Glacier Keys is a collection of piano harmonics, performed on a Steinway D concert grand and sampled in incredible detail in a modern concert hall setting. Harmonics are produced by gently placing a finger on the middle of the string, producing a pitch an octave above the natutral note of the string, resulting in a beautiful glass-like timbre, perfect for neo-classical, ambient and minimal compositions, or any situation where you need a piano with a more evocative, glistening tone than usual.

Although this is an ‘extended technique’ library, we’ve spent extra care making it as playable as possible. You can approach it in the same way as a regular piano – it is programmed so that middle C sounds like middle C, even though the actual key that produced the note was an octave below. We also positioned the close mics further left than normal, so that the stereo image is centered around the sounding middle C.

The instrument was recorded in a modern concert hall environment using a selection of 14 top-shelf microphones (from DPA, Coles, Neumann) placed around the piano and further back in the room. From these microphone signals we created 3 easy-to-use mixes (Close, Mid and Far), giving you the flexibility to craft a custom mix which fits your needs, whether you want a dry ‘studio’ sound, or a spacious sound which sits at the back of a mix.