Making a piano midi piece sound good

PJ_

New member
Hello,

I've composed a simple piano piece in Logic Pro X (midi) but I'm not happy with the piano sound. I was wondering if somebody could help me or advice what to do. Ideally, I'm looking for somebody that would make it sound like a final piano piece that is kind of release ready. It contains only 1 piano track. I'm happy to pay a reasonable price (this is just my hobby). I have no idea how much work is involved to make it sound professional

If somebody could help or point me in the right direction it would be great.

Thanks,
PJ
 
Hi there,
I regularly do exactly this for a friend of mine.
Would you like to send me your midi file and any notes you might have, and I could take a look?

Feel free to PM me.

Welcome to HR! :)
 
Hey PJ, try this. The pic below shows the difference in the wave form. I pumped it up to about -14LUFS with a -0.3dbTP. I cut out part of the beginning of the file as it was clicking, then I faded it in. I then rolled off the low end to remove some of the rumbling around 80hz, then added some light compression on the track as well as some mastering compression on the master track. Let me know what ya think.

View attachment 100469

View attachment 100470
 
Hi Mack,

Great. Many thanks for taking the time to look into this. I'm not entirely happy with the piano sound yet though. It sounds quite artificial and quite far from the real piano. I know it is not a real instrument but I was hoping for a slightly better sound. Do you think it is possible to achieve a better, more natural piano sound with midi?

Thanks,
PJ
 
There are several things concerning midi files and honestly, I really don't mess with them much except for drums. With that being said, as far as I know 99.9% of the sound is going to do with who did the recording. Some programs are free and some cost hundreds of dollars. In your case, it would be something like, what type of piano was being recorded, where it was recorded at, and who was playing it at the time it was being recorded. From what little bit of knowledge I have on the subject, these notes are then converted to midi.

I did a quick search before I started playing with your file and there a forums dedicated to nothing but tweaking midi files. I finally had to convert your file to an mp3 before I could even start editing it. I changed my upload page to except mid file in the correct format. Sorry about that, it has been a very long week. Can you resend them to me in the mid format? I am on the Reaper forum now seeing what the best way to help you out. I am on their forum as I use their software.
 
PJ, you might like to try Modartt Pianoteq. Pretty nice sound, low CPU hit and a very 'friendly' MIDI player (well, even 'i' can use it!)

Even the demo is quite useful but I think the basic but good version is only around $50? Nice peoples to boot!

Dave.
 
I listened to the clip this morning as posted in #4.

It is too MIDIfied. If the "composed" was a final performance at a keyboard, it is the poster child of tight and quantized : ) Attack and loudness usually vary quite a bit, etc..
 
PJ, you might like to try Modartt Pianoteq. Pretty nice sound, low CPU hit and a very 'friendly' MIDI player (well, even 'i' can use it!)

Even the demo is quite useful but I think the basic but good version is only around $50? Nice peoples to boot!

Dave.

Wow Dave, some of these software are quite expensive. It was an eye opener for me.

I listened to the clip this morning as posted in #4.

It is too MIDIfied. If the "composed" was a final performance at a keyboard, it is the poster child of tight and quantized : ) Attack and loudness usually vary quite a bit, etc..

Is it possible to use something like one of these midi programs and run it from a plugin like auto tune as the person is singing?
 
I think I've heard talk of that bring done. Better to have keyboard in tune with the recorder for how you want notes to go down
 
These days a $50 used Casio or yamaha keyboard that has a midi port have some pretty fine realistic piano sounds....amazing what is available today as opposed to 1970....ugh.. I love my Yamaha MOX sounds but those cheapies are damn fine and I could get a great recording from them as well...

As a keyboard player I went down the midi rabbit hole many years ago (late 80's early 90's) and then walked away from it...I've been told here by others that it is a whole new game today and you can get really natural sounding midi recordings....haven't messed with it yet... Velocity sensitivity is an absolute necessity to get a digital piano sound to sound like a real piano...Not sure how you achieve that via midi and no keyboard.....but using a velocity sensitive keyboard does the job for me. Piano Forte which is what the Piano was originally called ( Softly Loudly ) says it all. Without that you just get notes with no expression...
 
These days a $50 used Casio or yamaha keyboard that has a midi port have some pretty fine realistic piano sounds....amazing what is available today as opposed to 1970....ugh.. I love my Yamaha MOX sounds but those cheapies are damn fine and I could get a great recording from them as well...

