I want my piano to sound like my piano.

[msanjelpie]

Can I record my acoustic piano into Ableton Live Suite 11 (Trial Version) and have my new recording actually sound like MY piano.

Currently I see a Grand Piano with a lot of notes and an Upright piano with 9 notes as recording options.

1) What do I choose in order to have it sound real.

2) I chose 'Upright Piano' so that I could at least hear something, but I didn't know the difference in recording between choosing C4 and C5 etc... Why are there more than one option? Does each option make the final output sound different?

3) Are there more piano options than 'Grand' and 'Upright' in the non-trial version of Suite 11 (soon to be 12)?

Thanks!! Total novice as you can tell.

[login]

The included Pianos are... mediocre to be honest, the number of velocity layers, the mic positions, are no the best IMHO.

If you want a more realistic Piano sound you will have to look at third parties offerings, for example Noire by Native instruments, Pianoteq and also UVI has a few that are quite better that what is included in suite.

Suite has much better synths than acoustic instruments, certainly usable sounds but not stellar.

[yur2die4]

The wording of your questions is a little confusing, but that is to be expected if you’re still learning about using Live. But it’ll help to get some clarification on things.

First you mention recording ‘your’ piano. I’m not sure what you mean by this? Do you already have a piano that you use outside of Live? Do you prefer to be using audio from that piano? Or using midi in Live to trigger a software piano?

When you say you see a piano with a lot of notes, and a piano with 9 notes, I’m not sure what you’re referring to as notes? Notes as in the sounds triggered by keys? Notes like presets? I’m curious because it would help me get a better idea of what you’re looking at and maybe how to help.

With the Suite version of Live there are one or two additional pianos I believe. Another upright which is more recent, and a grand from a few versions ago.

Piano can be tricky, there are a lot of psychoacoustic qualities to what we perceive in a piano. Depending on the situation, the room, the mic placement, etc, we find some things or others more or less desirable as attributes. Sometimes a really low quality piano can just sound ‘better’ (maybe not more realistic) than a high quality piano in certain situations. But, it really does help to have access to pianos you can kind of trust as sounding good.. instead of working against you.

The other thing about piano in software is that software can potentially take away from the human quality of playing a piano. A person who is experienced with the piano will probably have certain qualities in tempo and groove, and will have experience making use of dynamics (velocity) and the sustain pedal. To complicate matters, different models of hardware and software will have different kinds of results at various velocities.

I think it is a good idea to learn first how to make the best of the piano sounds at your disposal, possibly figure out how to record ‘your’ piano that you have, as it seems it might have a more desirable sound? And then from those experiences you might have a better idea of what qualities you are looking for in a premium piano sound software option.

[lapieuvre]

Can I record my acoustic piano into Ableton Live Suite 11 (Trial Version) and have my new recording actually sound like MY piano.

Your question is confusing... I see 2 possible answers :

1. You want to create a sampled piano from YOUR piano ? You would need to record each note of your piano, with more than one velocity. (ex. C0 played pp, p, mp, mf, f ,ff). You would end up having 88 x 6 samples, then you would need to put those samples in Sampler. It can take weeks to accomplish.

2. You just want to record you playing the piano in Ableton Live. Put 2 microphones on the piano, in your audio interface, and hit Record. This would make your new recording sound like YOUR piano.

[DunedinDragon]

Recording an actual "live" piano isn't a simple endeavor to make it sound like a real piano in a real room. Professional studios invest a lot of time and effort to achieve such things including a good professional studio room as well as multiple high end mic's. It's pretty much the same process whether it's a direct capture of playing a piano on a recorded track or simply capturing the piano note-by-note in a virtual instrument plugin that you can easily play using a MIDI keyboard. That's not something most hobbyists would take on.

But there are more than ample great professionally produced virtual instrument plugins that will produce very professional sounds just using a MIDI enabled piano, so it's very easy to do just spending the money for one and using it as a VST in your project. That's what most of us do.

I probably own about 6 or 7 different piano plugins from different VST vendors of both uprights as well as concert grands by different manufacturers and years from Baldwin to Yamaha and several others. I even have a VST of the Mrs Mills piano played by Paul McCartney on "Lady Madonna" and "Oh Bla Di, Oh, Bla Da" which I can play on any recording project with a MIDI keyboard. If you are willing to make the investment, you can pretty much have anything you want.

[msanjelpie]

Can I record my acoustic piano into Ableton Live Suite 11 (Trial Version) and have my new recording actually sound like MY piano.

Your question is confusing...

2. You just want to record you playing the piano in Ableton Live. Put 2 microphones on the piano, in your audio interface, and hit Record. This would make your new recording sound like YOUR piano.

Sorry about the delay... just got back home from Xmas vacation.

