# ** PEARL CONCERT GRAND - Newly denoised sample set (2.4)



## Andrew Aversa (Apr 8, 2015)

*Pearl Concert Grand v2.1 - Now Available!

PEARL Concert Grand *is our flagship piano virtual instrument. Since 2015, the silky sound of a Yamaha C7 recorded in a hall with 4 mic positions has been enjoyed by thousands of composers.

With version 2.1, we have completely revamped the sample set, going back to the masters and applying the latest noise reduction techniques to further lower the noise floor. Capturing quiet/pedal notes in a large concert hall means a challenging signal-to-noise ratio, but this update improves it substantially!

In case you missed update 2.0 before that - we completely re-scripted the engine from the ground up, and you can enjoy the following features:

Refined new UI based on the color and style of the original
Per-key ADSR, Vel -> Volume, Vel -> Brightness, Velocity Curve, and Microtuning controls
Support for continuous pedal values
Much more accurate repedaling behavior
Reduced noise buildup
NKS support
To get the 2.1 update, you'll want to re-download the library via *Pulse*, the new download/library manager we're using for all instruments.


*UPDATE OVERVIEW*



*ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT*

We're very pleased to announce the release of PEARL Concert Grand for KONTAKT and KONTKAT PLAYER!

*TRAILER*


*WALKTHROUGH*


This lovely instrument features a beautifully-recorded Yamaha C7 with four microphone perspectives, each offering a unique and lush sound. The library is designed to be a joy to play, use, and edit - it's mixed to perfection and suitable for most any style of composition, from warm and emotional film scores to jazz, classical & romantic music and more.

*Why make another piano library?* Simply put - we fell in love with this piano & hall, and wanted to make a timeless, eminently playable instrument. Like many composers I have a ton of piano libraries, but now, I only reach for Pearl. It has the ideal 'touch' and creamy tone that inspires me every time I press a key. I could not be happier with how it came out!

*Features*
* 14,000+ samples in both 16 and 24 bit fidelity
* 8 dynamic layers
* 2 round robins
* Pedal on & off samples
* Chromatically sampled w/ key and pedal release noises
* Four mic positions: close, pedal, stage, hall
* Elegant yet powerful script:
* Per-channel routing, EQ, compression, width and volume
* Global analog modeled FX including 30+ custom impulse responses
* Custom velocity curve and (micro)tuning, plus master presets included

*Demos*


*Pricing & Availability*
Pearl is available NOW for Kontakt & Kontakt Player (5.3+) at the no-brainer intro price of *$119*. Visit the link below for more information, tech requirements, video and more:

http://impactsoundworks.com/pearl-concert-grand/

*The Reviews Are In...*

Computer Music / Music Radar: "Pearl Concert Grand sounds lovely and plays well, holding its own against competing pianos costing considerably more. Well played, Impact Soundworks." (*4.5/5*)

*Original Sound Version*: "Even taking my high standards for realistic piano samples into account, I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed by the Pearl Concert Grand. (...) Considering how accurate and realistic Pearl Concert Grand sounds, I think it is easily the next best thing to a studio recording. (...) Pick up a copy of Pearl Concert Grand and you’ll likely never need to buy another piano sample library."

*The Audio Spotlight*: "The first preset that is loaded up by default sounds very generally usable, meaning it doesn’t sound too thick, not too thin, not too muddy, not too bright, not too intimate, not too formal. *Just very playable and instantly usable in many different contexts*. (...) For me this piano library is a very welcomed addition because it makes my job easier when I don’t have to fool around with the EQ constantly anymore." (*4.4/5*)

*Film and Game Composers*: "The main marketing phrase is *“Pearl is true joy to play”*, but trust me, it is not just marketing phrase, they are right! I was enjoying the simple act of playing it so much I almost forgot to test all of its features." (*4.5/5*)


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## Maestro77 (Apr 9, 2015)

*Re: ** PEARL CONCERT GRAND now available from Impact Soundworks. 4 gorgeous mics / 40gb / Kontakt Player / $99*

"Creamy" - I love that! Really nice work, sounds gorgeous.


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## phil_wc (Apr 9, 2015)

I played it, sounds really nice. I can use it like Thomas Newman piano style. :D


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 13, 2015)

We're so happy that people are enjoying the sound of PEARL! Here's a comment from our Facebook page:



> I've been playing this for the last couple of days and I absolutely love it. Each mic has such a great character to it, and they don't just "add ambience" but really add depth and change the focus of the sound. The stage mic alone with a little reverb is gorgeous sounding. Great work, seriously.



If you're still on the fence, I've created a 15-minute walkthrough video showing the library's versatile sound and powerful interface:



We also have several new audio demos, available in the SoundCloud player, such as "Deep Down" by Brad Jerkins, "Under a White Moon" by Wilbert Roget, II, and the teaser video demo of Chopin's Nocturne Op.27.

[flash width=500 height=200 loop=false]http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F96401296&amp;show_comments=true&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_playcount=true&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;color=b99a43[/flash]

*PEARL CONCERT GRAND is available now for the composer-friendly price of just $99, with KONTAKT Player compatibility.*

http://impactsoundworks.com/pearl-concert-grand/


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 15, 2015)

Sorry for the double-post but we've just released a v1.1 update addressing a couple bugs, and adding a brand new feature called the Dynamics Editor. This tool allows you to change the dynamic response for EVERY note on the keyboard. For example, let's say you want to hear a softer timbre in the lower register - just open the editor and lower the values for those notes.

Now, when you play at any given velocity in that range, you will hear quieter dynamic recordings (scaled UP in volume). Or perhaps you want the mid range to be brighter - just INCREASE the values within that range and you'll get brighter recordings without just turning up the volume.

It's an incredibly powerful and useful tool - and a user suggestion, at that!


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 20, 2015)

Last chance to save on PEARL via intro pricing! Tomorrow the price goes up to the list price of $119 - still an incredible deal, but every dollar counts, right? We've heard great things from PEARL users so far, so be sure to check out all the demos + video if you're still on the fence


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## GP_Hawk (Apr 24, 2015)

*Re: ** PEARL CONCERT GRAND by Impact Soundworks. 4 lovely mics / 40gb / Kontakt Player / $99. One day left on intro pric*

Still see it on sale and if you get the Stroh Violin first, you won't be disappointed  

I'm still in the honeymoon phase with Pearl so I won't add anymore comments :mrgreen:


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## tack (Apr 25, 2015)

*Re: ** PEARL CONCERT GRAND by Impact Soundworks. 4 lovely mics / 40gb / Kontakt Player / $99. One day left on intro pric*

Hi!

Does it support repedalling and half-pedalling?

I can live without the latter but software pianos without the former are unplayable for me.

Cheers!


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 25, 2015)

Can you tell me what you mean by repedalling? I Googled the term and only saw posts about... people asking for repedalling... But if it's something that can be scripted, I'm sure I can do it. Let me know what sort of functionality you want to see.


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## tack (Apr 25, 2015)

zircon_st @ Sat Apr 25 said:


> Can you tell me what you mean by repedalling? I Googled the term and only saw posts about... people asking for repedalling... But if it's something that can be scripted, I'm sure I can do it. Let me know what sort of functionality you want to see.


Repedalling is when you hit the sustain pedal after the note's attack, during its decay, and it "catches" the note to sustain the decay.

For example, with sustain off, hit a note at forte (or louder, you just want a note with a sufficiently long decay) and then rapidly press sustain before the note fully decays. A variant of that (which is where the term "repedalling" comes from) is with sustain down, strike a key, the rapidly release and repress the sustain pedal.

