Heavyocity offers Foundations Piano, a FREE cinematic piano for Kontakt Player.
This bit of news combines a couple of my favorite things to write; free cinematic piano and Kontakt Player.
Foundations Piano is a free Kontakt library that is compatible with the free Kontakt Player, which is a nice change from saying the paid version is required.
Heavyocity has deeply sampled the soft dynamics of a grand piano to create this instrument. Not just any grand piano, a Kawai grand piano; I’m not 100% sure on the exact model, but they are stunning.
The grand piano is combined with a sound design layer, called a creative texture. Heavyocity has captured that modern, hybrid sound that is the cornerstone of many great scores by adding a processed synthetic element to a beautiful grand piano.
One of the things I like about the soft piano/texture hybrid is that it’s far more emotionally versatile than some might think.
When paired with the right story, it’s a powerful sound, especially in media composition (film/game). It’s a sound that can suggest hope, loss, reflection, fear, joy, and most other emotions. An instrument covering utopia to dystopia is a good thing to have in your compositional toolbox.
It’s also a sound that lends itself well to various playing styles, from sparse melodies to rhythmic/percussive sequences.
Foundation Piano comes with a bunch of presets designed to showcase different creative textures and their emotional range. One of my favorites so far is Reverse Piano Pulses.
Beyond the presets, there are things you can do to customize your sound, starting with adjusting the level of the piano and creative texture.
The Foundations Piano engine provides additional sound-shaping capabilities in the form of an Arp, an ADSR Amp Envelope, and a built-in FX section, including Gate and Space.
Each aspect of sound-shaping has a dedicated page/tab, meaning the GUI remains uncluttered and easy to navigate.
It’s possible that I may be slightly (or heavily) biased, and maybe I think you can never have too many pianos. The limited walking space in my studio (or keyboard storage room) will testify to that. But, even so, Foundations Piano is a lovely instrument, and getting it for free makes it even better.
It’s been a good month for cinematic piano freebies. If you haven’t checked out the weirdly wonderful 88E from Impact Soundworks (also for the free Kontakt Player), do it now.
Happy scoring!
Download: Foundations Piano
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9 Comments
Darryl Lim
onAlways nice to know about Kontakt Player instruments, thanks James! :D
James N
onNo worries, Darryl. Cheers!
Michael
onIs it just me or does this not install correctly for anyone else?
When I load the kontakt instrument the graphics don’t load correctly and I’m not getting any sound from it.
Michael
onnevermind, i didn’t realize I needed to add the serial to native access
James N
onGlad it’s all working, enjoy!
Numanoid
onThanks for the info, it was easy ordering and getting the serial :-)
Tomislav Zlatic
onCool! :)
Rox Roll
onAnybody have problems with the arpeggiator?I just feel it’s not really synced with BPM.
Rox Roll
onit has problem with like128BPM,maybe other certain amounts?