Also sorry for any confusion... Multiple forum posts on Reddit etc... and I still can't word the question to get the answer I wanted.

But I think you just gave it to me! I was choosing a sample and hitting record (and of course my music was sounding like that sampled piano. So, now I just need to find where the record button is without choosing a sample first. (Sigh) Thanks! At least now I know it can be done and I'll research that some more.

[msanjelpie]

Recording an actual "live" piano isn't a simple endeavor to make it sound like a real piano in a real room. Professional studios invest a lot of time and effort to achieve such things including a good professional studio room as well as multiple high end mic's. It's pretty much the same process whether it's a direct capture of playing a piano on a recorded track or simply capturing the piano note-by-note in a virtual instrument plugin that you can easily play using a MIDI keyboard. That's not something most hobbyists would take on.

Thank you! I have created a recording studio in my home, purchased the microphones, acoustic treatment, audio interface, DAW, and I just couldn't get over that last little hump to find out where the stupid record button is in Ableton. Apparently I need to continue on with the tutorial, because I recorded a sample piano (which, yes, did sound nice) but I was a bit shocked that it didn't sound like my crappy piano.

Since this post, I purchased 'Originals Intimate Grand Piano' and I'll be looking for other VSTs like that one to experiment with since I actually thought it was awesome that I didn't have to spend another month trying to figure out how to get my piano to sound the way I wanted it to experimenting with different types of felt etc...

Thanks again!

[msanjelpie]

The wording of your questions is a little confusing, but that is to be expected if you’re still learning about using Live. But it’ll help to get some clarification on things.

First you mention recording ‘your’ piano. I’m not sure what you mean by this? Do you already have a piano that you use outside of Live? Do you prefer to be using audio from that piano? Or using midi in Live to trigger a software piano?

When you say you see a piano with a lot of notes, and a piano with 9 notes, I’m not sure what you’re referring to as notes? Notes as in the sounds triggered by keys? Notes like presets? I’m curious because it would help me get a better idea of what you’re looking at and maybe how to help.

With the Suite version of Live there are one or two additional pianos I believe. Another upright which is more recent, and a grand from a few versions ago.

Thank you for your response. Sorry about the delay. (Xmas vacation)

Let's see. So yes, I have an actual acoustic piano that I play. I am a pianist. I thought I would be recording it using the DAW, tweaking here and there, sending the piece to be mastered and then submitting the music to Spotify. Things just aren't working out as easily as I thought they would. It seems most people have no clue what I'm talking about, and I think I'm starting to learn why. VSTs... ?

I never in a million years thought that midi would play any part in my recording process. I never purchased a digital piano for that reason. My piano is loud, dynamic, vibrates when I pound away. I can't get that from a midi piano. So, yeah, I just sort of assumed that the piano I stuck the microphones on would be what I would be hearing from the DAW and was a bit shocked when it wasn't. (I put other info in my other replies here.)

Piano with 9 notes. - So in my current trial version of Ableton Suite, In the Samples section there is an Upright Piano Sample that I can choose from. Like C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, G1, G2, G3, G4 etc... Why are there options? Why don't I just choose 'Upright Piano' and be done with it? I don't understand which specific section of the piano matters?

Learning how to record my actual piano and using the DAW is taking months when I thought it would take a couple of weeks. Mostly because I don't understand WTF this stuff is or why. I've been thinking about hiring a local tutor, but I'm just trudging ahead since I guess there is no rush at this point and it's already been several months of setting up the studio and learning something so simple as what 'gain' means etc...

OK, that's good to know that there are more piano samples in the actual version of Live Suite. I most likely will be purchasing 3rd party VSTs in either case, I think I just chose The Grandeur for the grand piano sound which I think I can merge (layer?) with some other piano samples to make it brighter or whatever.

So much to learn. I've spent days and days watching YouTube videos just to see what these different VSTs actually sound like before I waste my money.

Thank you so much !!! for taking the time with your answer and your willingness to help. I really appreciate it!

[yur2die4]

Now I see where the confusion is.

You are looking at piano ‘samples’ in Live. Those samples are in Live to be used as general samples or more directly, they are used in one or Live’s “Instruments”. The Instrument is something that can be arranged as a midi sequence or can be played via a midi keyboard. But it sounds like the instrument and vst plug-in type thing is not the direction you intended to be going. It is just that when we read your question, we interpreted it as such since you mentioned trying to ‘use’ pianos that are inside Live. So the first step is just to record.

And the first step for recording is just to have at least one successful attempt even if it is not perfect. You can tweak your process from there.

The first thing I’d like to point out is that Live has two views. Hitting Tab on the keyboard will switch between Session (rectangles in columns) or Arrangement (vertical looking) views. You’ll want to make sure that you are in Arrangement View.