In a piano that doesn't support repedalling, the decay will be abrupt as if the sustain pedal was up. This behaviour is really jarring for me and my playing style. Notes abruptly cut off while playing flowing passages, which is very disconcerting. 

Hopefully I explained that ok. I can provide audio examples if it'd help.

Cheers!


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 25, 2015)

OK, so if I understand you correctly, that sounds like two separate features from a script perspective.

1. Play a note without the pedal, then pedal it. The note now sustains if you lift up the key.

2. Play a note with sustain down -> lift pedal -> depress pedal again and the original note will still resonate.

To do this in Kontakt, the issue is that we would - at all times - need to double the number of voices played, and thus double CPU usage and disk strain. Right now, behavior #1 works already, but you won't hear the sound of the piano switching to sustain-on samples. Here's why.

When the user presses a note, the script needs to decide what sample groups to trigger: sustain-on or sustain-off. If we want to fade or switch between those groups DURING a note, then we would have to play BOTH groups at all times so that we can xfade between them. With four mic positions, that means a single note would use eight voices, and playing a complex piece with lots of fast passages could easily send the voice count into the thousands. 

I could create that functionality, but I'd make it optional, because I suspect that you'd need an SSD for the sample streaming and a very fast processor to not overload Kontakt/your DAW. I'll look into it now.

For the second feature... that's a little trickier. If the user lifts the pedal, Kontakt has no way of knowing in advance whether you're going to press it again, so by default we'd always have to mute currently played notes. So in order to do this feature, I think we'd need a window of time (something like... 500 milliseconds? Maybe make this CC-adjustable) where the note can be brought back to life by pressing the sustain pedal again. 

Again I think it would have to use some extra voices as Kontakt would have to 'hold on' to played notes before stopping them. But doable.


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## tack (Apr 25, 2015)

zircon_st @ Sat Apr 25 said:


> When the user presses a note, the script needs to decide what sample groups to trigger: sustain-on or sustain-off. If we want to fade or switch between those groups DURING a note, then we would have to play BOTH groups at all times so that we can xfade between them.



I don't really know anything about Kontakt's capabilities and limitations, so it's interesting to get an inside view on these kinds of nuances. Thanks for sharing.

As a result of my ignorance, this may be an obvious question to someone who's more in the know: is it not possible to trigger a sample at a particular offset? If I have the sustain pedal up and strike a note, then release it and hit the sustain quickly to catch the decay, couldn't you at that time start playing the sustain-on sample at the appropriate offset in an a new voice to cross fade, destroying (or whatever the right terminology is) the original voice after fully faded to the new voice?

"Appropriate offset" wouldn't be the same offset of the sustain-off sample. You'd need to start the sustain-on sample at whatever position matches the amplitude of the sustain-off sample at the moment the sustain pedal was pressed. But that kind of mapping is static, once generated (and maybe can even be computed real time).

And because of that, I don't think your initial idea about how to implement this would work. If you had both sustain-on and sustain-off samples running at the same time (one muted and the other not), if you crossfaded at the point the sustain pedal was hit, the amplitude of the sustain-on sample would be much higher than the sustain-off sample (which is in the midst of decaying).

For what it's worth, Galaxy Pianos Vintage D implements repedalling. With the feature enabled, holding a single note still only shows one voice, so at least they aren't implementing it the way you were thinking. When I strike a note, I see 1 voice. When I release, it shows 2 voices (crossfading to the release sample). When I repedal after releasing (and pedal noises are off BTW), it goes to 3 voices, then shortly after to 2 voices where it says for the duration of the decay while I hold the sustain pedal. Maybe that detail gives you some insight into the implementation. 

Thanks!


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 25, 2015)

> As a result of my ignorance, this may be an obvious question to someone who's more in the know: is it not possible to trigger a sample at a particular offset? If I have the sustain pedal up and strike a note, then release it and hit the sustain quickly to catch the decay, couldn't you at that time start playing the sustain-on sample at the appropriate offset in an a new voice to cross fade, destroying (or whatever the right terminology is) the original voice after fully faded to the new voice?



This is possible with Kontakt, but there's one huge tradeoff. Kontakt cannot play at an offset beyond what you have loaded into RAM. So, if we want to make the entire sample playable from any point, the WHOLE thing must be loaded into RAM, which of course makes memory usage quite severe! Otherwise, you're right that it would be the ideal method.

True that we would need to match the amplitude of the two samples when xfading between them, however this is doable. Kontakt has per-voice control over volume, so after establishing this functionality I would just have it tested and figure out the appropriate volumes and falloff curves to use.

I'm curious as to whether Galaxy D has *recordings* of sustain-on samples. That would be very interesting information and could indeed lend some insight into how they're doing things.


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## tack (Apr 25, 2015)

zircon_st @ Sat Apr 25 said:


> I'm curious as to whether Galaxy D has *recordings* of sustain-on samples. That would be very interesting information and could indeed lend some insight into how they're doing things.


I don't know for certain but from a reading of the manual and their website, I don't think so. It sounds like what they've done is (somehow) separately sampled the string resonances with the damper up, and overlay the resonance sample with the note sample when the sustain pedal is pressed. Though even in that case they would still have the same problem of needing to trigger a sample at a particular offset.

This speculation is supported by the fact that when I press a note without sustain, I see 1 voice. When I press it with sustain, I see 2 voices. And as I hold the note and raise and lower the sustain pedal, it toggles between 1 and 2 voices. With the pedal down, each new note played adds 2 voices to the total count. Presumably each note has its own separate resonance sample, which would be necessary to do it properly since each note would interact differently with the other strings.

Also the resonance can be controlled by a volume dial, which makes sense if they are separate samples. That kind of implementation seems pretty sensible to me, but the main question for me is how they managed to sample the resonances without the note. Maybe they recorded sustain-down and sustain-up versions of the note (with the key held until it fully decayed), and then subtracted the sustain-up sample from the sustain-down one to mask it out, leaving only the surrounding resonances. Sounds plausible. 

However they did it, the sound is quite convincing to these ears. Vintage D remains my favorite overall software piano for sound, playability, dynamics, and overall realism in all these little nuances. There's even a modeled sympathetic string resonance that works nicely. It's a very subtle effect but you notice it when it's not there (or at least I do).

I do like the sound of Pearl though. It's quite different than Vintage D and it would sit much better in some mixes. IMO Generally Vintage D doesn't sit terribly well in mixes unless it's the primary instrument.

There are a lot of excellent sounding pianos that mix very nicely but they're just horrible to play. If you're mixing a larger project and you intend to do some MIDI hacking then these little features like repedalling don't matter a whole lot and you can get some pretty fantastic sound. But if you want to market your product to pianists to capture nuanced solo performances, my feeling is that things like half pedalling, repedalling, sympathetic resonance, etc. do add up to be more than the some of their parts.

Listen for example to your Fantaisie Impromptu demo. Notice at 21s, 23s and 27s that low E which is played at forte vanishes suddenly. (You can hear the effect elsewhere in that performance but it's very pronounced with those Es because they're played at f or ff.) And how about the G# at 54s punctuating that run. I bet if you look at the MIDI data you'll see the sustain pedal is pressed a fraction after the note is played. At least that's what would happen if I played it.  I don't think that's intentional (or if it is, I don't like the interpretation ) but that's just the sort of artifact that repedalling will help to avoid.

Thanks!


