Hollywood Hammers: The Soundtrack Piano – Step-by-Step Guide (Continued)

We’re continuing our look into creating some score-worthy piano sounds using Logic’s effects and this time we’re going to get a little more aggressive. Make sure to check out part 1…

7. So far, so restrained – but we’re also encouraging a creative use of effects and that can mean being a little more heavy-handed. Dial up 1/4 Note Triplet to see what we mean

8. It sounds a little too domineering at first – but still quite attractive as a piano sound – but you can easily rein it in by adjusting the groove values, as shown

9. By this time, you could be finding the effects are running away with you a little, so make sure you pull them back a little or add an Exciter effect, as shown. This adds some punch to the original sound

10. Feel free to experiment with the Frequency position of the Exciter in the effects chain – but we found it best to be at the start and with a Frequency value of 100Hz.

11. Finally, with the piano, we’ve pushed things a bit too far as we are using effects creatively – so we can! Add another reverb, this time the EnVerb – remember, this is just an option.

12. It adds a shimmer to the sound that gives it a completely new character and is way away from what you started with. We found the Aggressive Tail preset added a certain emotive presence.