Have an AUDIO Channel. If you’re not sure it’s an audio or midi channel, the names usually clue you in by default, or you can Create a New audio channel.

The input and output options are next. There is an I-O to show/hide this. You want it showing. There will be a drop-down option for External Input. …. And this is where things can be a bit tricky. It depends on if your interface is set up properly.

Let’s pretend that it is set up properly. Select the input channels 1/2, and be careful of your volume levels. You might even want to turn your speakers all the way down. Turn on Monitor either to IN or AUTO. Auto is pretty convenient, I usually use that.

On the channel is a number for the number of channel, an S button to Solo the channel, and a Circle button inside. The Circle is to ‘arm’ that channel to record. If you hit that, you are telling Live that you want to record audio that comes in onto that channel. If your speakers are up, you risk getting feedback so be careful!

To test if your channel is ready, perhaps observe the Meters in the channel to see if the green bounces around whenever you make sound close to the microphone. If it does, that’s great. If not, you might need to set up the audio interface.

On the top of Live are two circle button options. The hollow one is Session Record. Don’t use it. The full one should be directly next to Stop and Play. Tap that one and Live should do a countdown and then start recording. Then make noise into the microphones. It should be adding that noise into the Audio Channel you are recording on. When you’re done hit stop. And then turn the ARM button off, and make sure Monitor is set to AUTO or OFF. Then listen to your clip and see if it recorded anything.

I hope this is a start. Setting up your audio interface would be the one thing that might interfere with this description, as that is a whole other topic heheh

[msanjelpie]

I'm going to print what you have written out.

I understand now where the confusion came from. I was using words that mean one thing to normal people and something different to everyone else I have asked help of over the past month. I'm glad I'm getting on the right page with the terminology. I need to be clearer.

I noticed the audio channel you were talking about. But the only way (at that time) that I could get a record button to appear there, was to choose apparently the wrong sample from the wrong place.

I did record one of those samples, Upright C5 or something. I was just so thrilled that there was actual sound coming out of the program that I didn't really take it from there. I was clueless as to where to go next in either case. I deleted the file and figured that once I knew what I was doing I would try again.

I've never seen the arrangement view, so I'm looking forward to that.

I have a dumb question - when I was doing what I was doing before in the other view, I saw 3 audio channels and 1 midi channel that I could drag stuff into. I have 4 microphones. It sounds like from what you have written I can 'create' more audio channels than just the 3? Of course, once I get to the arrangement view, that question might answer itself. I think I read somewhere I can have 8 channels... I don't know. I've read so much and watched so many videos that everything is a mish mash in my brain for now.

"Let’s pretend that it is set up properly." - LOL

I was reading about 'arming' the channel this morning and a light bulb went on over my head. Just a small one, but I knew I was getting closer anyway. It was from a guy trying to record his acoustic guitar. Apparently it was easier to help him than me

Thank you SO much for typing this!! Your suggestions are bread crumbs that I can follow via Google and the .pdf manual. (No I haven't read it yet... my eyes start to glaze over when they use so many words I don't understand). But I know what a 'chain' is now!!! lol

I need to find some kindergarten level tutorials for this program before tackling the manual. I got some Bluetooth ear buds so that I can watch 2 to 8 hour video tutorials out on the couch at night without bugging everyone else.

Thanks again!

Jean

[Tarekith]

Have you tried the tutorials Ableton made for beginners yet? They are very short and to the point, no need to watch 8 hours of videos.

https://www.ableton.com/en/live/learn-live/

[msanjelpie]

Oh, I just looked at the ones on top and assumed they were for people who already know how to use the program.

I see the noob stuff is down below. Thank you!

[yur2die4]

So I did some Google video searches and I think if you watch enough tutorials and try to follow along and remember the process of several in a row, you might have a basic understanding. I’d recommend watching the vids on a separate device then your music computer just so the screen isn’t busy and interrupting your steps.

The searches that seem closest to the mark are either:
Recording microphone into Ableton live
Recording guitar into Ableton live

An example of one that cuts to the chase is this:
https://youtu.be/kDgLGLhXpvk?si=jHPKxnCluPwQ_EWA

There are a couple ways people might do it. Plus the interface you use and the driver software might have slightly different setup procedure. For the audio interface, if it isn’t working as expected you can probably search vids specifically for the model of interface you have.

[ecuk]

In addition to videos and tutorials suggested by others, I recommend reading the chapter on Live Concepts in the online user manual. It might help answer many basic questions.

[msanjelpie]

In addition to videos and tutorials suggested by others, I recommend reading the chapter on Live Concepts in the online user manual. It might help answer many basic questions.

Thank you. None of the videos on the upper page helped. I spent 8 hours today just trying to get things to work, and now I can't figure out why the recording is so soft I can barely hear it. (Gain is almost maxed out.)

Thanks again.