Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars
If atmospheric, textural, ‘music meets sound design’ piano sounds are of interest, Emergence Audio’s Infinite Upright is absolutely the right sample library for you. The source material, recorded on a vintage 1980s Baldwin Upright piano, was processed, according to the literature, “through a combination of Eurorack modular systems, advanced digital processing, our Non‑Static Sampling process, and powered by our Infinite Motion Engine 2.0.”
Emergence Audio aren’t exaggerating when they put ‘infinite’ in the title. With all the tools on offer for shaping the sound, the possibilities for composing with the Kontakt instrument truly are endless. The library features over 200 presets; 50 impulse responses (from real‑world rooms to legendary Lexicon reverbs); over 100 customisable parameters including ADSR envelopes, LFO modulation, low‑/high‑pass filters, pitch adjustment and polarity flip; and effects like delay, tape saturation, chorus, phaser and rotator, which simulates the sound of a rotating speaker cabinet.
Where To Start?
For a pure piano‑based sound, load an Infinite Keys preset. To explore moody, evolving performances, try the Drones or Pads. If you’re feeling experimental, choose from the Experimental selection or load a Multi which, as the name suggests, is a combination of multiple patches. Finally, if you’re feeling lucky (that is, too tired to audition presets), use the Randomizer function to create a random combination of layers to work with. While the library does take up a fair amount of space (9.7GB installed), it is remarkably light on CPU load. Multiple instances load without trouble and play back smoothly — it just feels like a well‑built instrument.
The interesting thing about using Infinite Upright is that even though you play the instrument as a solo musician, it feels oddly like a collaboration at times. As the layers evolve, the sounds they generate provide feedback (of the creative kind, not the ear‑piercing kind), which helps shape the composition. Just holding down a chord and listening to the modulations generates ideas for melodies, and the multi‑layered textures often conjure up moods that then inspire chord selection. Especially if you’re the kind of composer that leads with feel and instinct, Infinite Upright is a delight to play.
Infinite Upright stands out because it brings a generous set of tools to the table with its evocative textures and evolving samples.
Summary
Virtual piano instruments are in no short supply, so Infinite Upright stands out because it brings a generous set of tools to the table with its evocative textures and evolving samples. The core piano sounds are pristinely captured, with a warm tone and wonderful musicality. Combine that with the power of synthesis and you’re equipped with the raw material to build a richly layered piece of music. A bonus — which is not exclusive to Infinite Upright, but beautifully highlighted by it — is that when you pay attention to the many ways in which you can shape tone, you realise exactly how many elements go into making every single sound what it is.
$149
$149