experimentation to achieve something we believe can offer musicians a new perspective to approaching music. In the end, we're all suckers for beautiful tones, why not having another one Hahaha 😉


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## sostenuto (Dec 23, 2020)

Despite 'reasonable' Intro @ Eur 99, would enjoy Demo/Trial, or Lite version, a la _Embertone -Walker 1955 Concert D. _

Important to experience all aspects of ambiosonic offerings. in homestudio environs.


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 23, 2020)

Thank you for your interest! Will definitely have it in mind 😉


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## colony nofi (Dec 28, 2020)

And this approach really works (having worked on a number of ambisonic projects!)

The wonderful guys @ VSL also use ambisonic approaches to much of their sampling (IIRC)

(And on the mic side of things, Soundfield used to make an amazing mic that has been in use in studios for many many years - which has been used on countless studio recordings due to its ability to fit into the sonic space of a recording in different ways - and also the ability to manipulate the raw ambisonic signals in different ways (simulating different polar patterns)

As for the Rode and Sennheiser mics... I was blown away when I first saw a beta of the mic in at a VR audio firm near Brick Lane in London. I was lucky enough to secure a couple for a "audio VR" recording session very early on (thanks to Sennheiser's support) but unfortunately the mic really didn't live up to the hype. We ended up taking a completely different spot mic approach with post-processing that sounded way better. The capsules are just not that - er - musical. The rode - although cheaper - is better. And I purchased one of these. But it also has QC problems early on (and mine still has one faulty capsule that I've not had the chance to get fixed - though Rode are good enough to fix them no questions asked!). And unless you really need the Ambisonic output, you'll reach for a pair of Km184's or Shoeps before sticking the VR mic up in an acoustic music recording session.

anyway - I can see me getting this piano....


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 29, 2020)

colony nofi said:


> And this approach really works (having worked on a number of ambisonic projects!)
> 
> The wonderful guys @ VSL also use ambisonic approaches to much of their sampling (IIRC)
> 
> ...



That is correct! And we wanted to address so many of the things you mentioned (both for this and our future products) - we know there have been fellow companies recording with Ambix mics in the past, and even offering them as decoded mic positions, but we really wanted to offer the composers the RAW components of what they could achieve. We believe so much is wasted when you deliver a decoded Ambisonics signal - much like shooting in RAW and then delivering a png: quality can be lossless, but all the things you could have seen are no longer there.

Additionally, by using not only 1 Ambisonics mic, but multiple AND also traditional mics, we managed to create a beautiful mix (in Ambisonics) that goes beyond the typical "spot mic positions", we believe mixing in Ambisonics is a whole new game, it's a complex task when it comes to mixing as you have to be aware of the whole sonic environment.

So the result is a Piano that, even in its Stereo form, has a beautiful rich sound and offers you new perspectives of 'what's there' yet you couldn't hear before!


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## colony nofi (Dec 29, 2020)

AudioBrewers said:


> That is correct! And we wanted to address so many of the things you mentioned (both for this and our future products) - we know there have been fellow companies recording with Ambix mics in the past, and even offering them as decoded mic positions, but we really wanted to offer the composers the RAW components of what they could achieve. We believe so much is wasted when you deliver a decoded Ambisonics signal - much like shooting in RAW and then delivering a png: quality can be lossless, but all the things you could have seen are no longer there.
> 
> Additionally, by using not only 1 Ambisonics mic, but multiple AND also traditional mics, we managed to create a beautiful mix (in Ambisonics) that goes beyond the typical "spot mic positions", we believe mixing in Ambisonics is a whole new game, it's a complex task when it comes to mixing as you have to be aware of the whole sonic environment.
> 
> So the result is a Piano that, even in its Stereo form, has a beautiful rich sound and offers you new perspectives of 'what's there' yet you couldn't hear before!


Sold! 
Looking forward to playing with it soon.


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## Mason (Dec 29, 2020)

Liking what I'm hearing, but could you make more demos with just the default piano sound without anything else?


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 29, 2020)

Yeah, we're working on that! Holidays make things slower but it'll happen!

*HOWEVER *do mind that "Discoveries", "After The Fall (Naked)" and "Announcement Demo" use EXCLUSIVELY the library, every pad you hear is natural sustain from the prepared piano, any processing you hear is from within the engine, no third party plugins. We believe "naked" demos should be the way to go, as dressing with other products sometimes could be misleading.

Additionally, "A Better World" uses exclusively 'The Upright' although some sound design was made (also using 'The Upright' samples)

And finally, "Dreamland" is also exclusively 'The Upright' except the strings and the brass.

However, we hear you regarding a 'piano-only' demo and will be working on that!


