To celebrate Piano Day 2024, Fracture Sounds have put out the latest Blueprint instrument, presenting the sixth installment in the ongoing series.
Blueprint Toy Piano is a free Native Instruments Kontakt sample library that is also compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
A dual-octave toy piano instrument, Blueprint Toy Piano provides a very dry and bright sounding Kontakt patch that was captured by a single (Close) microphone for a warm, intimate vibe.
Among the main parameters offered, it has Damping (which functions as a Release envelope) and Key Clicks – a mixable layer of mechanical noise for enhanced realism (producing Note-Off triggers). These are paired with Broken Tuning – a pitch shifting module that alters the notes slightly to give everything more of an authentic toy piano feel, and also Reverb which is tweakable with two available spatial options: Room and Hall.
Now, when it comes to the more technical aspects and the playability of this toy piano instrument, aside from a Sample Start feature (labeled Tightness) and Velocity Response, one can also choose to stretch and extend the basic tonal range beyond its natural capability by toggling a dedicated button – which is a nice addition by itself.
Like with other Blueprint instruments, Fracture Sounds also made the effort to incorporate an accompanying Atmosphere layer, that in this case is rather mild sounding. It is “okay” for what it is and it’s not “bad” of course, but with all honesty, I find this ambient type of layer quite unnecessary in this particular context, as it doesn’t really seem like this specific instrument actually needs it or that it can benefit from it musically.
More generally speaking, I like that the sound of this percussive toy piano is just so raw and lively. Although quite bright, it is very intimate sounding and I am very fond of these overly metallic chime-like timbres that it is able to produce. The Blueprint Toy Piano seems like a really nice take on a sampled “Kinder Klavier” and is definitely among the more impressive instruments in the free Blueprint lineup.
Download is available through the Fracture Sounds website. The library itself is compatible with the latest version of Native Instruments Kontakt as well as the free edition, Kontakt Player. Supported formats are Windows and Mac (64-bit) in stand-alone mode, as well as in VST3, AU, AAX and NKS.
