Francis Bacon Baby Grand Piano
Soft pedal samples of a 1920's baby grand.
ByDavid Hilowitz
The story
This piano belongs to the daycare center that my son attends. I know that it is from some time before 1934 because that’s when the Francis Bacon company went out of business. Based on the gaudy styling, I would guess that it’s likely from the mid-to-late 1920s.
In the 19th century, the complex that houses the daycare center was a seminary, and the piano lives in a small, partially-used cottage on the edge of the grounds that was originally built for the rector of that school. I had to make an appointment to get access, and in February 2019, I finally got in with mics and my trusty Zoom H4n. As luck would have it, it snowed in Philadelphia the day of my appointment, trucks went by constantly and the sound of their tires in the snowy streets was so loud I had to discard half of my takes.
The piano was sampled with the soft (una corda) pedal down.
Reviews
Light touched baby piano
This one has a totally different sound to the other piano from Dave. This has very light touched sound, a little close to a toy piano or a school piano.
Very nice character
Thanks for sampling this one, it has very nice sound that reminds me of an old piano at school I would play around on. The tone is good, but don't expect a concert grand.. this reminds me of a piano that has been taken care of only in the most basic ways, but not mistreated. I am really enjoying writing on my electric keyboard with this instrument loaded up. I love hearing that authentic sound of a key hitting the wood a bit louder than the others, or the felt mallets being a bit louder inside, it gives a great character to a recording.
Strange things are happening
Initially these piano samples are very noisy, and the extra noise release doesn't help at all. A fast solution is to use the sustain pedal or just program the insturment with longer tails. Then you are able to really see that this piano has a very sweet character and it's worth your attention. The sustain pedal though seem to completely ignore the ADSR settings which is very strange.