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## Mason (Dec 29, 2020)

Thanks! Piano only, without any processing is what I do, so that would be very helpful.


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## sostenuto (Dec 29, 2020)

Aarrgghh !!! Price just jumped and so early in Intro with minimal supporting info ! Potential looks strong, but already stretching budget.


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## AudioBrewers (Dec 30, 2020)

Hi all,

A couple of short improvisations with Sustains and Felt keys! No effects, no processing, no reverbs, no compressors, nothing but our mellow 'The Upright' 

Video still being processed, might be a while before it's available in 8K 




We also exported the improvs in stereo:


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## Drundfunk (Dec 31, 2020)

Well Ambisonics is definitely a cool concept. I visited a lecture/presentation about Ambisonics two years ago and the guy actually built an ambisonic-setup with 23 speakers or something like that (I don't remember the exact amount. 23 is the number I have in my mind, might be wrong, might have been 27?). We then listened to some soundscape/sounddesign stuff mixed ambisonically while sitting in that setup. That was insane!! A goosebump experience. I vaguely remember him mentioning that the only DAW suitable for Ambisonics was Reaper (something to do with the amount of channels or something. Maybe that changed). The poor guy was a sound engineer and I don't think anybody in the audience really understood what he was talking about regarding the technical aspects of Ambisonics, but it definitely was fun and super interesting! 

Cool Instrument! I swore to myself I'll try to get into Ambisonics eventually, so it's cool to see there is a developer creating instruments for it.


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## colony nofi (Dec 31, 2020)

Drundfunk said:


> Well Ambisonics is definitely a cool concept. I visited a lecture/presentation about Ambisonics two years ago and the guy actually built an ambisonic-setup with 23 speakers or something like that (I don't remember the exact amount. 23 is the number I have in my mind, might be wrong, might have been 27?). We then listened to some soundscape/sounddesign stuff mixed ambisonically while sitting in that setup. That was insane!! A goosebump experience. I vaguely remember him mentioning that the only DAW suitable for Ambisonics was Reaper (something to do with the amount of channels or something. Maybe that changed). The poor guy was a sound engineer and I don't think anybody in the audience really understood what he was talking about regarding the technical aspects of Ambisonics, but it definitely was fun and super interesting!
> 
> Cool Instrument! I swore to myself I'll try to get into Ambisonics eventually, so it's cool to see there is a developer creating instruments for it.


Do you remember who it was?
There's a version of ambisonic playback using a 24 speaker setup (there's tonnes possible, but that is quite straight forward - either 3 sets of 8 of different heights or a 22.2 ambeo system) - 27 could just mean 3 subs

You can do ambisonics in DAWS other than reaper, although the modular nature of reapers channels make it fairly straight forward to do otherwise tricky things. One can run ambisonic streams using 24 channels of information in reaper - where as other DAWS are restricted to lower order formats. I've personally had no problem running ambisonic based workflows inside nuendo for a number of years. Especially if its just for 360degree type audio for VR / Games / Experiences.

Anyway - I digress. 

Have started to mess with this piano. Its wonderful.


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## Fredeke (Jan 1, 2021)

In physical form, I'll choose a short grand over a tall upright any day. But in the vitrual form, I often find uprights more alive than grands. Go figure.


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## AudioBrewers (Jan 1, 2021)

Drundfunk said:


> Cool Instrument! I swore to myself I'll try to get into Ambisonics eventually, so it's cool to see there is a developer creating instruments for it.


Thank you! The idea is to try and offer additional tools to composers to find new colours in the sound! Indeed Ambisonics is an ambitious take, but we stand totally behind the concept! We absolutely love what we can do with it.




colony nofi said:


> Have started to mess with this piano. Its wonderful.



Thank you so much for the comments on the Piano!

Regarding the comments on Ambisonics, that's true, Reaper is incredibly flexible when it comes to channel-count and configuration, but also Nuendo works beautifully and can even handle 22.2 arrays.



Fredeke said:


> In physical form, I'll choose a short grand over a tall upright any day. But in the vitrual form, I often find uprights more alive than grands. Go figure.




I think you are right, Grands in physical form are amazing, but in virtual form, Uprights are amazing as you are listening to the soundboard standing right in front of you, as opposed to the Grand which spits the sound towards the room, I guess the feeling is the result of a better connection to the very source of the sound. Sometimes I feel as if a big part of the sound from a Grand was actually the room where it resonates - an Upright is a whole different kinda warrior, and sometimes overlooked, but can give more intimate results.

This Tuesday, 'Una Corda' will be released, and finally, on the 12th, the 'Prepared Piano', completing this beautiful library!

