A sampled upright piano from 1967, recorded with two microphones of opposite character: a modified tube condenser in mono and a stereo ribbon. Use either one, or blend them.
The serial number inside the piano, and the reason for the name.
The sampled piano was originally built in Nurmijärvi, Finland in 1967. The name “Helsinki 1967” refers to the text inside the piano: Helsinki No 9962 (serial number). Although the factory was originally located in Helsinki, it moved to Nurmijärvi in 1951; thus it is very likely that this particular piano was not actually built in Helsinki.
My grandparents bought the piano from a shop then called Piano Jylhä (nowadays called Soitin Jylhä). My mother started piano lessons the same year but ended up quitting six years later.
One of my very first conscious memories was when the piano was moved to my childhood home in 1994. It was located there until around 2012.
There wasn’t enough room in my apartment for an acoustic piano back then, so the piano was borrowed to a local jazz musician who kept it in tune for practising.
In the summer 2023 the piano was moved to my rehearsal space and that’s where this sample library was recorded.
The piano's hammers are badly worn in the mid-register, so the attack is almost tacky. Each microphone deals with that differently.
A custom modified CV-12 with an RM CK-12 capsule and a low-noise 6072 tube, with two notoriously ill-behaving capacitors removed from the circuit. Very bright, but placed far from the tacky hammers it gives a full and refined sound that cuts through a mix effortlessly.
A stereo ribbon microphone in a Blumlein array, recorded in a rehearsal space treated to sound dry. It captures a very wide, natural image and softens the attack just enough that it could stand close to the hammers.
Until the late 1960s, most popular music recorded acoustic piano in mono, with either a passive ribbon or a tube condenser. The Beatles, classic Blue Note records and Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations are all mono recordings. Engineers still choose it: a mono piano sits in a busy production more easily, and stereo reverb adds enough width to sound natural.
The project began as a search for one position for one microphone. After comparing several condensers, the best result was a cardioid at shin height, aimed at the string crossover point from the piano's left side. Finding it took more hours than recording all the samples for the original library.
Choose how to play it. Use the mono Tube channel alone to cut through a mix, the stereo Ribbon alone for a rounder, wider sound, or blend the two for a natural player-position sound. The Kontakt version can also sum the ribbon to mono, which gives the darkest, most retro sound.
Microphones and gain levels were set up the evening before, so the recording day went entirely to sampling. Two microphones instead of five, yet playability and sonic range are significantly improved.
The first Helsinki 1967 library used five microphones, and about an hour went into microphone placement. This edition has fewer microphones and a much deeper sample set.
Choose the version for your sampler.