So, what do I do with all these samples of different mallets on piano strings, and other areas of the instrument? How about putting them all into a drum machine? Better yet, a virtual drum machine, like Ableton’s Impulse. In this example I have selected some percussive sounds as well as some tonal samples and tuned everything to work together, then created a simple beat with the samples. Key parameters in setting up Impulse included, pitch, decay, filter, frequency, resonance and mode.

Piano Mallet Beat