Stay tuned for a teaser on the 'Prepared', which is wicked! We laid it down on the floor to pull as many sonic colours as possible! If you don't follow us on any of our socials, we suggest you do - as we are constantly posting pictures from the sessions 

'The Upright' is still at a discount price in case you are interested!


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## PeterN (Jan 1, 2021)

Sounds muddy to me, but it has a sound of David Gray. I might order it simply to steal his sound. Interesting.


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## Drundfunk (Jan 1, 2021)

colony nofi said:


> Do you remember who it was?
> There's a version of ambisonic playback using a 24 speaker setup (there's tonnes possible, but that is quite straight forward - either 3 sets of 8 of different heights or a 22.2 ambeo system) - 27 could just mean 3 subs
> 
> You can do ambisonics in DAWS other than reaper, although the modular nature of reapers channels make it fairly straight forward to do otherwise tricky things. One can run ambisonic streams using 24 channels of information in reaper - where as other DAWS are restricted to lower order formats. I've personally had no problem running ambisonic based workflows inside nuendo for a number of years. Especially if its just for 360degree type audio for VR / Games / Experiences.
> ...


Not out of my head. I didn't really know what I signed up for and was quite hungover that day. In hindsight I regret that because the guy actually drove quite a long way and put a lot of effort into it. Although I don't think I would have understood the technical talk even if I hadn't been hungover. I understood a few things here and there which allowed me to grasp the concept in some ways I think . I think I still have a pdf stored somewhere which he sent to us a day later. I'll check later. His name might be on it. If I remember correctly he was a lecturer/researcher at the Kunst Uni Graz and if my memory doesn't fail me they actually develop Ambisonic plugins there. Also thanks for your explanation!


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## Trevor Meier (Jan 1, 2021)

Damn! This sounds good but the price has already jumped up. I was planning to take a risk on it at 100 EUR but I think now I'll have to wait and see how others like it.

Anyone here bought it yet? What do you think?


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## colony nofi (Jan 1, 2021)

Bought and it is extremely good. 
And opens up new creative possibilities due to the way it has been recorded / presented.
As good as any other $100-$150 piano I've grabbed. And different enough that I remember it in amongst too many piano purchases.
I disagree that it is muddy...
Though I've been known to deliberately tone down my pianos by getting the tuner to thoroughly needle the hammers


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## AudioBrewers (Jan 3, 2021)

Thank you so much.

What do you think of this?



The 'Prepared' volume will be available on Jan/12th!


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## Stringtree (Jan 3, 2021)

Good gourd, that was beautiful. Now you are going to take all my attention from the other things I have to do, just to figure out how I get this and what it all means. I looked like a cat hearing birds.


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## AudioBrewers (Jan 3, 2021)

Hahaha well you can get 'The Upright' now as it is still at discount price. No matter when you decide get it, you'll receive 'Prepared' Volume on the 12th at no additional cost 🎹🎹


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## AudioBrewers (Jan 19, 2021)

Hi everyone! Thank you very much for the beautiful response our 'Upright' has had during its launch period! 
We're happy to announce that now you can get either the Ambisonics+Stereo version or simply the Stereo version, depending on what you gravitate towards!

Today was the release of the latest volume, Volume V, completing the circle of updates The Upright has had from launch! So from now, if you decide to purchase it, you'll get the full 50GB library!


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## Trevor Meier (Feb 9, 2021)

I was very excited to buy this library... but I have to say I'm quite disappointed. The plugin is nice, the FX are useful and the ambisonic encoding is very fun to play with. However the instrument itself and how it's been sampled leaves me quite unhappy. Here's a few of the things I've found so far:

- the instrument is very inconsistent in timbre across the octaves. For e.g. dull and muddy in the two octaves below middle C4, but bright and sparkly from C5 to C6
- mid-lower octaves feel as though they have a fast compressor, with the sustain volume quickly dropping after the note attack. This range doesn't reach a true f or ff volume compared to other ranges of the piano
- the velocity sensitivity is inconsistent across the instrument (EG G4 above middle C4)
- there's a big jump in timbre between mf and f samples, not at all subtle in the higher registers

The end result is I have to do a lot of work to make the instrument reproduce in a musical way. Really disappointing - I loved the demos and was very much looking forward to playing it!


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## AudioBrewers (Feb 9, 2021)

Hi Trevor! Thanks a lot for your comments and the feedback! Very valuable! Fortunately this is software and we can grab your comments and work on them!

To clarify, all the demos you heard were the raw piano, with no mastering or mixing besides whatever the library contains! - We'd love to know to which patches your comments apply? Is it the sustained? Una Corda? Felt? Prepared? Which articulations? If you could contact us on our email to be specific, we'd love to go back to it and make it better!