As a keyboard player I went down the midi rabbit hole many years ago (late 80's early 90's) and then walked away from it...I've been told here by others that it is a whole new game today and you can get really natural sounding midi recordings....haven't messed with it yet... Velocity sensitivity is an absolute necessity to get a digital piano sound to sound like a real piano...Not sure how you achieve that via midi and no keyboard.....but using a velocity sensitive keyboard does the job for me. Piano Forte which is what the Piano was originally called ( Softly Loudly ) says it all. Without that you just get notes with no expression...

Do try the demo of Pianoteq TAE. You HAVE been out of things a while mate! You will look long and look hard to find a $50 keyboard these days with even ONE MIDI port!

(of course I shall now be deluged with effin' links!)

Dave.
 
Do try the demo of Pianoteq TAE. You HAVE been out of things a while mate! You will look long and look hard to find a $50 keyboard these days with even ONE MIDI port!

(of course I shall now be deluged with effin' links!)

Dave.

Yo Dave...Remember I said "used" ...perhaps I'm spoiled because I live in LaLa land but here's the results of a quick search of "casio midi Keyboard" with a price range of $5 to $50 on Craigslist LA ...3 came up the first had "No midi" in the description...the other two have midi ports...:p

I have some nice virtual pianos in Kontakt that I NEVER use and I hear Ivory is supposed to be REALLY nice...but dude my MOX8 is Killer on piano sounds...I love em plenty good enough for the girls I dance with...
 
Hello,

I've composed a simple piano piece in Logic Pro X (midi) but I'm not happy with the piano sound. I was wondering if somebody could help me or advice what to do. Ideally, I'm looking for somebody that would make it sound like a final piano piece that is kind of release ready. It contains only 1 piano track. I'm happy to pay a reasonable price (this is just my hobby). I have no idea how much work is involved to make it sound professional

If somebody could help or point me in the right direction it would be great.

Thanks,
PJ

if you send me the original midi file, I'd like to play with it
 
Yo Dave...Remember I said "used" ...perhaps I'm spoiled because I live in LaLa land but here's the results of a quick search of "casio midi Keyboard" with a price range of $5 to $50 on Craigslist LA ...3 came up the first had "No midi" in the description...the other two have midi ports...:p

I have some nice virtual pianos in Kontakt that I NEVER use and I hear Ivory is supposed to be REALLY nice...but dude my MOX8 is Killer on piano sounds...I love em plenty good enough for the girls I dance with...

Yo T! But aren't they OLD s/h keyboards?

MIDI ports are rarer than they were 5 years ago on new AI's and keys but oddly some other new devices retain them. Some very wee things have gone over to 3.5mm TRS jacks instead of DINs. Unfortunate faff but at least you still HAVE ports!

Dave.
 
Ya, I've two controllers with 3.5 to DIN - one a keyboard.

There's less cheating without MIDI
 
Make it sound good!

Hello,

I've composed a simple piano piece in Logic Pro X (midi) but I'm not happy with the piano sound. I was wondering if somebody could help me or advice what to do. Ideally, I'm looking for somebody that would make it sound like a final piano piece that is kind of release ready. It contains only 1 piano track. I'm happy to pay a reasonable price (this is just my hobby). I have no idea how much work is involved to make it sound professional

If somebody could help or point me in the right direction it would be great.

Thanks,
PJ


OP! Congrats on doing the first step.

The next step would be to print out the music and have a real (not novice) piano player play it. You can also have it recorded at that time, or request a midi file, or both.

The other route would be an audio file for somebody who doesn't read, but results will probably be better if you do the former.

You can find someone on the net to do this -- google "collaboration piano" (w/o quotes).
 
OP! Congrats on doing the first step.

The next step would be to print out the music and have a real (not novice) piano player play it. You can also have it recorded at that time, or request a midi file, or both.

The other route would be an audio file for somebody who doesn't read, but results will probably be better if you do the former.

You can find someone on the net to do this -- google "collaboration piano" (w/o quotes).

I've been thinking about this solution as well. I know a good piano player but then it is all this recording stuff, microphones etc. You need another person to sort this out for a good quality which means (usually) colossal costs.

I'm attaching the midi file of the piece if somebody would like to have a go.

View attachment 1-January.mid.zip
 
Looks like the same quantised midi file you sent to me.
Do you no longer think that quantising your performance has detracted from it?

I think it would be best to be clear about what people are having a go at.

Also, one thread is adequate.
 
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Looks like the same quantised midi file you sent to me.
Do you no longer thing that quantising your performance has detracted from it?

I think it would be best to be clear about what people are having a go at.

Also, one thread is adequate.

I'm not sure what that even means. Especially "No VST can emulate that smell."

I can probably record this piece again and try to make it sound better, more natural, but, I won't be able to improve on the sound of the instrument so if somebody could help me with this a try on this sample midi filw it would be great.
 
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