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## Will Blackburn (May 12, 2015)

*Re: ** PEARL CONCERT GRAND by Impact Soundworks. 4 lovely mics / 40gb / Kontakt Player / $99. One day left on intro pric*

This piano sounds gorgeous


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## Andrew Aversa (Jul 21, 2015)

I'm pleased to announce that *Pearl Concert Grand* v1.2 has been released! We listened to your feedback and implemented expanded support for various pedaling features:

1. *Soft *pedal support (CC67)
2. *Sostenuto* pedal support (CC66)
3. *Half-pedal* support on CC64.
4. "*Note catch*" support, where if you hit a note, release, and quickly depress the damper pedal (CC64) the note will be caught and sustain out.

All users will be emailed about the update, but you can also get it by *clicking here*.

We've also been thrilled with how much reviewers have been enjoying this lovely piano. 

Computer Music / Music Radar: "Pearl Concert Grand sounds lovely and plays well, holding its own against competing pianos costing considerably more. Well played, Impact Soundworks." (*4.5/5*)

*Original Sound Version*: "Even taking my high standards for realistic piano samples into account, I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed by the Pearl Concert Grand. (...) Considering how accurate and realistic Pearl Concert Grand sounds, I think it is easily the next best thing to a studio recording. (...) Pick up a copy of Pearl Concert Grand and you’ll likely never need to buy another piano sample library."

*The Audio Spotlight*: "The first preset that is loaded up by default sounds very generally usable, meaning it doesn’t sound too thick, not too thin, not too muddy, not too bright, not too intimate, not too formal. *Just very playable and instantly usable in many different contexts*. (...) For me this piano library is a very welcomed addition because it makes my job easier when I don’t have to fool around with the EQ constantly anymore." (*4.4/5*)

*Film and Game Composers*: "The main marketing phrase is *“Pearl is true joy to play”*, but trust me, it is not just marketing phrase, they are right! I was enjoying the simple act of playing it so much I almost forgot to test all of its features." (*4.5/5*)


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## scoringdreams (Jul 21, 2015)

How does this compare to Garritan CFX? 

Cheers,
Ming Yan


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## Andrew Aversa (Jul 21, 2015)

Do you own it? If so, send me a MIDI file and I'll render it through Pearl so you can compare.


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## tack (Jul 27, 2015)

zircon_st said:


> 4. "*Note catch*" support, where if you hit a note, release, and quickly depress the damper pedal (CC64) the note will be caught and sustain out.


Nice! Thanks for including this. Any chance you can re-render your Fantaisie Impromptu demo with the latest update?


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## Andrew Aversa (Jul 28, 2015)

Absolutely. I've updated the file in our Soundcloud set -


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## Andrew Aversa (Nov 3, 2015)

*Pearl Concert Grand 48 Hour FLASH SALE
*
Now through November 5th end-of-day, you can get our widely acclaimed *PEARL Concert Grand* library for only *$79*! Pearl bundles have been discounted as well. This sale celebrates the release of PEARL Update v1.3, which is now available to all current users.

*Pearl v1.3 Change Log*
1. Much-improved CPU usage and optimization in all patches
2. Fixed bugs with note catch mode and 'sticky' notes
3. New advanced tab with under-the-hood performance features
4. Better soft pedal behavior (now customizable in Advanced tab)

*Existing Pearl Users: Get the Update Here*

Don't have PEARL? *Shop here!*


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## ZeeCount (Nov 3, 2015)

Great work guys! I love this piano and it has replaced all the others that I was using.


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## Leeward (Nov 4, 2015)

I'm sold. It sounds wonderful - lovely tone - and, as you say, extremely versatile.


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## axb312 (Nov 24, 2017)

Any further updates to this product expected?


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## bill45 (Nov 24, 2017)

This piano sounds great.


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## Fleer (Nov 24, 2017)

Yeah, it's one of my favorites.


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## axb312 (Nov 25, 2017)

Bought it. They confirmed on facebook that there's an update coming up with repedalling etc...


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## Andrew Aversa (Aug 13, 2018)

*Pearl Concert Grand v2.0 - Coming Soon!

PEARL Concert Grand *is our flagship piano virtual instrument. Since 2015, the silky sound of a Yamaha C7 recorded in a hall with 4 mic positions has been enjoyed by thousands of composers, and now we are preparing the release of *v2.0*.

We completely re-scripted the engine from the ground up, and you can enjoy the following features when it launches:

Refined new UI based on the color and style of the original
Per-key ADSR, Vel -> Volume, Vel -> Brightness, Velocity Curve, and Microtuning controls
Support for continuous pedal values
Much more accurate repedaling behavior
Reduced noise buildup
NKS support
This update will be available *FREE *for all owners, and you will be able to use it alongside your existing PEARL installation!


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## Fleer (Aug 13, 2018)

Wonderful news!
And amazing respect for customers.


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## CGR (Aug 13, 2018)

Great to hear, and I agree Fleer - this is a benchmark for how to treat customers.

Pearl Concert Grand is still one of my favourite sampled pianos, regardless of brand & model. Such a sweet bell like tone. Looking forward to the update.


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## axb312 (Aug 13, 2018)

Finally... Thank you!


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## Andrew Aversa (Sep 7, 2018)

Hi all, we've just gotten final encodings from NI for release, including NKS approval. Library will arrive next week


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## Fleer (Sep 7, 2018)




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## paulmatthew (Sep 7, 2018)

Will the pricing be the same on version 2?


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## Andrew Aversa (Sep 7, 2018)

We'll have a v2.0 celebration sale for new customers. Existing ones get it for free, of course.


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## CGR (Sep 7, 2018)

Great news! I'm guessing it will be a complete new download for existing owners of Pearl?


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## EvilDragon (Sep 8, 2018)

There are no new samples, it's just new NKIs, snapshots, NKR and NICNT files. So no, you won't need to redownload the samples.


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## CGR (Sep 8, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> There are no new samples, it's just new NKIs, snapshots, NKR and NICNT files. So no, you won't need to redownload the samples.


Thanks Mario. So impressed how Impact Soundworks treat their customers.


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## CGR (Sep 10, 2018)

zircon_st said:


> We'll have a v2.0 celebration sale for new customers. Existing ones get it for free, of course.


Hi Andrew - I noticed that Pearl is listed as V 2.0 on the website. Is there an update download available yet for previous owners of Pearl?


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## bsntn99 (Sep 10, 2018)

... and when is the official launch and pricing.


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## paulmatthew (Sep 10, 2018)

bsntn99 said:


> ... and when is the official launch and pricing.


Looks like it's up now and on sale for $79


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## EvilDragon (Sep 10, 2018)

CGR said:


> Is there an update download available yet for previous owners of Pearl?



Update has been published to user accounts now.


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## Andrew Aversa (Sep 10, 2018)

Yes, the update is now released! You'll find it in your *Account* area, and we'll be emailing everyone shortly.

If you DON'T have Pearl yet, you can *pick it up for $40 off* - just $79 - for the next week.

Reuben Cornell walks you through it here:



Enjoy!


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## Vita Et Musica (Sep 10, 2018)

zircon_st said:


> Yes, the update is now released! You'll find it in your *Account* area, and we'll be emailing everyone shortly.
> 
> If you DON'T have Pearl yet, you can *pick it up for $40 off* - just $79 - for the next week.
> 
> ...



Do you have to download the whole instrument with samples again, or am I missing something?


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## Andrew Aversa (Sep 10, 2018)

Have you visited your account area? You should see an "Updates" section with a link to just the data files, along with instructions.


