Prepared Pianet

• Acoustic Pianet - very tricky to record because these things are very quiet - 6 velocity layers of close mic-ed tines
• Muted Pianet - a delicate finger layed expertly on each tine and recorded through a Warm Audio Tone Beast preamp - 6 velocity layers
• Amped Pianet - nice long resonant notes, clean or amped - 4 velocity layers
• Individual controls for octave, volume, sample start, pan, stereo width, attack curve, ADSR, vibato and reverb sendper pianet
• 960 24bit mono samples = 280mb with Native Instruments propriety compression
• 24 custom convolution reverbs per piano
• 4 fully controllable instrument effects - chorus, rotor, phaser and master algorithmic reverb
• Master FX page -  master EQ, tape and valve modelling plus transient designer
• Keyboard Velocity and Round Robin modelling page
• 3 Kontakt instruments - Prepared Pianet, 3 X Muted Pianets abd 3 X Acoustic Pianets
• 46 instrument snapshots
• Handy build in instructions in RTFM page

All sounds were carefully sampled from the source instrument, a Hohner Pianet T, using three techniques; Very close mic-ed for acoustic harmonics and dissonance, muted with a finger placed delicately on each tine for a thumb piano feel, and through high quality pre-amps. As with other Sound Dust instruments the results can be thought of as a self-contained orchestra of the surreal. The Prepared Pianet offers superb standard electric pianos and heavily processed tines. Stratospheric pads are under-laid with electronic tweets and chatter. Played lower down the scale, a muted piano becomes an unstable electro bass. Whacked out opportunities abound, from evolving electronics, snappy acoustics and indescribable musical tones and frequencies. The percussive blasts and tinkling subtleties which can be achieved inspire the imagination.

Reminded me of my old Pianet T, which I played through an elderly Selmer 100 watt Valve head (turned up to eleven, of course) and a 4x12 speaker cab with a couple of torn cones. The resulting overdrive and feedback blotted out three guitars and drums leaving just me and the bass in a body pummelling groove. I thought that sound was lost in time but it’s possible once more and at much lower volumes with the Prepared Pianet.

Dean- Quietland