Developer Venus Theory has released forms:piano, a free emotive piano library for the Decent Sampler.
Decent Sampler is a treasure trove of sometimes weird and usually wonderful free libraries (there are paid libraries, too, but plenty of freebies to keep you busy).
If you haven’t tried Decent Sampler yet, check it out; it’s free to download.
One of my favorite contributors to that treasure trove of freebies is Venus Theory, a talented composer and sound designer with a popular and insightful YouTube channel.
The overall quality of Venus Theory libraries is always fantastic, but the thing I like most is that the sounds are never typical. Venus Theory’s Auras series highlights a perhaps less-explored character of Arturia’s monstrous PolyBrute 12.
Forms:piano is an even better example of Venus Theory straying from the typical.
It starts with a relatively unusual Yamaha piano belonging to Cameron’s friend, Benn Jordan. What makes the Yamaha upright piano unusual is that it supports MIDI input. These Disklavier’s or silent pianos are quite something to see and hear in action.
Although the MIDI element is beneficial for the sampling process, the sound is still that of a nice Yamaha acoustic upright.
Forms:piano strays from the typical thanks to the beautifully crafted presets. I called it an emotive piano because the presets are incredibly cinematic.
Even the more standard sounds (The Piano, The Soft Piano, and The Tape Piano) all have cinematic qualities, whether it’s a pensive, eerie, or nostalgic character.
You can revert to the most natural piano sound and shape/color it from scratch with the Attack, Release, and Tone controls. You also get Delay and Reverb with multiple types, including spring and a BBD setting (bucket brigade device).
The other presets vary in attack and release times, with some sounding like pads and some like a bowed string. Some presets, like Cycles, introduce some nice harmonic qualities with fifths and octaves ringing out above the struck note.
Although you can strip back the sound to something pretty natural, that’s not where this library shines. It shines in ethereal, lush, and textural sounds (even if you remove the initial key impact transient entirely).
It’s a great little library with ready-to-go cinematic sounds and enough control to make it unique. A more extensive version of forms:piano may be on the cards, so keep an eye out for that.
I didn’t experience any issues in use, but some users reported GUI problems – make sure you have the latest version of Decent Sampler, and you should be fine.
Download: forms:piano (FREE – Decent Sampler required)
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