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## Vita Et Musica (Sep 10, 2018)

zircon_st said:


> Have you visited your account area? You should see an "Updates" section with a link to just the data files, along with instructions.


Yeah, I don't see anything about updates anywhere. There isn't an "Updates" section for me... Nothing under the "my downloads" area except the option to re-download the entire instrument. I'll try clearing out my browser cache to see if something different comes up.


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## Andrew Aversa (Sep 10, 2018)

Huh, looks like our website picked a good time to have a bit of a code error! I apologize.

You can download the update files (~70MB) here:

*Pearl Concert Grand v2.0 Update ZIP*

Instructions for how to apply are enclosed.


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## Vita Et Musica (Sep 10, 2018)

zircon_st said:


> Huh, looks like our website picked a good time to have a bit of a code error! I apologize.
> 
> You can download the update files (~70MB) here:
> 
> ...



Thanks! Still no dice in my user area. Grabbed this link. Thank you!


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## newman (Sep 10, 2018)

That is an impressive features update...


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## CGR (Sep 10, 2018)

zircon_st said:


> Huh, looks like our website picked a good time to have a bit of a code error! I apologize.
> 
> You can download the update files (~70MB) here:
> 
> ...


Thanks - looking forward to trying it soon.


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## Fleer (Sep 10, 2018)

Thanks for the link, Andrew. Indeed not yet downloadable from account.


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## puremusic (Sep 10, 2018)

zircon_st said:


> *Pearl Concert Grand v2.0 - Coming Soon!
> 
> PEARL Concert Grand *is our flagship piano virtual instrument. Since 2015, the silky sound of a Yamaha C7 recorded in a hall with 4 mic positions has been enjoyed by thousands of composers, and now we are preparing the release of *v2.0*.
> 
> ...



Very glad about all this! Especially the microtuning!


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## Fleer (Sep 10, 2018)

Quickly becoming my favorite Yamaha C7.


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## MusicIstheBest (Sep 11, 2018)

I'm sold. One question though: how does Pearl Grand process short/staccato articulations?


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## EvilDragon (Sep 11, 2018)

In short (pun intended), it doesn't. There are no individual staccato samples.


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## CGR (Sep 12, 2018)

Great update! The GUI is much more intuitive, and the piano definitely plays better (after A/B ing it with version 1.3.7). Thanks for continuing to improve what was already one of my favorite sampled pianos.


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## good (Sep 12, 2018)

Noise reduction


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## EvilDragon (Sep 12, 2018)

Actually samples weren't re-processed compared to version 1. Just some instrument tweaks in order to reduce buildups.


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## good (Sep 12, 2018)

Whatever the technology or process is for noise reduction, I would like to applaud the result for itself that reduce noise which was a disadvantage of v1.


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## synthnut1 (Sep 12, 2018)

When becoming a new customer does the pearl piano download as version 2.0 , or do you have to download the older version and add the update ?


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## EvilDragon (Sep 12, 2018)

Downloads as v2.0


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## synthnut1 (Sep 12, 2018)

I’m a new owner of pearl concert grand ...... Kontact tells me I have to go to the library’s folder and then I have to add the serial number .... I don’t have a serial number ..... where is it located ?....Thanks,Jim


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## synthnut1 (Sep 12, 2018)

Has anyone downloaded this program on Kontact 5.6.8 with success ? E.D. ....HHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLP.....


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## EvilDragon (Sep 12, 2018)

You need to add the serial number (which you got in the e-mail after purchase, but you can also see it in the user area on ISW website) via Native Access, then point to the folder where the library is unpacked.


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## synthnut1 (Sep 12, 2018)

I never got a serial number after the purchase ...... I checked every email including the one where they sent me the product and no serial number .....


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## synthnut1 (Sep 12, 2018)

E.D.
Thanks for your help impact SoundWorks sent me a serial number I’m good to go thanks so much for your help I really appreciate it ....Sincerely, Jim


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## synthnut1 (Sep 12, 2018)

Beautiful sounding piano!!! Very Sweet !!.......Jim


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## HBen (Sep 13, 2018)

I have bought pearl concert grand just now, but when I was trying to register this product with new serial number by Native Access, it told me that my serial number was registered already! What happened with your system? Can somebody from Impact Soundworks look into this issue and help me out?


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## synthnut1 (Sep 13, 2018)

ISW sent me a serial number......I entered the serial number via Native Access and my program loaded and is working fine...Get another number from them...Good Luck......Jim


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## bsntn99 (Sep 15, 2018)

I picked this up and wanted to give some thoughts approaching this from a pianist as well as a programming perspective. First the good, the pedal behavior and adjustability is among the best I have encountered in a sampled piano library. The mic perspectives here are very distinct as opposed to some libraries which have as many as 8 mics, but they are not very distinct between many of them. The interface is clean, attractive, and easy to navigate.

As far as the basic sound quality speaking mainly from the close mic perspective, there is quite a bit of muddiness, particularly in the lower registers, and is not as clean as most other libraries, though I find the upper half of the keyboard range and treble to be acceptable and actually quite nice with hints of sparkle. There is a notable change in timbre around A2. While note to note is fairly consistent, it is easy to pick up the layer transitions, not surprising since there are only 8 layers.

Many of the samples, in particular the lowest velocity range, have a lot of noise such as rumbles, hiss, etc. Check out A4, pedal down sustain, round robin 1, lowest velocity layer for an example. Sounds like something being drug across the floor during the sustain. Another example is A4, pedal up sustain, round robin 1, 2nd lowest layer which has a double strike in it. I was able to play around with the mappings a bit which made a huge improvement in the overall quality and playability of the library. I also noted occasionally a hung note although I haven't found out yet exactly how to reproduce this. Not sure if the velocity to brightness control is working properly, any change is very subtle to non-existent with this control.

Out of the box, the velocity curve is set too low and to bring out the best sound, the curve needs to be increased quite a bit and then blending in the stage and/or hall mics to add back some brightness and ambience. Also moving the release up a bit helps with the abrupt note cutoff at the default setting. You also get a bit better repedal response as well given these are tied together. Generally there is a lot of potential here, but the library needs more work. I would suggest the following to the developer as a patch update.

1. Remove the noisy samples, particularly in the lowest velocity layer, by either stretching the layer above or a better option is to use the best of the two round robin samples for both RR1 and RR2.
2. Remove the A4, pedal up sustain, RR1 sample, 2nd lowest layer.
3. Fix the occasional hung note. As mentioned not quite sure of the source.
4. Maybe some alignment on the mapping around A2 to line up the timbre better in this region.
5. Look into the Velocity->Brightness control. I wasn't finding a huge difference if any with this control.

I think the above could be accomplished with a couple of days work. Longer term, a couple of suggestions for the next major version:

1. Add sympathetic resonance which most libraries have at this point. To do this clone the pedal up sustain samples to a separate group, move in the start to where the string is just ringing. Add in scripting to activate these notes when the key is pressed and a related harmonic note is struck. Add to the interface an on/off switch and volume control.
2. Maybe look into selectively applying AET to the few noticeable layer transitions. This would probably only work for the 24 bit samples as there tends to be artifacting with 16 bit samples.

All the above are strictly my thoughts and suggestions as opinions vary greatly on piano libraries. I think overall this would be a great library for recording or playing lyrical/emotive pieces. There is a lot of potential here to take it up to the next level.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 15, 2018)

Vel->Brightness definitely works. Try playing velocities above 100 with this knob at minimum and at maximum. It's quite obvious...



bsntn99 said:


> a better option is to use the best of the two round robin samples for both RR1 and RR2.



