Double Felt Grand for Spectrasonics Keyscape

To celebrate International Piano Day (the 88th day of the year), Spectrasonics is pleased to announce the release of a special new Double Felt Grand piano for Keyscape.

The new Double Felt Grand is now available and included with Keyscape. All existing users can get the new piano as a Free Update by simply using the “Check for Updates” button on the splash screen of the Keyscape user interface to download it.

Normally, the highly coveted “felt piano” sound is achieved by draping a layer of felt vertically between the strings and the hammers of an upright piano. This softens the strikes and gives the upright piano an intimate, muted tone.

Because of gravity, this technique is not feasible on a grand piano, since the hammers and strings are situated horizontally. The felt would simply lay on top of the hammers, preventing them from rising up to strike the strings. Attempts to attach the felt above the hammers, against the strings, yields less-than-satisfactory results and laying the felt on top of the strings mutes their sustain drastically.

Through careful experimentation, renowned piano technician Jim Wilson, discovered how to achieve this gorgeous muted sound on a world-class 7-foot grand piano. After a great deal of thought and experimentation, Jim ended up carefully cutting, fitting, and gluing two individually layered strips of a thick, natural felt to each hammer.

Sound/Software Development

Once the acoustic piano was prepared in this special way, the acclaimed Spectrasonics sound development team then painstakingly sampled the instrument at the company’s newly developed private recording studio.

To complete the experience, the Spectrasonics software team developed lush new DSP reverb algorithms that are exclusive to this new Keyscape sound. The final result is the unique Double Felt Grand: a warm, soft piano with the best aspects of a felt upright, but with the body and the decay of a grand.