Tips for making MIDI piano sound real: UOAK shares advice for producers

We humans have been listening to the piano for hundreds of years, and we’re quite attuned to its sound and tonality, especially when played by musicians.

Modern music production allows us to replicate nearly any keyboard sound through samplers like Kontakt. However, there’s often an “uncanny valley” if producers don’t take the necessary steps to humanize their VST and sample-based pianos.

Nobody knows this better than UOAK, the label boss of one of the leading melodic house labels, Sekora.

He relies heavily on pianos that have shaped both his sound and that of his label. In this interview, we dive deep into MIDI versus sound design, essential tips for making VST-based pianos sound authentic, his favorite preset libraries like Alicia’s Keys and the Kontakt library Noire and everything else you need to know about realistic-sounding pianos in your own productions.

We also explore how to tweak parameters, layering, and much more. UOAK is truly an expert, and we’re excited to have him share his insights.

Jump to these sections:

• MIDI vs. sound design for VST pianos
• UOAK’s favorite libraries
• Tweaking MIDI for realistic results
• Layering pianos
• Blending pianos with synths
• Essential advice every producer needs to know

Learn more about Kontakt and dive into this comprehensive interview with UOAK about transforming VST and sampler-based pianos into human-sounding instruments.

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How do you add personality and human touch to a virtual piano? Is it all about the MIDI performance, or does the sound design play a big role too?

Performance in general is key. Sound design can help shape a sound to what you like, but it won’t do as much for the liveliness and human feel as performance and MIDI does. This is why I always try to play my keys on a piano or keyboard.

I have a Roland FP-10 digital piano in my studio, similar to a Kontrol S88, with weighted keys that mimic a real piano’s feel. This helps me to capture chords in a way a real piano would. I’ve owned keyboards for years and still do, but they don’t play the same way as digital piano with weighted keys does.

Is it essential? No, but it sure does help me capture the vibe and gets me inspired to play every morning.

Even if you’re not an expert pianist, simply trying to play the chords in your song will automatically give it a human feeling because timing and velocity will be off. You can then quantize your notes, and to keep some of those imperfections put quantization to 80-90%.

If you really want to make a difference in how your piano sounds, dive into the timing and velocity of the notes. Offset the timing of the notes slightly, and this should already be slightly off if you’ve recorded yourself playing it. You can tweak the timings till it sounds like you want it too.

Pro tip from UOAK: Learn to play piano, even if it’s just basic chords and melodies. It’s a great way to develop your musical skills and you never know if you write your next hit just jamming away on the piano.

Are there any specific Kontakt piano libraries that you think nail that natural, human vibe right out of the gate for your sound?

Noire by Native Instruments has grown to be one of my favorites.

When I need a great natural sounding piano that deserves to be a centrepiece I tend to use Noire or Alicia’s Keys.

In “Can You See” I used both, with Alicia’s Keys being the main piano sound and Noire being the wider more atmospheric background layer. The project started with Noire, but I wanted a brighter sound for this one and switched it to Alicia’s Keys later in the production stage.

The great thing about using Kontakt is the variety of pianos it offers, but if I had to settle for only one, it would be Noire. Good thing I have the Komplete bundle, as it includes the full range of pianos.

Fun fact: Noire is sampled from Berlin based pianist and live performer Nils Frahm’s actual piano. He blends electronic music with piano, so this inherently made it the perfect piano for me, since I do the same.

In the “Can You See” track I also use a fairly new addition to the Kontakt line-up called Piano Colors. It’s an experimental take on piano, where they’ve created sometimes weird or obscure sound palettes from manipulating the piano and processing its sound. I’ve used it as a filler in the background to spice up the rhythm of the track.

Pro tip from UOAK: Get a digital standalone piano with weighted keys that doesn’t require a tablet or computer. Playing within a second, without the distraction of a required electronic device lowers the bar on actually playing. I have a digital piano in my living room next to the window, and one in my studio.

How do you tweak MIDI velocities to mimic the dynamics of a live pianist?

If you prefer not to play and record your pianos, and instead draw them in, don’t sweat, I got you. As producers, we tend to be lazy, so if you want the lazy solution and have Ableton, search for the “Humaniser” Max 4 Live MIDI Effects plugin.