Strongly disagreed there, RRs should be consistent. Neighbour borrowing would be preferred to duplicating a single RR, but then you can't say it's fully chromatically sampled...

That said, these samples were already denoised, and going with even heavier denoising would rob too much of the hall from the samples. But perhaps it'd be worth having a second go at them from the source material, now that RX7 is out


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## bsntn99 (Sep 15, 2018)

What I was trying to say was that between two round robins, one may be relatively clean and the other with artifacts. Just use the best sample in both the RR1 and RR2 mappings. Hope this makes sense. That way you only need an updated nki. Obviously this would take away the round robin functionality for those zones. I wouldn't necessarily go back and attempt to further denoise the samples, but would be interesting to see what RX7 brings to the party.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 16, 2018)

An idea has been thrown around ISW to do re-denoising of the whole sample pool from the original raw recordings at some point. Should be muuuuuuch easier now that RX7 supports multichannel processing (took them long enough!).


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## CGR (Sep 16, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> An idea has been thrown around ISW to do re-denoising of the whole sample pool from the original raw recordings at some point. Should be muuuuuuch easier now that RX7 supports multichannel processing (took them long enough!).


I don't know enough about denoising technology & processing, but I'd hope any possible future processing of the original samples didn't destroy the natural air & presence of the tone of Pearl Concert Grand. There are too many over processed/"airbrushed" sampled pianos out there - we don't need another one!


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## EvilDragon (Sep 16, 2018)

Pearl has already been denoised to an extent, as I mentioned earlier. Of course the core tone is what's most important, but you gotta get rid of the artifacts, and tools for removing that are becoming better and better with time. So eventually you gotta take another shot at it.


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## CGR (Sep 16, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> Pearl has already been denoised to an extent, as I mentioned earlier. Of course the core tone is what's most important, but you gotta get rid of the artifacts, and tools for removing that are becoming better and better with time. So eventually you gotta take another shot at it.


Fair point - as long as Pearl retains its character


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## CGR (Sep 16, 2018)

. . . and as long as you are involved Evil Dragon - I trust your ears.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 16, 2018)

I'm not the one doing the denoising  But it would be the same guy who denoised the current Pearl sample pool, so no worries there. He's the best in biz.


Also don't trust my ears, I can't hear anything above 15k anymore.


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## CGR (Sep 16, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> I'm not the one doing the denoising  But it would be the same guy who denoised the current Pearl sample pool, so no worries there. He's the best in biz.
> 
> 
> Also don't trust my ears, I can't hear anything above 15k anymore.


Haha! OK let me rephrase that - I trust your JUDGEMENT . . .


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## bsntn99 (Sep 16, 2018)

That would be great if they were willing to go back to the original samples to do this. I know this would be a mountain of work. If anything, I would expect there to be more air and clarity in the library using the more advanced tools we have today. When I denoise these types of samples, I use harmonically based filters that will leave fundamental and harmonics untouched. You can also only treat specific portions on the sample so critical sections are left alone. As indicated, this is an art, so having the original guy involved would be great!


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## synthnut1 (Sep 20, 2018)

Funny how the noise is being mentioned now.....With all the embellishments that are added to many piano programs to add realism,stupid me thought that the noise was one of them......that is until I turned everything off in this program that I thought was creating this sound to no avail...duhhhh !


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## Andrew Aversa (Sep 20, 2018)

We did make improvements to the noise on releases and sustained notes by tweaking envelopes, but it is extraordinarily hard to de-noise whisper-quiet samples recorded in a huge concert hall. That said now that RX7 is available we're going to go back to the source material and see if we can do even better.


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## bsntn99 (Sep 20, 2018)

ISW, thanks big time for looking into this! There are a lot of extraneous noises in the samples, especially the low velocity ones, such as trucks/cars going by, coughs, rumbles, and a few double strikes. The stage and hall mics are even more problematic because of the distance from the piano picking up more of this outside noise. I love the sound of the library, but when holding long sustained notes at lower velocities, it becomes a huge distraction. I guess this is mostly a problem with the venue where is was sampled.

Maybe if you are going back to the original samples, you can also ring out some additional clarity as well with the better tools we have now. One other thing to maybe look into; the mic outs weren't working for me to separate them to different channels using Kontakt in Cubase. My other vsts seem to work ok. Not sure if anyone else noticed this.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 20, 2018)

bsntn99 said:


> the mic outs weren't working for me to separate them to different channels



Confirmed and fixing!


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## storyteller (Sep 23, 2018)

I love Pearl...my favorite piano. Just on the bug front though...

This new version seems to have a sustain bug. If I have the main 24-bit patch loaded in Kontakt (latest version) play a little bit, then put it in the background, do some other tasks (e.g. check email and such), then come back to playing the piano, the sustain pedal doesn't work and all notes are held in a sustain. It has happened a couple of times so far.

Oh... this is on OSX (latest version). I haven't noticed this occurring in my DAW. I also cannot replicate this consistently, though it has happened multiple times.


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## Andrew Aversa (Mar 1, 2020)

Hello all! I'm pleased to announce the release of Pearl 2.1 which includes a completely revamped sample set. We went back to the original master recordings so that we could apply the latest noise reduction techniques and get rid of that hiss buildup that was prevalent when playing lots of low-velocity notes (particularly with the pedal down.) In total there should be about 12dB of additional noise reduction when compared to the previous version, and more of the tone of each note is preserved in the tails as well.

We hope you will enjoy this free update!

If you DON'T have Pearl yet, we're putting it on sale for just $79 through March 8th:









Pearl Concert Grand by Impact Soundworks (VST, AU, AAX)


Impact Soundworks' flagship grand piano instrument for KONTAKT PLAYER features a beautifully-recorded Yamaha C7 with four microphone perspectives, realistic pedal behavior, and a gorgeous, versatile tone!




impactsoundworks.com


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## CGR (Mar 1, 2020)

storyteller said:


> I love Pearl...my favorite piano. Just on the bug front though...
> 
> This new version seems to have a sustain bug. If I have the main 24-bit patch loaded in Kontakt (latest version) play a little bit, then put it in the background, do some other tasks (e.g. check email and such), then come back to playing the piano, the sustain pedal doesn't work and all notes are held in a sustain. It has happened a couple of times so far.
> 
> Oh... this is on OSX (latest version). I haven't noticed this occurring in my DAW. I also cannot replicate this consistently, though it has happened multiple times.


Had the same issue running the 24bit version in LogicProX 10.3.2 under MacOSX 10.11.6 (haven't tried the 16bit)

I adjusted the continuous pedal value roll off speed dial (I use a Yamaha CP4 Stage & Yamaha continuous sustain pedal) but it didn't seem to make any difference. All was OK with the exact same setup with Pearl v2.0


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## Andrew Aversa (Mar 1, 2020)

Strange, we will look into this.


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## storyteller (Mar 1, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> Strange, we will look into this.


If you are running in standalone and hit the exclamation point in Kontakt when you return, it will solve it. Pearl's my go-to piano, so the bug is just a minor thing to me. Haven't quite ironed out when it happens specifically, but it might have to do with OSX going to sleep.


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## ka00 (Mar 3, 2020)

Gotta say, I really like this piano. Just got it and am glad I did.


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## bsntn99 (Mar 3, 2020)

Have similar issue in Windows 10. When I press the sustain pedal, hit a note, and then release both the pedal and key, the samples sustains - plays to the end of the sample. I tried to load an old nki from the previous version copied over to the new folder and now it does the same thing. May be related to the resource container. I now deleted everything and went back to the previous version.


