Felt piano

In Billie Eilish's lovely, muted upright piano hammers yield a dark timbre that carves out acoustic room for whispery vocal tracks. Lewis Capaldi's Someone You Loved uses felt damping tracked through stereo AKG C414 microphones to turn chord patterns into muted, percussive cushions.

Damp an acoustic piano's hammers with a layer of cloth to soften transients and capture a warm, intimate tone. Use this technique for delicate cinematic scoring, ambient music, or mellow ballad arrangements.

1. Open the top lid or remove the front panel of an upright piano to expose the hammers and strings.
2. Suspend a thin strip of soft wool felt across the strings directly between the hammers and the wire courses.
3. Position a stereo pair of microphones close to the hammers to emphasize the soft, mechanical felt textures.
4. Perform with a light, controlled touch to prevent striking through the felt cushioning.

A general method with Logic Pro's own plug-ins. Control names are checked against Apple's manual; the values are starting points, so adjust them by ear.

• Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi Felted Upright Damping: Damping acoustic piano hammers with felt through stereo AKG C414 condensers yields a muted, percussive attack devoid of harsh transients. Sheet score 8/10 · Source given: soundonsound.com · Open the full track sheet
• lovely by Billie Eilish Damped Felt Resonance: Muting upright piano hammers with soft cloth before tracking creates an attenuated, dark timbre that clears space for breathy vocals Sheet score 8/10 · Source given: Studio acoustic tracking logs · Open the full track sheet