How We Convert Your MIDI File to Real Piano

Uploading

Save your sequencer session in Standard Midi File (SMF) format and upload it to GetRealPiano.com.

Editing

Your file is loaded into Digital Performer running on a Mac and fed to the Yamaha Disklavier for playback. Based on the tone that the acoustic piano produces, the midi velocity values are then continuously adjusted and auditioned by ear until the resulting sound is just ‘right’. Depending on the midi velocity response curve of the original master keyboard, touch of the player, and dynamics of the piece, these edits may involve global operations such as off-set, scale, or compression as well as the fine tuning of individual notes and / or phrases.

All of the timing and feel of your original track remains completely intact throughout this process. Only the midi velocities are changed to match the dynamics of Get Real’s particular Disklavier.

Recording

Our piano is a 6’1” Yamaha Disklavier DC3Pro acoustic grand that has been tuned and maintained by Vancouver’s top technicians, for its entire life. It is recorded in stereo with its lid open to full stick in an acoustically neutral room by a matched pair of Neumann KM184 microphones. Their signals run through a Millennia HV-3C stereo preamp and a MOTU 896 digital interface before being recorded back into Digital Performer.

A third microphone – a modified Apex 460 large diaphragm tube condenser – simultaneously captures the sound under the piano. (This extra mic produces a much darker sound and is sometimes useful for adding more punch when mixed under the main stereo track.)

Downloading

GetRealPiano.com provides speedy service. Finished audio files from a single session can be available for download within 24 hrs of submission. When it’s done, you will receive an email from Hightail (formerly YouSendIt) detailing how to download your large file(s). Just click and import it into your sequencer for the final mix.