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## Vita Et Musica (Mar 5, 2020)

Wow, very nice. One of my favorite pianos, now with a new flavor! This remains one of the most inspiring pianos for me to play and compose. Thanks for the update, this is indeed much quieter, but glad I still have the noisy version too.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 5, 2020)

storyteller said:


> If you are running in standalone and hit the exclamation point in Kontakt when you return, it will solve it.



Of course the same is valid for the plugin flavor as well.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 5, 2020)

BTW samples themselves being new/cleaner cannot really be the reason for the sustain pedal thing, obviously.


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## FlyingAndi (May 7, 2020)

Is anybody else having problems with the 24bit hall perspective samples in version 2.1?
Some notes don't play at all and some produce a lot of hiss.
Is there a way to downgrade to a previous version?


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## Mark Schmieder (May 7, 2020)

Hmm, I think I remember encountering that bug with the sustain pedal, and owing it up to Digital Performer 10.11 glitches vs. the Kontakt library, but it was a couple of months ago now and so I don't remember whether a restart was enough, or whether Reset All Controllers (MIDI CC) did the trick, or briefly switching tracks. I'll be working with Pearl on one song over the next few days, so I'll keep this in mind.

As for the issue with the 24-bit hall perspective samples, I am not quite sure what is meant by this?


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## FlyingAndi (May 7, 2020)

Mark Schmieder said:


> As for the issue with the 24-bit hall perspective samples, I am not quite sure what is meant by this?



Load up the 24 bit instrument, activate only the hall mic perspective, start playing and tell us what you hear. 

I also have some strange effects when repedaling is turned on. But when it's off it's ok, even if I try to repedal with rp off it seems to work. Or maybe I don't understand the concept of repedaling at all 

And OMG! Simeon liked my post!! So, once ISW has fixed the issue we will hopefully get a cool Pearl review from Simeon. (Meanwhile, I would still love to get a review of the EWQL pianos)


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## CGR (May 7, 2020)

FlyingAndi said:


> Load up the 24 bit instrument, activate only the hall mic perspective, start playing and tell us what you hear.



I've only been using the Close & Pedal mics, so just loaded up the 24bit Hall mics only - same results here. Many notes don't sound, and the notes which do sound have a prominent static/white noise. Very strange. Sample audio attached.

Also, I've noted the note release samples don't sound regardless of the level set on the Note Release Noise control (but they are audible if you play the individual release samples in the Mapping Editor under the hood of Full Kontakt). I've submitted a support ticket regarding this problem.


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## Simeon (May 8, 2020)

I have been working with Pearl for a while and have been really enjoying my experience, it is very well done. I shared my findings with ISW Support and they assured me they were working on an update. Here is a short clip from a longer video I sent to ISW just to confirm that this is what other users are seeing. 




I can't imagine how everyone is keeping up so well during all of the craziness going on so I appreciate all of the great support from everyone. @FlyingAndi and yes I look forward to doing a full playthrough soon.


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## Andrew Aversa (May 20, 2020)

CGR said:


> I've only been using the Close & Pedal mics, so just loaded up the 24bit Hall mics only - same results here. Many notes don't sound, and the notes which do sound have a prominent static/white noise. Very strange. Sample audio attached.
> 
> Also, I've noted the note release samples don't sound regardless of the level set on the Note Release Noise control (but they are audible if you play the individual release samples in the Mapping Editor under the hood of Full Kontakt). I've submitted a support ticket regarding this problem.



If repedaling is ON, then release noises will not trigger. Can you confirm whether it is OFF or ON?


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## CGR (May 22, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> If repedaling is ON, then release noises will not trigger. Can you confirm whether it is OFF or ON?


Just checked Andrew and repedaling was ON. Switched it OFF and I can now hear the release samples and adjust the volume. Any idea of update timeline for the Hall mics issues?


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## Andrew Aversa (May 22, 2020)

We've completed a bunch of fixes and optimizations (no new sample download required, these issues were related to script, NKIs, and snapshots). Will be releasing it soon.


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## CGR (May 22, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> We've completed a bunch of fixes and optimizations (no new sample download required, these issues were related to script, NKIs, and snapshots). Will be releasing it soon.


Thanks Andrew, and I appreciate the continued refinement & attention to detail for this great sampled piano.


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## star.keys (May 23, 2020)

This is among the very best of sampled pianos I have got. Thanks for the update. Looking forward to the fix for issue outlined above.

I would encourage IS to so more pianos and would love to have them sample a Steinway B. I'm sure it will be a be a huge success.


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## CGR (Jul 4, 2020)

Just a follow up to the 2.2 update with the promised fixes to the above mentioned problems. Any news? I just downloaded it again via Pulse but discovered it's still v 2.1


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## pulsedownloader (Jul 4, 2020)

Hi we're releasing a new version of Pulse this month which will make it easier to download product updates (you won't have to redownload everything). I believe Impact Soundworks are waiting for this before delivering the update so the delay is on us


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## CGR (Jul 4, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> Hi we're releasing a new version of Pulse this month which will make it easier to download product updates (you won't have to redownload everything). I believe Impact Soundworks are waiting for this before delivering the update so the delay is on us


Great - thanks for the reply.


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## Hendrixon (Jul 9, 2020)

Where was I until now I?!
Any chance for a grace flash sale for idiots without a sense to check this forum periodically?


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## Andrew Aversa (Jul 9, 2020)

You're in luck as we're running a store-wide sale right now!

By the way, we identified the issue with the 24-bit NKI(s). One of the encoded NKX was corrupt. We'll have this as part of the fix rolling out on Pulse soon. In the meantime, the 16-bit patches work completely fine.


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## rojarvi (Jul 25, 2020)

Hi,

I just purchased Pearl Concert Grand and I have to say 16bit samples are messed up too when you are using Hall samples. Attached an .mp3 file where I'm using Kontakt patch "PEARL Concert Grand.nki" @16bits with snapshot "Breathing Piano" to really emphasize the problem as it only uses the Hall microphones. In settings everything else is ON but "High Dampers". The noise keeps going as long as I keep the pedal down and stops when it's released.

Doesn't sound healthy to me.


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## Andrew Aversa (Jul 26, 2020)

Can you send a MIDI of that please so we can diagnose the issue?


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## shropshirelad (Jul 26, 2020)

This is going to be a long hour! Can't wait to play Pearl!


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## VladK (Aug 10, 2020)

So, Pulse got update. When can we expect updated Pearl?


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## rojarvi (Aug 12, 2020)

I hope it's coming soon, while I still prefer waiting longer to get a polished product. 

For one reason or another, I'm still on version 2.0 - re-installed through (updated) Pulse and still have 2.0. But it's ok - I have other pianos to play while waiting for 2.2.


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## Andrew Aversa (Aug 21, 2020)

At long last, Pulse's update functionality is working, which means you can get the new Pearl 2.4 update! This fixes a range of bugs, improves performance, and repairs some missing/broken samples in the 24-bit patches.

To get the update, open Pulse and you should see the update available. If you do not, try re-downloading Pulse manually to get it on the latest version (you shouldn't have to do this, but if you have a particularly ancient version, that might be the issue.)


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## FlyingAndi (Aug 21, 2020)

Oh no! It's 36° C here, so I went to a lake with my family to go swimming and cool down. Now I can't download the update :-(

But that's great news! I'm really looking forward to trying it. Thank you!


