I’ve acquired a Baldwin SD-10, Baldwin’s flagship piano. It’s a full concert grand, 9’ long, simply an incredible instrument. Nothing can match a 9’ piano for presence, especially in the bass! This thing just booms - and sings, and whispers, and whatever other adjective you care to throw at it. Basically, is has a VERY full range of expression covered.

I found the piano for sale on Facebook marketplace, but just didn’t have the cash to buy it outright, so I started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for it. Of course, all the musician friends who’ve supported previous fundraising campaigns are now COVID broke, so we didn’t hit our goal. But, I got interest from two virtual instrument plug-in companies in the project - both offered to put up the cash for the piano! I ended up going with Best Service, giving them exclusive distribution rights to the product along with the power to market it as they see fit. A great arrangement for me - I can create the instruments I want to build, and they will sell them.

This time around, I plan on getting 20 velocity levels per note, with 3 round robin sets for a really full virtual representation of the piano in all its dynamic glory. We’ll have the usual sample layers included, like damper, hammer, and pedal sounds, along with sustain resonance and impulse reverb and a full una corda sample set. But we’ll include half-pedalling now to really help round out the picture.

My new automated sampling mechanism now gives me the ability to perfectly replicate velocities from key to key, and fine tune the sampling sequence for each note, if necessary. Plus, this new much more efficient sampling method will make it simple to really dig deep with different mic techniques, trying out new approaches to really plumb the depths of the instrument. Right now, I’m experimenting with various mic placements as I gather quick sample recordings, including a pair of dynamic Sennheiser MD421 mics for a darker picture of the piano.