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## mcovarrubiasi (Feb 9, 2021)

I have a question about this. If I am only interested in making music that will be listen in the main streaming platforms (spottily, youtube, soundcloud, etc...), is there any value in having the ambisonics version over the stereo? Do the ambisonics samples have anything that translates to stereo tracks that is not present in the stereo version? 

I am super interested in this. I am trying to make music that feels spatial. For example, the new album Home, by Rye, was recorded in dolby atmos and even in the youtube version it sound wonderfully spatial. I have tried using ambisonics plugins like Dear VR but I found it too strong of an effect. I am now looking for sample libraries with a nice recorded space (BBCSO has a beautiful and consistent space for example). This new upright piano may fit me like a glove, but I would like to first upgrade to Kontakt 6. Very excited by this!


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## AudioBrewers (Feb 9, 2021)

Great question -

So the Ambisonics version allows you to decode the signal to any 'type' of stereo you want... You see, when you have a stereo signal you are tied to using the width-image that the mixer engineers chose at the moment the product was baked, when you have an Ambisonics, you are free to rotate the piano (i.e. having it more to the left,right,front,back) in a 100% natural way (no hard panning) and additionally, you can control how wide you want the piano to be... You can have an absolutely intimate Binaural stereo signal, but also you can have an ultra wide signal or less wide, and this width is real, meaning the signal you hear on the left and right channels are decoded using the RAW Ambisonics signals and not the 'hard panning' effect.

You can check on our Ambisonics demos (especially the one of the Solo piano), if you rotate to the right, or to the left, you'll hear the piano moving to the side of the listener, but it is not a hard-panning-it-moved-to-the-left, but a real IT MOVED TO THE LEFT 

Plug-ins such as SoundField by Rode allow you to control each of the Left/Right-channel's pattern, you can control if you want to hear cardioid left/right ear, omni left/right ear, and all the in-betweens.

Additionally, decoders such as Nuendo's allow you also to control the presence of the signal (how distant it is from the listener) and all this happens at the decoding level, meaning you are always getting a real translation of the sound field. Think of it as the MS technique, where you can control the real stereo width? well, here you can control the real 3D-width.

So it all comes down to what you want to achieve, "Ambisonics to stereo" gives you great psychoacoustic control on how the sound can be translated in a stereo song. In stereo-only you are at the mercy of the mix. So it all comes to how deep you wanna dig in one specific track.

By no means am I saying stereo is inferior, if you had a project with 100 tracks maybe you wouldn't be that inclined to spending so much energy in a piano, but there are other instances where perhaps you wanted the piano sound more intimate, more distant, more out-of-focus, etc...

Oh and I forgot to mention - when it comes to experimental articulations (i.e. our prepared harmonics, plucked, magnets, bowed, FX, etc) ambisonics is a wicked source of entertainment


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## mcovarrubiasi (Feb 9, 2021)

AudioBrewers said:


> Great question -
> 
> So the Ambisonics version allows you to decode the signal to any 'type' of stereo you want... You see, when you have a stereo signal you are tied to using the width-image that the mixer engineers chose at the moment the product was baked, when you have an Ambisonics, you are free to rotate the piano (i.e. having it more to the left,right,front,back) in a 100% natural way (no hard panning) and additionally, you can control how wide you want the piano to be... You can have an absolutely intimate Binaural stereo signal, but also you can have an ultra wide signal or less wide, and this width is real, meaning the signal you hear on the left and right channels are decoded using the RAW Ambisonics signals and not the 'hard panning' effect.
> 
> ...


Thanks! I get it now.


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## AudioBrewers (Feb 9, 2021)

one last comment, we also found the DearVR to be too harsh! might be good for sfx but for music we stuck to other decoders.


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## mcovarrubiasi (Feb 9, 2021)

AudioBrewers said:


> one last comment, we also found the DearVR to be too harsh! might be good for sfx but for music we stuck to other decoders.


Good to know!! I guess my journey continues then, I am seriously considering using ambisonics libraries like yours. This is the record I was referring, I messed up the name of the artist (Rhye, not Rye):




Any advice on good decoders?


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## Trevor Meier (Feb 9, 2021)

mcovarrubiasi said:


> Good to know!! I guess my journey continues then, I am seriously considering using ambisonics libraries like yours. This is the record I was referring, I messed up the name of the artist (Rhye, not Rye):
> 
> 
> 
> ...



A note on the Soundfield by Rode plug-in: it works well for stereo, but if you work in 5.1 it outputs its channels in a non-standard channel order. In Logic this creates major headaches as there’s no standard way to re-route the 5.1 channels.