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## pulsedownloader (Aug 21, 2020)

Hi all any issues with updating please just drop us an email at [email protected]


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## shropshirelad (Aug 21, 2020)

Fantastic news, thank you. Downloading now.


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## rojarvi (Aug 21, 2020)

Hi,

Thanks for the update! Things have improved eg. with hanging notes but is there any timeline for Hall mic problems? I don't think this update addresses it.

Cheers!


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## VladK (Aug 21, 2020)

Also, is there updated pdf documentation?


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## CGR (Aug 21, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> At long last, Pulse's update functionality is working, which means you can get the new Pearl 2.4 update! This fixes a range of bugs, improves performance, and repairs some missing/broken samples in the 24-bit patches.
> 
> To get the update, open Pulse and you should see the update available. If you do not, try re-downloading Pulse manually to get it on the latest version (you shouldn't have to do this, but if you have a particularly ancient version, that might be the issue.)


Do we need to download the entire product again, or just the updated samples and new .nki?


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## Andrew Aversa (Aug 21, 2020)

Pulse has update functionality now that will download only what is necessary to update (in this case, about 2GB.)


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## Andrew Aversa (Aug 21, 2020)

rojarvi said:


> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for the update! Things have improved eg. with hanging notes but is there any timeline for Hall mic problems? I don't think this update addresses it.
> 
> Cheers!



This has definitely been fixed... What issues are you still having? The original problem was that NKX 006 was corrupt, which we've repaired + tested, and it's now working.


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## CGR (Aug 21, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> Pulse has update functionality now that will download only what is necessary to update (in this case, about 2GB.)


Downloded & installed the latest version of Pulse 40.0.0, pointed it to my Pearl 2.2 folder and chose to update to v2.4, but it seems to be re-downloading the entire product again. No option I could see to just download the updated files & samples. Unless I'm missing something in the process?


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## pulsedownloader (Aug 21, 2020)

CGR said:


> Downloded & installed the latest version of Pulse 40.0.0, pointed it to my Pearl 2.2 folder and chose to update to v2.4, but it seems to be re-downloading the entire product again. No option I could see to just download the updated files & samples. Unless I'm missing something in the process?



Does Pearl show as Install or Open in Pulse? If it shows as Install, please click on the cog and press Reconnect. Then select the folder where Pearl is installed already. 

You will then see Update available after a few mins and it will install just the update. Please email us at [email protected] if you have any issues


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## CGR (Aug 21, 2020)

It showed as Install. I hit the cog and chose Reconnect and pointed it to my Pearl Folder. When I looked in that folder during the update download process the contents of the Pearl folder had disappeared. I'm on a Mac OS 10.11.6


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## pulsedownloader (Aug 21, 2020)

CGR said:


> It showed as Install. I hit the cog and chose Reconnect and pointed it to my Pearl Folder. When I looked in that folder during the update download process the contents of the Pearl folder had disappeared. I'm on a Mac OS 10.11.6



Can you drop us an email please?


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## rojarvi (Aug 21, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> This has definitely been fixed... What issues are you still having? The original problem was that NKX 006 was corrupt, which we've repaired + tested, and it's now working.




Hi,

First of all, I'd like to point out that I do like this piano library - as a whole I think it's one of the good ones. That's something I cannot say about many other piano libraries I have. If Pearl was bad, I wouldn't bother with this - trying to help making it even better. So, dear random reader, don't take this as a negative review or complaint about how this product is bad, because it is not. The vast majority of the features work just fine and sound good!

Now that I got that out of my system, here are the details about the "Hall Mic Problem" I was referring to - not sure if it is the same that was fixed in 2.4, if it's a different one or if it is something that is only happening on my system, which I doubt very much because this isolates itself only to one mic set. In short the problem is "high velocity notes produce noisy samples from hall mic".

- Have updated to 2.4 - Kontakt UI shows "Pearl v2.4" on bottom right corner and looking at the sample data files "PEARL Concert Grand__24bit006.nkc" and .nkx are more recent than other which date back to February.
- Problem happens only with Hall Mics, in the example below I'm using "Breathing Piano" patch as it seems to emphasize the problem (only using Hall etc.)
- Problem happens with both 16 and 24 bit samples
- Problem happens with both standalone Kontakt as well as in Cubase (using full Kontakt now)

In the sample below I made a MIDI track first playing C4 note 11 times, starting with velocity 100 and increasing it by one after each note, that is velocities 100-110. Then the same with note F4. Once the velocity hits 105 you can hear the noise kick in. There is hard limit, 104 is just fine, 105 is not. But, this is not fixed so to speak! Sometimes the values are different - for example, on another test run velocity 95 was OK but 96 was the point when the noise started. (EDIT: Need to emphasize here that "another test run" means loading up the instrument again etc, not just playing it again in Cubase) But in any case, it is HARD limit of just delta 1 of velocity which triggers the noisy samples and they seem to be noisy from that point upwards.

I have attached a MP3 file where you can hear this. Also, there is a screen shot of Cubase MIDI List Editor showing the sequence of notes and their velocities producing the result.

So there, I hope that explains what this issue is. If this is something too technical for this forum section, let's delete it and hand the data only to zircon - but I'd still like to hear if anyone else is experiencing this same behaviour or is it just me (or my head?)

Cheers!


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## shropshirelad (Aug 22, 2020)

I just loaded up Breathing Piano and can confirm that it's definitely not just you or your head! If I hold the key down, I'm convinced that I can hear traffic noise!


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## FlyingAndi (Aug 23, 2020)

I can confirm that the 24-bit missing note problem has been solved, but I also have the noise problems on the hall mics. While doing glissandi with sustain pedal down I even trigger a noise tail which ended with the sound of a door being shut somewhere far on the left. Unfortunately I didn't manage to record that one.

But I did record this:


The first example has some heavy noise (as mentioned in posts #110 and #128 of this thread) that sounds like a lot of rain.
The second example has a note on a rather low velocity, but when the velocity goes higher, it seems to jump in the stereo field. (Mabe some gate which did't let the sound pass on one of the channels at lower velocity?)

I still love this piano even without being able to use the hall mics. But I hope this will be fixed.


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## Hendrixon (Aug 23, 2020)

I choose to install the 2.4 update but Pulse (latest version 40.0.0) insists on re-downloading the whole thing (37GB) not just the update... which as it seems above we'll need to download another update soon...

I'm letting Pulse do it this time, but if this will happen again in the next Pearl update, I'll delete Pulse and all the products I have who uses it.
Sorry, I'm old school, I don't like downloaders, it's just another layer in the chain that creates more headache.


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## pulsedownloader (Aug 23, 2020)

Hendrixon said:


> I choose to install the 2.4 update but Pulse (latest version 40.0.0) insists on re-downloading the whole thing (37GB) not just the update... which as it seems above we'll need to download another update soon...
> 
> I'm letting Pulse do it this time, but if this will happen again in the next Pearl update, I'll delete Pulse and all the products I have who uses it.
> Sorry, I'm old school, I don't like downloaders, it's just another layer in the chain that creates more headache.



Does Pulse show the Pearl Piano as "Open" or "Install"? If it shows as "Install" then it hasn't detected that you have installed it previously, in which case you need to click on the cog and press "Re-connect". Then it will download the update. Any questions or issues, *please *email us at [email protected] and we can walk through anything with you


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## Hendrixon (Aug 23, 2020)

I don't know what it showed before but in order to get the "update available" I did a re-connect.
And when it started downloading the whole library, I stopped the download, closed the Pulse app, opened it again, re-connect again... but it still downloads all 37GB.

