Behind the scenes: Making music with an old, beat-up piano
The old, beat-up piano you see below had been sitting under a tarp in the backyard of Unto The End music composer, Johnny Knittle, for over a year before he decided that, rather than leave it to the mercy of the Southern Californian weather for another 12 months, he would give it one last hurrah by – in his own words – “recording it, abusing it, and ultimately destroying it.”
We’re sure it’s what the piano would have wanted.
With the help of a couple of friends, the piano was moved into the house, which happened to be only a couple of weeks before Johnny was due to move out. With no time to waste, and between frenzied bouts of packing, he got to work creating a sample library of piano sounds.
According to Johnny, the piano was “out of tune in a cool way, the whole thing was down a half step as well, but it was mostly in tune with itself.” A state of imperfect harmony that other battered and past-their-prime instruments will undoubtedly find relatable.
He was able to record the sort of sounds you’d expect to hear from a piano, but he also used a few outlandish methods to extract various weird and wonderful tones, tunes and twangs.
In the video below, you can see and hear a few examples: a cue ball rolling along the piano strings; a vibrator (yes, a vibrator) placed on the strings; bowing the strings with fishing line; and the dramatic sound created by cutting the strings:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Other methods of noise making included hitting the strings, piano body, and soundboard with a hammer; using a heavy-duty staple gun to fire staples into the sides of the piano (a technique which produced “very quick transients and left more tail”); and resting a snare on top of the frame (this “added a great sound to the percussive hits as well as some of the music bed pads that had been created using the vibrator and bowing”).
To give you a taste of how Johnny’s adventures in piano experimentation will be woven into Unto The End’s soundtrack, listen to the ‘Cave Exit’ track in the video below. All the ambient sounds and percussion – i.e. everything you can hear that isn’t the vocalist, a violin, or a bass – were created using the piano. For example, the cue ball rolling along the strings is the opening sound.
(Note: footage is taken from the EGX demo, and not the final game)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
After its outstanding services to sound design, where’s the old piano now? “That particular piano has gone to piano heaven,” Johnny explains. “If I had more time I would’ve cut away all the wood and kept the frame, but I was too down to the wire. I had people come haul its remnants away the day before I myself was completely moved out of that house. It’s okay though, I still have two more pianos… but there’s no way I’m destroying those, ha-ha!”
We salute the old piano (RIP) and give massive thanks to Johnny for his ongoing work in composing the perfect soundtrack for Unto The End.
Johnny can be found at the following links:
Web: https://johnnyrk.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnnyrk
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnnyrk
Hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at some of the work that's going into making Unto The End. If you like what you see (and hear), feel free to add us to your Wishlist.
- Stephen and Sara
https://store.steampowered.com/app/600080/Unto_The_End/
We’re sure it’s what the piano would have wanted.
With the help of a couple of friends, the piano was moved into the house, which happened to be only a couple of weeks before Johnny was due to move out. With no time to waste, and between frenzied bouts of packing, he got to work creating a sample library of piano sounds.
According to Johnny, the piano was “out of tune in a cool way, the whole thing was down a half step as well, but it was mostly in tune with itself.” A state of imperfect harmony that other battered and past-their-prime instruments will undoubtedly find relatable.
He was able to record the sort of sounds you’d expect to hear from a piano, but he also used a few outlandish methods to extract various weird and wonderful tones, tunes and twangs.
In the video below, you can see and hear a few examples: a cue ball rolling along the piano strings; a vibrator (yes, a vibrator) placed on the strings; bowing the strings with fishing line; and the dramatic sound created by cutting the strings:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Other methods of noise making included hitting the strings, piano body, and soundboard with a hammer; using a heavy-duty staple gun to fire staples into the sides of the piano (a technique which produced “very quick transients and left more tail”); and resting a snare on top of the frame (this “added a great sound to the percussive hits as well as some of the music bed pads that had been created using the vibrator and bowing”).
To give you a taste of how Johnny’s adventures in piano experimentation will be woven into Unto The End’s soundtrack, listen to the ‘Cave Exit’ track in the video below. All the ambient sounds and percussion – i.e. everything you can hear that isn’t the vocalist, a violin, or a bass – were created using the piano. For example, the cue ball rolling along the strings is the opening sound.
(Note: footage is taken from the EGX demo, and not the final game)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
After its outstanding services to sound design, where’s the old piano now? “That particular piano has gone to piano heaven,” Johnny explains. “If I had more time I would’ve cut away all the wood and kept the frame, but I was too down to the wire. I had people come haul its remnants away the day before I myself was completely moved out of that house. It’s okay though, I still have two more pianos… but there’s no way I’m destroying those, ha-ha!”
We salute the old piano (RIP) and give massive thanks to Johnny for his ongoing work in composing the perfect soundtrack for Unto The End.
Johnny can be found at the following links:
Web: https://johnnyrk.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnnyrk
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnnyrk
Hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at some of the work that's going into making Unto The End. If you like what you see (and hear), feel free to add us to your Wishlist.
- Stephen and Sara
https://store.steampowered.com/app/600080/Unto_The_End/