ANIMATE
REBUILT UPRIGHT
an upright from 1880, rebuilt to perform emotion - shaped into 2 distinct characters
WALKTHROUGH ↴
WALKTHROUGH
LISTEN ↴
MUSIC DEMOS
hear the sounds in action
1. IN ACTION - "original"
the natural sound of the piano. warm, dark, and intimate.
small variations across the keyboard create a more human feel.
ideal for intimate, exposed parts where character matters more than precision.
2. IN ACTION - "tape"
inspired by tape behaviour. soft, unstable, and slightly drifting.
less predictable in pitch and response.
works well for fragile, emotional parts and more fluid writing.
THE SOUNDS
playthroughs of the 5
included articulations
THE SOUNDS
playthroughs of the 5
included articulations
ARTICULATIONS
playthroughs of the 5
included articulations
ARTICULATIONS
playthroughs of the 5
included articulations
PRESETS
playthroughs of the 10
included presets
ARTICULATIONS
playthroughs of the 5
included articulations
PRESETS
playthroughs of the 10
included presets
THE SOUNDS
hear a range of sounds
you can create
with the articulations
+ snapshot presets
THE INTERFACES ↴
ABOUT ↴
REBUILT + IMPERFECT
this piano started as a fischer upright from the 1880s.
it’s been played for over a century…
and at some point, it was completely taken apart and rebuilt by a piano builder in california.
the internal parts were replaced, but the original wood and soundboard were kept.
and that’s where most of the depth, warmth, and tone comes from.
so what you end up with is something pretty unique -
a piano with a long history, rebuilt to have a second life.
RESHAPED + RESPONSIVE
it doesn’t behave perfectly. some keys feel heavier. others respond a bit faster.
the tuning isn’t completely uniform - each note is slightly different.
so when you play chords, you hear those differences interacting:
slight tuning offsets, and how the overtones combine.
on most sampled pianos, that gets removed -
so every chord sounds too clean, too similar.
here, it doesn’t. so musical phrases don’t sound clinical, and the music feels less programmed.
yay - in 2000+ composers'
toolkits...thank you!
BEHIND THE SCENES ↴
WHERE
recorded at altamira sound in los angeles with engineer james riotto.
a custom mic setup was used to capture the piano as it is -
from its low-end resonance to the mechanical detail in each note, with both intimacy and depth, without over-processing.
WHY
we chose this piano because it doesn’t behave like a perfect instrument.
its uneven response, shifting tuning, and sense of history shape how it feels to play - and how the music responds.
instead of correcting those qualities, we kept them - and used them as the foundation for everything built from it.
SPECS ↴
PATCHES + PRESETS
2 piano versions
• original
• tape
10 presets
3 microphone positions
• close (josephson C617)
• sub (coles 4038)
• room (schoeps CMC6)
TECHNICAL
full kontakt (not player) 6.8.0 or later
~15 GB | 24‑bit / 48 kHz
mac – macOS X 10.13 + (intel i5 or newer)
windows – win 7/8/10 (latest SP), intel i5 or equivalent
recommended: quad‑core CPU & 8 GB RAM
install + download via pulse downloader app
REVIEWS ↴
WORKS
GREAT
WITH ↴
INCLUDED IN
EVERYTHING
BUNDLE ↴
DUSK
solo bass clarinet
dark, dramatic, moody
DUSK SPARKS
solo bass clarinet
moving, deep, airy
questions?
need help getting started with this instrument?
curious about installation or using the sounds?