Make music, your music! That’s our motto. However, sometimes it’s nice to step out of your comfort zone and try new things.
For the first composing challenge of the new year, we would like you to do just that. Experiment, think outside of the box, push beyond your normal limits.
Our latest free Vault instrument Mallet Piano is a prepared vintage Steinway played using soft mallets with optional layered glockenspiel played with piano hammers. Download this “piano sample library with a twist”, compose and send us your music… with a twist!
Mallet Piano should feature prominently but you can use any other instruments you like.
Not really a composition I guess - more a mathematical conundrum - and most definitely sitting squarely within a tight-fitting, palindromic box. Taking Reich’s Piano Phase concept one step further by adding a third voice which compliments the faster pace of the one on the left with an inversely related slower pace on the right.
MacBook Pro 2015, Logic Pro, 6 instances of Mallet Piano, touch of EQ (VSL Pro), Atlantis Dual Chamber Reverb, VSL Multiband Pro, and VSL Limiter Pro. Mixed through Shure SRH1840s.
My entry for the Mallet Piano composer challenge
I used the percussive effect of the Mallet Piano through Pianorack to create a clock-like rhythm as a foundation for the track, the theme of which is passing time, fading memories, and aging. Hope you enjoy! Thanks Crow Hill team for creating these free instruments and the challenges that go with them.
The urgency of this piece was quite dramatic Ed. I could feel the building tension towards the end. Not sure why the poor banjo deserved to be beaten with a stick though… what did it do wrong?
Thanks for another great free instrument, Crow Hill gang! I was surprised just how percussive and plucky Mallet Piano sounds … but I guess the clue is in the name.
I also used Circuit Drums with a 3+3+2 rhythm with Guitar Hive tucked in towards the end …
My entry into the competition as a hobbyist composer with no formal training.
I’ve never used Crow Hill libraries before, so to get out of my comfort zone, I’ve tried including as many of them as possible: 5 different Vaults instruments, including the Mallet Piano, of course, and Imperial Electric. All instruments are virtual.
Hope you guys enjoy it!
Here is my submission featuring Mallet Piano used in 4 out of the 5 instrument tracks having been warped, chopped and mashed up in various ways, hence the name ‘The Chameleon’
Mallet Piano as “Infinite Pad”
Mallet Piano as “Bourne Rhythm”
Mallet Piano as “Herself”
Mallet Piano as “Reverse Self”
Glass Strings Longs Sustain
Hope you enjoy and some really good submissions so far!
Something outside of my comfort zone… Ok, let’s do This.
I finish my workday around the time the Ring Pull chat is wrapping up so it’s been staple of my commute home since that’s started; and TODAY you brought up piano feel. Velocity sensors are absolutely a poor substitute for manual attack firmness, staccatos, key rebound, variable pedal mutes, fafing with resonance, etc… I’m reasonably comfortable jamming with actual hammers on strings, but doing the same thing in MIDI With a DAW reminding me I’m a startling number of milliseconds “off cue” is nerve racking.
But F#@* it; new year and all that. This track is a drum sample loop, an improv bass loop, and two and half minutes of sloppy, non-quantized, warts-n-all, improv into my DAW; Of course featuring the Mallet Piano as lead and bass.
I REALLY wanted to “fix” things in the daw, but I settled for adding a little reverb and cutting the percussion out a few times to emphasize riffs toward the end.
