kontakt music production Leauger May 5, 2025 0 Comments

Westwood Instruments – Alt Grand (KONTAKT)

A grand piano beyond tradition. The Alt Grand is a unique relic from the 1930s, steeped in the music and memories of nearly a century of performances.

Manual (online)

A grand piano recorded with and without damper tape, allowing you to blend the two to create a completely individual sound. With dozens of parameters at your fingertips that radically alter the sound and atmosphere, the Alt Grand offers incredible flexibility. This detailed and responsive grand piano was recorded through multiple microphones to reveal its full unique personality.
The original recordings have been transformed into over 20 transformative textural layers that can create subtle background ambience or be used on their own as organic, atmospheric sounds.

An incredible addition to your arsenal, this library conveys the instrument’s multifaceted character and opens up endless sound-shaping possibilities. A must-have for anyone looking for an exceptionally versatile and flexible grand piano, from large-scale soundtracks to songs and contemporary music.

Natural or damped (or somewhere in between)

Like the beloved Alt Piano, we recorded the Alt Grand in two versions: with and without damper tape. This gives you two very different and versatile sound characters. The damper setup process is painstaking. We spent a lot of time to perfectly match the density and placement of the material for each octave (and in some cases, for individual notes).
The natural sound of the piano without dampers is bright and open, while the version with dampers sounds much softer and warmer.
But the best part is that you don’t have to choose. A special control allows you to smoothly blend both options to get exactly the sound you need.

Transformative Textures

As with most of our libraries, we love to create new sounds from original instruments, pushing the boundaries and creating unique timbres. Alt Grand features 23 brand new textures created from original recordings using tape, guitar pedals and other unusual methods. They can be used in the background with the piano to create an atmospheric underlayer, or brought to the forefront as an organic, synth-like sound.
Each texture has its own unique secondary layer, accessible via the Texture slider. Its behavior is different for each texture and allows you to change and transform the character of the sound.

How the samples were created

We searched for years for the right piano and finally found this beautiful 1930s Chappell. It was delivered to Nave Studios, where we spent several days painstakingly recording every nuance. The library contains multiple velocity layers, 3-loop repeats, pedal pressed and released samples, and a full set of damper recordings. It was a titanic effort, but it was worth it.
The recordings were made in Studio 1, a room with warm and natural acoustics. We used vintage Neumann and AKG microphones, Neve 1073 preamps and an AMEK Rembrandt mixing console.
You can choose from three ready-made mixes or create your own using five separate microphone positions. This is a unique sound that conveys all the nuances of this grand piano.