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## mcovarrubiasi (Feb 10, 2021)

Trevor Meier said:


> A note on the Soundfield by Rode plug-in: it works well for stereo, but if you work in 5.1 it outputs its channels in a non-standard channel order. In Logic this creates major headaches as there’s no standard way to re-route the 5.1 channels.


Noted. Since yesterday I've been learning how to use quad surround in logic. It works but it has some bugs on track imports and things like that, but it works. I am thrilled to learn yet another corner of music technology I knew little about. Hopefully, Audio brewers will develop more ambisonics libraries for drums, strings, percussion, etc.

A question: does Kontakt 6 brings something to the ambisonics part of the game? I know that the creator tools makes it easy to develop generally but I wonder if ambisonics support is also improved.


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## AudioBrewers (Feb 10, 2021)

mcovarrubiasi said:


> Noted. Since yesterday I've been learning how to use quad surround in logic. It works but it has some bugs on track imports and things like that, but it works. I am thrilled to learn yet another corner of music technology I knew little about. Hopefully, Audio brewers will develop more ambisonics libraries for drums, strings, percussion, etc.
> 
> A question: does Kontakt 6 brings something to the ambisonics part of the game? I know that the creator tools makes it easy to develop generally but I wonder if ambisonics support is also improved.


So just yesterday we released our new product Signals 'Blue' which is a pulses and textures designer that can be adapted to different chord progressions in all keys.

All this on native ambisonics, we designed the sound but then developed and built an acoustic installation to be able to record the digitally designed sounds in a custom ambisonics environment!

The reason why we use K6 is because of the complexity of the engine (200.000+ lines of code!) , which includes 'Fresco' (you can see more about it on the Signals 'Blue' announcement), which record your motions in real time be it with your fingers on a touch screen or with the mouse.

Additionally, we like Wide display ratios and K5 didn't offer that!


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## colony nofi (Feb 11, 2021)

Going back to the piano, like @Trevor Meier mentioned, there are problems with the transitions between mf and f being extremely noticeable. I ended up having to change out the piano for another on a project last week because I couldn't get the piano to sound even close to being "played". Pity, because the tone was what I was after.

I seem to remember a similar situation on another piano - maybe it was the super-softs on HZP going from 63-64 velocity.

Anyway - it should be obvious when you just play.... something will pop out. Then play around that velocity for a while and you'll hear the timbre jumping from one sound to the other.


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## FrozenIcicle (Feb 20, 2021)

Sounds pretty good!


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## AudioBrewers (Feb 22, 2021)

Thanks for your comments! We're working hard on an update that will revamp all the velocity mapping as well as include the 'Fresco Pad' introduced in Signals Blue!


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## AudioBrewers (Mar 5, 2021)

Hi all! We're extremely happy to announce a big update was released for The Upright, in which all velocity mappings were adjusted and re assembled from scratch.

Additionally, Fresco Pad was implemented in the library, this means that you can now *DRAW your sound* design using your mouse or touch screen and have the engine follow your drawings as you play!

Finally we also added 1 more type of Reverb (so now there's digital reverb, plate reverb, convolution reverb and our own developed 'tonal' reverb) and several new types of delays!

See how Fresco Pad works:

​

Enjoy!


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## Voider (Mar 7, 2021)

So this doesn't work with Kontakt 5 full?


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## AudioBrewers (Mar 9, 2021)

Hi!

No, you need 6.2.1+, unfortunately, we wouldn't have been possible to code Fresco Pad on Kontakt 5.


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## Nando Florestan (Oct 17, 2021)

AudioBrewers said:


> one last comment, we also found the DearVR to be too harsh! might be good for sfx but for music we stuck to other decoders.


Which ones?


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## AudioBrewers (Oct 18, 2021)

Nando Florestan said:


> Which ones?


So for the time being, our go-to's are: 

RODE's SoundField (when working on Reaper/Logic) - What we don't like is that when working with Surround systems, it always sends part of the signal to the LFE channel, there's no way to NOT do it.

Nuendo's/Cubase's internal (when working on those DAWs) BUT make sure you set "SPEAKER instead of HEADPHONE" on the Panner's output - for some reason SPEAKERS is always selected as default - What we don't like is the lack of visual information of the sonic field.






Pro Tools - We're sticking to Harpex-x for the moment.

Also, we're currently working in our own decoder (and transformation tools)  Which is more aimed to composers and music (easy interface, not so many dials, intuitive understanding), hopefully to be released in H1 of 2022. 

As soon as we manage to wrap a BETA, we'll be inviting some of our users to try it.


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