The Giant

Sampled in amazing detail, THE GIANT is a unique instrument with an extremely strong low end, crystalline highs, rich overtones, plenty of punch, and a colossal sonic spectrum – from the devastating to the sublime.

This powerful sound is easily enhanced and modified to fit your productions. 40 meticulously-tweaked presets provide production-ready starting points, and detailed control features let you precisely shape the sound in every dimension, making the instrument supremely versatile, whatever the project.

The original instrument is the Klavins Piano Model 370i. The 'i' stands for integrated - this huge upright piano is built into the wall of a room, effectively securing the soundboard. Over three meters high and weighing over two tons, the Klavins Piano Model 370i provides a soundboard that's roughly twice the size of a typical 9' concert grand piano soundboard.

"I love how you can use the same piano and tune it to sound like anything from a rock piano to a 70s grand piano without losing its rawness."

Harmony (Rihanna, Chris Brown)

"I LOVE it! Gonna use it on EVERYTHING."

Marius de Vries (Bowie, U2, Björk, Rufus Wainwright)

"It's great for layers, and the cinematic sounds work great for organic textures and huge choruses!"

Numarek (Grandmaster Flash, Shaggy, Sido)

"The amount of variant, tone and flexibility you can achieve from THE GIANT is staggering."

Pete 'Boxsta' Martin (Paper Crows, E.J, Sugababes)

All artist quotes

THE GIANT exists as two NKIs, each with its own sample set, graphical user interface, and detail controls. The ‘day’ interface provides three basic control sections.

‘Tone’ provides a simple dial marked ‘Color’ and an XXL button, which adds even more sustain, space and character.

‘Anatomy’ handles the physical elements of the instrument, including dynamics, tuning, noises, overtones or stereo image. ‘Space’ controls the GIANT’s on-board convolution reverb.

Expanding the Tone section provides additional control options. An equalizer provides controls for Bass, Body and Air. The XXL Amount controls the range of the XXL button. This effect is powered by TRANSIENT MASTER, and enhances attack and sustain at the same time.

Modify the volume of the keys below middle C using the Low Keys control, for more or less boom. Finally, the Compressor lets you select different compression types, each with individual ratio, attack and release settings. This shapes the entire sound of the instrument to fit the specific musical context of your composition.

The detail here indicates how carefully the original instrument was sampled and recreated in THE GIANT, with an astounding amount of control options. Dial-in additional sympathetic overtones, shape the stereo imaging or the panning settings, adjust the response to your playing style or add pedal characteristics – mould THE GIANT as you please.

A particular highlight is the Noises section, for complex and highly enjoyable detail tweaking. And the Release Samples control defines what happens when you release a key, adding separate samples for the unique decay sound of the extremely long strings when damped.

THE GIANT’s darker, cinematic alter ego has an appropriately enigmatic user interface. The Cinematic Effects NKI provides an additional edge to the sound with two new control sections: Sources and Convolution.

These specialized controls deliver sounds that go far beyond an ordinary piano, with dedicated control windows for extreme sound design.

‘Sources’ refers to additional sounds, sampled from the original instrument. Clicking on a Source’s name opens the edit window for each single source, enabling control of level, envelope and filter.

For truly evocative results, try experimenting with the Noises FX source – special effects like piano hits, kicks, sweeps or scratches, all real samples created by playing the original instrument in highly unexpected ways.

The Convolution edit window offers several flexible effects for sound manipulation. Choose from over 100 impulse responses tailored specifically for the instrument, from subtle EQing and rich resonances to extreme effects such as reverse sounds and beat-synced reverbs.

The 4-band Equalizer provides two mid bands, with dedicated gain controls. The Filter provides helpful mix-shaping and the Limiter controls the interaction of the source sound and the convolution impulse response.

Last but not least, the IR controls modify the level of the impulse responses, with a Sync feature to link the timing of the IRs to the tempo in your host.