Pianobook: my kind of Facebook
Years ago, one of the world’s leading virtual instruments developers, Spitfire Audio, introduced the Spitfire Labs program. This became hugely popular, both as an affordable gateway to the company’s celebrated yet expensive portfolio, but also as a form of sound palette expansion for us who own some of their commercial products. At first, every Labs item was sold for a symbolic price while all the proceeds went to charity. Nowadays, everything from Spitfire Labs is completely free to both download and use. The small gems from the series often have traits that one usually associates with Spitfire Audio, and many of them originally came from the private collections of the company’s founders.
One of them, Christian Henson, decided to take this to another level by starting Pianobook: a community where musicians and composers from around the world can share virtual instruments they’ve created themselves for free. At first, the project was primarily centered around the pianos. The main idea is that every piano out there is different and unique, both in terms of its sound and character as well as its background. Thanks to Pianobook, a veritable archive of virtual pianos of every kind, brand, and history was created, not only as a memento of sorts but also as a fine source for composers and producers.
Over time, the offer at Pianobook increased and expanded significantly. Apart from the pianos, of course, you can now find all kinds of sounds in the form of virtual instruments. Once again, this project is living proof that free instruments coming from musicians and composers themselves are always superior to the ones being given away by companies as an incentive to the potential buyers. Not only that you can really feel the labor of love; they are often meticulously crafted too.
One of the best things about Pianobook is the ability to tell the story behind every submitted instrument. Each entry includes a more or less detailed description, a kind of like the notes on a CD or LP cover. This detail can often be as equally important and personal as the submitted virtual instrument itself.
The Pianobook website has recently gone through a few rather important changes. First of all, the checkout system, similar to the ones on the commercial online stores, has been introduced. Although everything available on the site is still completely free, this makes the process of getting the download links much more elegant. The default file-hosting service is still WeTransfer, though.
Another change is the ability to rate the submitted instruments by using the star system. Also, it is now possible to write an actual review for every submission. This can be somewhat helpful to those interested in a certain instrument while making a decision on whether to download it or not.
As a composer, I visit Pianobook more and more often in a search of new sound colors for my work. In a way, I’m also a contributor as several of my more recent compositions featuring virtual instruments from Pianobook were added to its demo section, as a showcase of sounds being used in practice.
I have to say that the idea of developing virtual instruments of my own doesn’t appeal to me as much for now, although using the instruments from Pianobook surely brings out the creative possibilities of such a venture. Of course, there is an omnipresent question of what to actually sample that hasn't been sampled many times before and in much better circumstances and conditions. Looking at my now substantial collection of both the commercial and free sound libraries, I simply didn’t feel the actual need for it thus far. But in the future, who knows? Maybe I will be able to give something back to Pianobook in this way also.