It randomizes the delay of the MIDI notes played. I find that the sweet spot lies between 10-12ms.

In most of my projects (“Can You See” is the exception where notes are quantized to the grid) I go into the piano roll and individually tweak the timing of the MIDI notes, by slightly offsetting them and adjusting the velocity. The “Piano” preset for Ableton’s “Velocity” MIDI effect also does wonders mimicking piano play in how keys’ are hit.

Together with Noire’s built-in humanization, it’s like you’re playing the piano live.

This track was made in Ableton 11, but since Live 12 has been released, they’ve added a lot of MIDI and velocity humanization tools into the piano roll. So if you really don’t like to tweak your MIDI and velocity manually, this is a quick way to get the job done.

Pro tip from UOAK: Use MIDI packs as inspiration for instantly creating beautiful progressions, just drag and drop them onto a virtual piano, and if they’re well-made packs, they should be good to go.

Do you ever layer multiple piano libraries in Kontakt to create a fuller or more complex tone? How do you keep it from sounding over-processed?

A lot of times I use only one or two layers for piano. With a solid plugin like Noire you tend to get away with just one layer, but it really depends on the sound and effect you’re trying to achieve. Adding some good EQ and a solid (tape) saturator will do wonders.

In the case of “Can You See” I’ve layered Alicia’s Keys for the main sound, and Noire below it at low volume and low cut up to 400 Hz.

Noire is barely noticeable, especially in the mix, but it tends to fill the room and spectrum to give Alicia’s Keys more body. Both are sent to a group where I’ve added compression, saturation and EQ to blend them nicely.

Less is more in most cases, so only add a layer if it needs it. Trust your ears and gut feeling on this one because too many layers can make a piano sound muddy and you’ll achieve the opposite effect of a “natural” sound.

Pro tip from UOAK: Invite your pianist friend(s) to write music together. A trained pianist can easily come up with chord progressions you haven’t even thought of, and it’s a lot of fun writing music together.

How do you blend Kontakt’s piano libraries with other elements in your tracks to maintain that organic, live feel that you and your successful label, Sekora, are so well known for?

I prefer not to layer pianos too much to stay true to their pure sound. Thickening the sound can be done through saturation and reverb.

If I want to go for a more organic house blend like with “Can You See” I tend to achieve this through the drums by using live percussion (loops) and handshaker that are a bit loose and not quantized. I think the Soul Engineers did a great job with that too in their remix of this track.

Besides that there are many libraries with interesting and more rare sounds in for example the Kontakt World Series like India or West Africa. We don’t often hear live recorded instruments in western, let alone electronic or dance music. This can give your track a more organic “Sekora” blend, and can be found in almost all my tracks.

Finally, what advice would you give to a producer trying to humanize their Kontakt piano tracks for the first time?

Don’t be lazy.

Take some time to work on your MIDI, as it can create a huge impact in how your piano sounds and make the difference between sounding cheap and amateurish to sounding excellent and professional.

In order to achieve the best results, I’ve already shared some tips, the rest is simply digging deeper into the available tools to mimic a real piano player. And with those tools, you can, like me, reach a great result reasonably fast, but it requires some dedication.

Pro tip from UOAK: Get a sustain pedal for your keyboard or piano. You’re missing out without one.

Wrapping it all up

Once again, a huge thank you to UOAK, label boss at one of the top melodic and progressive house labels in the dance music world, Sekora. He shared invaluable insights on making piano sounds as if they were played in an expensive studio by lifelong pianists.

The key takeaway here is that in music production, it’s not about one major tweak but a series of small adjustments and micro-tunings that make a significant difference.

Many new producers might not even know what to look for, but thankfully, top producers like UOAK pull back the curtain to show where to focus and how to make these small touches that define your sound as a producer.

While top libraries like Alicia’s Keys and Noire can provide a solid foundation, the real difference comes down to how you use them, tweak them, and integrate them into your music.

There’s a lot to learn from studying artists like UOAK. Check out the link below to learn more about Kontakt and achieve a similar sound in your own productions.

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