Programming realistic piano parts

[seagull]

I've got a question about programming piano parts. I just bought the music for Imagine and programmed the notes in with the pencil tool (I should note that this is my first attempt at anything MIDI in Pro Tools or otherwise). It sounds pretty good but very mechanical. I don't play piano so the fine details of a performance don't come to me naturally. What are some tips to making the machine sound more natural. I'm guessing things like the notes of the dominant hand will be slightly louder and of course the performance will not be at the exact same tempo throughout so varying the tempo slightly is something I plan on doing. Any other tips for making a programmed piano performance sound more natural?? Thanks.

[spkguitar]

When you pencil in notes, the velocities (how hard/soft you play the notes) are all the same. That's a lot of the reason why it sounds mechanical.

When you actually play the piece, the velocities are continuously variable and all depend on the way that you play. Accented notes would have a higher velocity value.

To program realistic sounding piano parts, a general understanding of "the fine details of a performance" are necessary, I'm afraid. Listen to the recorded piece and determine which notes are louder and softer and program the velocities of the notes accordingly.

[seagull]

Thanks for the response spkguitar. I've been reading the PT7 manual about MIDI quite a bit and I've got a handle on timing, velocity, changing notes, and the other things that you can use to make a performance less mechanical. I guess I was looking for things that a piano player might point out as making something like this more realistic.

For example I've also programmed the drums for Imagine using BFD. I read up on this thread... my midi drum secrets revealed when I was "drumming". I play guitar and took some drum lessons in college. Some of the tips included programming a bass drum hit when you program a cymbal hit and that a drummer will naturally hit the high hat harder at the same time they hit the snare drum. Those tips made sense because I've got a familiarity with the instrument. I pretty much know nothing about playing the piano and was looking for playing tips that might help me.

The reality is I'm probably grasping at straws and should just spend time getting it right with velocity and timing.

Thanks for the input.

[Stig Eliassen]

You also need a realistic piano sound, most likely found in a sample library. I use Synthogy's Ivory, and simply love it.

Like BFD, this VI plugin has several velocity layers for each kind of grand piano, meaning that midi notes with different velocity will trigger different samples. Thus, making it realistic.

I've played keyboards since I was 7 (33 years old now I'm afraid), and I can imagine how hard it would be to program a realistic performance. My advice to you would be to have realistic piano sounds available, and get a piano-playing friend to record some live piano on a midi keyboard (you record the midi signals, not the audio).
After the recording's done, you can start to study the midi track to see how the velocity ranges throughout the track.

My 2 nok,-

[spkguitar]

You also need a realistic piano sound, most likely found in a sample library. I use Synthogy's Ivory, and simply love it.

I will second that. Ivory is incredible.

[randyT]

I third it.....

Ivory is so sweet it makes me weep....


randy

[cheekypaul]

i like pianoteq mostly.

[cheekypaul]

I've got a question about programming piano parts. I just bought the music for Imagine and programmed the notes in with the pencil tool (I should note that this is my first attempt at anything MIDI in Pro Tools or otherwise). It sounds pretty good but very mechanical. I don't play piano so the fine details of a performance don't come to me naturally. What are some tips to making the machine sound more natural. I'm guessing things like the notes of the dominant hand will be slightly louder and of course the performance will not be at the exact same tempo throughout so varying the tempo slightly is something I plan on doing. Any other tips for making a programmed piano performance sound more natural?? Thanks.

try selecting all of the notes and altering the midi data.
one way of adding that human feel is to select all notes and go to the midi velocity page and randomise by 1 or 2% for example. try that and do the same for timing or what ever else is too robotic.
good luck

[seagull]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm off to emulate John Lennon now.