Piano
Lekko
Lekko [le•ko] is a beautifully recorded upright piano played as softly as possible and captured with a collection of boutique tube and ribbon mics through hand-made valve preamps for that warm, almost fragile sound.
+ VAT depending on region. Discounts?
This is not your standard, polished piano.
Sampled humanly
from a small Scandinavian upright (missing the bottom octave) that has a very warm and intimate tone. If you loved Nils Frahm’s ‘Felt’, you’ll love Lekko, too.
Besides the soft sustains, you’ll also get characterful shorts (going from a hand-muted sound to full ringing) and irregular, unsynced tremolos allowing you to create organic swirl of notes based on the chords you play.
Both sustains and shorts have 5 repetition samples per every sampled note so every time you hit a key, the sound changes subtly. This adds a lot to the realism of the instrument, not only when playing repeating patterns.
Besides the soft sustains, you’ll also get characterful shorts (going from a hand-muted sound to full ringing) and irregular, unsynced tremolos allowing you to create organic swirl of notes based on the chords you play.
Both sustains and shorts have 5 repetition samples per every sampled note so every time you hit a key, the sound changes subtly. This adds a lot to the realism of the instrument, not only when playing repeating patterns.
The acoustic piano is only half of the story, though. What you’ll also find is a collection of sound design Afterglow patches, created by processing the piano using vintage hardware and tape
Inspired by modern sound design of soundtracks like Hildur Guðnadóttir‘s ‘Chernobyl’ and Geoff Barrow’s and Ben Salisbury’s work on ‘Annihilation’, it’s a collection of bespoke patches that evoke that dusty, analogue vibe, ranging from fragile and soft to dirty remains of the original signal. Think of them as an ultimate inspiration pallette that you can shape and perform using the interface or your favourite MIDI controller.
Inspired by modern sound design of soundtracks like Hildur Guðnadóttir‘s ‘Chernobyl’ and Geoff Barrow’s and Ben Salisbury’s work on ‘Annihilation’, it’s a collection of bespoke patches that evoke that dusty, analogue vibe, ranging from fragile and soft to dirty remains of the original signal. Think of them as an ultimate inspiration pallette that you can shape and perform using the interface or your favourite MIDI controller.
‘My go-to piano. It sounds exactly as my own upright piano I use in my studio, but I never succeeded in recording it as nice.’
- Trentemøller
‘A wonderfully intuitive and creative instrument that lets you choose between intimacy and vast spaces!’
- Ben Lukas Boysen
Acoustic
A super soft piano performed using various techniques.
Afterglow
Ambient sound explorations crated with tape and vintage outboard.
What makes it different?
While there are a lot of intimate upright pianos on the market, they often feel quite sterile.
Lekko takes a different approach. It’s sampled by embracing little imperfections that makes the performance sound human. The notes are not perfectly consistent and noiseless. The best way to describe the sound is: me, playing the piano with your ear as close to the strings as possible without getting hit by the hammers.
The fact that it was recorded with a beautiful signal chain full of warmth and character doesn’t hurt either.
And yes, there is noise, because - contrary to what we’re made to believe - it’s there where you record stuff. If you were wondering why most sampled instruments sound like liquid plastic, this is it - noise reduction sucks the tone and life away. If you hate noise, I’m sure there are other instruments that will fit your needs better.
Want to know more?Lekko takes a different approach. It’s sampled by embracing little imperfections that makes the performance sound human. The notes are not perfectly consistent and noiseless. The best way to describe the sound is: me, playing the piano with your ear as close to the strings as possible without getting hit by the hammers.
The fact that it was recorded with a beautiful signal chain full of warmth and character doesn’t hurt either.
And yes, there is noise, because - contrary to what we’re made to believe - it’s there where you record stuff. If you were wondering why most sampled instruments sound like liquid plastic, this is it - noise reduction sucks the tone and life away. If you hate noise, I’m sure there are other instruments that will fit your needs better.
Download the handbook
Expression ready
The instrument comes pre-mapped for any knobs and sliders so you can get hands-on from the get go. The mapping is kept consistent with the other Felt Instruments’ plugins.
It works great with standard MIDI keyboards, Expressive E Touché and all controllers that have a mod wheel.
If you own a MPE device, such as the ROLI Seaboard, you can perform the Afterglow patches using a multi-dimensional polyphonic control, shaping the textures on per-note basis.
‘ Lekko can enchant you with the sound of a couple of chords with its warm feeling and its authentic intimacy. A perfect choice if you need something truly magical and different.’
- Sound Bytes review
Plugin
VST / AU / AAX plugin for Windows and macOS (10.11 or newer). Lifetime free updates. Watermarked to you. Downloads with Pulse.
7,12GB installed, twice as much required for setup. 8GB of RAM and an i5 or better CPU required. MPE requires a compatible host.
The plugin supports every major DAW like Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, FL Studio, Studio One, Reaper etc. Mac and Pro Tools versions 64-bit only.
Acoustic
Sustains
5xRR, 1 dynamic layer
Muted shorts
5xRR, 3 dynamic layers
Irregular tremolos
2 intensities, controlled by velocity
Afterglow
Half-Speed Sustains
Quarter-Speed Sustains
Sunrise
Yellow Dreams
Tears In The Rain
Fade In