Native Instruments' "Una Corda"

Sascha

Hi together!

Nice to see, that we can discuss about libraries from others ?

The Una Corda Piano is a very special one. I love the sound. And it's my first choice for improvising. So inspiring! The Una Corda is a piano from David Klavins (it's his real name), which he built for the musician Nils Frahm. I would like to have such a real Una Corda, because it looks so incredibly good. But for the beginning this plugin helps too.

https://www.native-instruments.com/de/products/komplete/keys/una-corda/

Do you have that plugin too? Or any other piano besides those from Spitfire?

Adam Roberts

That one really grabs my attention too. I want The Giant as well.

My favorite non-spitfire libraries are Keyscape (from Spectrasonics) and I like the extra instruments available from Orchestral Tools in the Berlin collections—additional woodwinds and additional brass in particular. Their products have a lot of muscle. The ones I have are powerful, close-feeling collections. But man are they expensive!

Side note...I really wish Spitfire had a muted brass collection with harmons, straights, and buckets at least. Plus, as a big Holst fan, I like having access to Bass Oboe, Euphonium, and extended Horn techniques.

joshua

Noir is my favorite ni piano.

fracture sounds pianos are nice for tone.

Soniccouture hammersmith is one of my favorite sounding natural grand pianos.

Angus

I have to be honest, I completely overlooked this Library when I originally bought the Komplete pack and 2 years down the line, it ended up being my favourite library from that pack!

You should check out the behind the scenes if you haven't done so already!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfHK7_lSY-0

Sascha

https://community.spitfireaudio.com/discussion/comment/196#Comment_196

I watched it several times. This video and the music by Nils Frahm are the reasons why I am emotionally attached to this library.

Justin

Una Corda is also one of my favorite piano libraries. Yes, it is soft and expressive, but it also has a clarity and focus to it, even in the felted patch. These would seem to be contradictory things, but it somehow pulls it off.

mathieu

hi, you can have a look on the French piano plugins, MODDART, pianotech

it's really great.

bass_oon

I used Una Corda alot when I first purchased Komplete. Now I experiment more and switch between other pianos in Komplete and the few Spitfire piano samples that I have.

Faizan

Una Corda is one of my favorite soft/emotional piano libraries, which I must risk saying even here on the SA forum. Even if I use another piano library for notes, I still load up Una Corda for it's ambient room and player sounds that add liveliness to the performance.

Adam Roberts

I had hoped they'd do a Piano Day sale...nope it appears. I want Una Corda and The Giant.

Justin

https://community.spitfireaudio.com/discussion/comment/1063#Comment_1063

At that point it's worth it to just get the 'standard' version of Komplete this summer when they have 50% off Komplete upgrades. If you sign up for their newsletter, you will eventually get an offer for Komplete Select for $100. Then the upgrade to Komplete Standard (which includes both Una Corda and The Giant, along with every other NI piano except for Alicia's Keys) is $200 during the sale.

Adam Roberts

Standard? Ok...I'll look into it. I appreciate it!

Justin

https://community.spitfireaudio.com/discussion/comment/1076#Comment_1076

It's just called "Komplete". I call it "Komplete Standard" to differentiate it from the lesser "Komplete Select" and more expensive "Komplete Ultimate" versions.

jwing

Una Corda has some great textures. It was used on the recent Queen's Gambit score layered with a few other pianos to great effect.

Stan

Which piano do you all prefer? Una Corda or Noire? Was thinking about buying one of these two

Waldemar

https://community.spitfireaudio.com/discussion/comment/1175#Comment_1175

I will not make it easy for you, these are very different beasts, so... Get both. :)

daren

Native Instruments' NOIRE Piano (Yamaha CFX grand) is very good. It's next to close to sounding like the VSL Yamaha CFX minus the hefty price-tag.

My go-to pianos: Cinesamples' CinePiano, NOIRE and LABS soft piano.

For play-ability and realism with true 3 pedals setup (sustain, sostenuto and soft pedal aka una corda) checkout Embertone's 1955 Walker D and VSL pianos.

For jazz genre, Cinesamples' Piano in Blue is a great choice as well.

Andrew Ernst

Una Corda and Noire are fantastic sampled instruments, and wildly inspiring to play -- just as the Olafur piano in Olafur's Composer Toolkit is. I've recently found myself playing for hours with the Skybox Audio Hammers+Waves virtual instruments, too. They're wildly inspirational to jam for hours with, in similar ways.

One of my more recent enjoyments is to layer the Hammers+Waves Obscura Grand with Spitfire's Olafur Stratus. Just magical when you can start bringing in multiple layers of pianos.