March 23, 201016 yr Tried to make a "just piano" theme for a guy to his photography showreel. He rejected it! donkey... He though it sounded synt-like. I can honestly not hear it. Can you? Other from that it is a bit monotone maybe? alte zeit
March 23, 201016 yr It sounds nearly "perfect". Some expressions, but same volume level all the time. pp - mp - fp - pp parts or rit. / acc. would create naturalness regarding a live piano session. A piano can be played so high emotional. It's very hard to get this sound out of virtual instruments.
March 23, 201016 yr Nemesis hit the main problem....it's way too quantized. If you want to humanize it and make it sound more realistic, you need to A) unquantize the notes so that they don't sound so robotic, and B) add in subtle changes in tempo on the tempo map, (think phrasing, are you going to play the out of a phrase the same speed you play the head?). There are also some passages where you might have gotten lazy with the velocity, they have a very robotic, every single note sounds exactly the same, feeling Nice piece, all else being equal, but it could definitely use some more detailed programming.
March 26, 201016 yr As everyone else has said, a little more care with velocity would have been nice. I think that causes the synthyness. Also, I thik that it might have something to do with the reverb - something funny happened to the sound which gave it a beepy feel at moments like 0:05 and 0:53 Although IMO it isn't synthy, it does appear a little electronic, which could have been why the guy rejected it. Good composition though, nice work :)
March 26, 201016 yr Do you have a midi keyboard? Just play the notes yourself, and if you cant play it well (like me) just record the left and right hand one by one. You wont have to do anything with the production then, since it already sounds very human then. I unfortunately now have to agree that this sounds very mechanical.
March 26, 201016 yr Jake, The writing is quite nice and peaceful, but the performance is totally mechanical and the piano sample is quite cheap-sounding as well, so I'm not surprised he rejected it on the grounds that it sounds too synthetic. It sounds like you've added a delay effect to the piano, and it's totally screwing up any semblance of realism in the tone. Piano is exceedingly difficult to emulate digitally unless you play it in live, so J's suggestion of playing it in via MIDI keyboard is a great one. A good try, but it just goes to show you how tough piano emulation really is. ;)
March 28, 201016 yr I like the opening Jake. I think the guy might have thought it sounded like a synth because you're opening ostinato repeats the same notes over and over again with no change in velocity. The piano sounds more realistic in the mid range at a medium volume (like the melody). The ostinato is always there and thus always reinforces the synth idea. I gotta go! Peace on Earth, -John
