I would have done this last week when I got the sample set, but between Automaton, house guests, and, you know, leisure activities, I didn't get it done in a timely fashion. My bad but hey, that's why you don't have to pay a subscription fee for this site.

Anyhow, what we have here is the (Bowed) Piano by Soniccouture. It is a fairly crafty set, and (like most Soniccouture sample sets) unique. You don't have to worry about accidentally doubling up on a particular sound with these guys. It is, as the name suggests, a 9' Baldwin grand, with individual strings bowed by a rosin-coated fishing line contraption (essentially a garrote, if you're a ninja/pirate). In typical Soniccouture fashion, the set is complete overkill, with round-robin samples of three different flavors: hard legato, soft legato, and staccato. Apparently the staccato sound is done with a horsehair/tongue depressor gee-gaw.

Of course, you can, and should, read all that stuff on the Soniccouture site to get the low-down on what is what. What you really want to know is whether it's good or not. Since I don't have all those other bowed piano sample sets to compare it to, it has to stand on its own merits.

For the two legato sets (switched via the mod wheel), pads are the comfort zone. It is an odd sound, but nice and pleasing, and organic as hell. The soft legato sits in a mix in the same way that violas or a cello played on a high register would, albeit with a far greater range. The hard legato is fairly bright and active, and frankly you'll have to essentially invent new music to use it with, as it is simply too lively for normal pad usage. I really like how the bottom two octaves are essentially only second and third harmonics on the hard legato. The sound of this is hard to describe but extremely cool.

The staccato mode (accessed via whacking B6, versus C7 for legato) sounds like nothing so much as an oboe with a lot of lip, for want of any other descriptor. That isn't to say that it actually sounds like an oboe at all, lip or no. It just reminds me of that more than any other sound.

The nice thing about this set (and the Hang Drum set, for that matter) is that these aren't instruments that you think of needing, as in "boy, you know what would really set this off? A bowed piano!" These sounds, and many of the other Soniccouture sets, work in the opposite direction. You get the set, install it, start fooling around, and ideas come. I think that's worth its weight in gold, and as inspirational material this sample set would be a bargain at five times the price. (Which is, by the way, fifty quid.) Audio samples and all the info at the Soniccouture site.