Picture shows the state right now.


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## pulsedownloader (Aug 23, 2020)

Hendrixon said:


> I don't know what it showed before but in order to get the "update available" I did a re-connect.
> And when it started downloading the whole library, I stopped the download, closed the Pulse app, opened it again, re-connect again... but it still downloads all 37GB.
> 
> Picture shows the state right now.



Could you drop us an email at [email protected] when you have a moment please and we can take a look?


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## Simeon (Aug 23, 2020)

Well, I experienced a similar issue.
When the Pulse update was installed it did not detect a previous installation of Pearl. I performed a Re-Link and it indicated “Open”. As I was a little confused at this point I went ahead and downloaded everything again as it might have taken a little longer than I expected to detect update to Pearl was needed.

As far as the Pearl update itself, the Hall Mics are still very noisy at the ends of the sustains at high velocities. There are lots of artifacts (bumps, room noises) that are present in the latter parts of the sustained samples.These do not seem to appear in the other mic positions.


Thanks so much for the update. I could not imagine all that has to go into keeping everything where it needs to go and tackling issues that arise.

All the best!


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## Hendrixon (Aug 24, 2020)

@zircon_st 

Confirmed here as well, Pearl 2.4 both 16bit and 24bit Hall mics are not usable.
Non Sustain samples at velocity of 76 and above exhibit huge noise, its not room noise floor, its some constant processing noise which totally masks the note it self.
Same issue at Sustain samples, but at higher velocity (can't check which right now).


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## rojarvi (Aug 24, 2020)

Simeon said:


> Well, I experienced a similar issue.
> When the Pulse update was installed it did not detect a previous installation of Pearl. I performed a Re-Link and it indicated “Open”. As I was a little confused at this point I went ahead and downloaded everything again as it might have taken a little longer than I expected to detect update to Pearl was needed.



The same here - when I opened Pulse it showed there is an update available for Pearl. Can't recall what the buttons said exactly but I selected version "2.4" when the other option was "Base". It downloaded the whole thing again. Luckily I'm used to kids downloading 100GB games frequently so 30+ GB was like nothing...


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## doggles (Aug 24, 2020)

Thank goodness I found this forum. I had to reinstall pearl on my computer this weekend so I'm sure I have version 2.4 and since then I have the same issue. On my end using reaper and the breathing piano preset I found that the worst of the noise happens from velocity range 105-116, and is more noticeable on the higher notes.

I attached an mp3 of a midi track playing C8 in 4 groups of 4 notes, with velocities 104, 117 (notes outside the noise range), 105, 116 (notes inside the noise range) respectively.

Also just want to mention that I love this vst. I bought it way back when and have sworn by it ever since. I plan to keep using it but for the time being I'm gonna stay away from the hall mics.


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## Andrew Aversa (Aug 24, 2020)

OK, we're talking about two different issues, sorry for the confusion. There was an issue specific to the 24-bit patches where samples were actually *missing. *That issue has been addressed.

Noise issues are another matter. As of Pearl 2.0, we had done additional noise processing to reduce the noise floor. But, even with enormous amounts of noise processing, it's very difficult to deal with the noise picked up by the hall mics. These mics were probably about 100 ft from the piano. I think the signal to noise ratio was at best 1:1. In some cases the piano sound was well BELOW the ambient noise floor, and far quieter than other sounds picked up from outside the building. Of course if we could go back and do it again, we would probably move them a little closer...

Keep in mind too that even with the finest recording gear, dealing with noise in samples is orders of magnitude more challenging than in a regular mix scenario... one reason being, every note played multiplies the noise floor, and with multiple mic positions you're multiplying it further. If a car goes by in a real performance, it's trivial to edit out in a 3 minute recording. Or just do another take. When you're doing thousands (or tens of thousands) of samples it can be cost-prohibitive to pinpoint every single errant sound, especially with samples that have 20+ second sustains.

Anyway, as a result, my recommendation is to look at the hall mics as something to add some extra, _subtle_ space and dimension. You should not crank them up. They should not be used as a primary mic set. 

That said, I will talk with our editors again and see if we can squeeze just a little bit more headroom out of some of these samples. Maybe sometime I'll post the original files here, just so you can see what we were dealing with!


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## FlyingAndi (Aug 24, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> These mics were probably about 100 ft from the piano. I think the signal to noise ratio was at best 1:1. In some cases the piano sound was well BELOW the ambient noise floor, and far quieter than other sounds picked up from outside the building.


Thank you for the detailed explanation which would be totally comprehensible if it weren't for the fact that this problem only happens on high velocity samples. The signal to noise ratio should be bad on low velocities (if the signal is quiet) but that's not the case here.

Maybe there is just a range of samples that was completely forgotten in the demonising process.


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## rojarvi (Aug 24, 2020)

Hi,

Thanks for the explanation - also working in audio industry I can totally relate to the problems with noise floor, background ambient noise etc. With sampled instruments it's even worse because of the cumulating noise from multiple (and sometimes a vast number!) samples playing simultaneously. Also, I agree that hall mic sample set is probably something most people would not want to use as the main mic set - it should be mixed into other closer mics to bring in some ambience.

However, I cannot see any logical scenario where playing a single note played with two adjacent velocities would result in such a drastic difference in noise level. So, maybe like Andi above suspected, you guys demonised the high velocity sample layer of hall mics instead of denoising it. Worth checking!


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## Hendrixon (Aug 25, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> Noise issues are another matter. As of Pearl 2.0, we had done additional noise processing to reduce the noise floor. But, even with enormous amounts of noise processing, it's very difficult to deal with the noise picked up by the hall mics.



It has NOTHING to do with the noise floor... 
The noise we are complaining about comes from CORRUPT wav files in the HIGHER velocities.

The low velocity wavs of the hall mic are FINE, no noise.
The high velocity, that's where the noise is, and its a bad processing noise, its digital noise, they were simply butchered.


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## Hendrixon (Aug 25, 2020)

rojarvi said:


> So, maybe like Andi above suspected, you guys demonised the high velocity sample layer of hall mics instead of denoising it. Worth checking!



Help me Ronda I think this is it


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## ashh (Aug 25, 2020)

I must confess, I have often been demonised by the wife when she actually just wants to denoise me.


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## FlyingAndi (Aug 25, 2020)

Oh well, this happens when posting from your mobile browser.
But when I think about it, there is

Strix Pripyat Pianos
Strix Destroyed Six
Silence +other Sounds Pain Piano
Hiss and Roar Tortured Piano
Production Voices Death Piano
So maybe there is a market for a Demonized Piano after all.


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## bsntn99 (Aug 25, 2020)

Hendrixon said:


> It has NOTHING to do with the noise floor...
> The noise we are complaining about comes from CORRUPT wav files in the HIGHER velocities.
> 
> The low velocity wavs of the hall mic are FINE, no noise.
> The high velocity, that's where the noise is, and its a bad processing noise, its digital noise, they were simply butchered.


I went through and confirmed this looking at the actual samples themselves. Both round robins of the hall mic on the 7th velocity layer have some loud background noise. It's very evident in the waveform. These samples either need to be cleaned or removed. I can remove them manually (Kontakt Full) and stretch the 6th and 8th layer to cover easy enough, but not the best solution.


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## Gamma1734 (Dec 17, 2020)

Hello, I recently purchased this instrument and I have issues with getting the continuous pedalling to work. I have a lot of instruments; Normally I just browse parameters and link the CC64 to my pedal. Normally this works, but not here. What did I do wrong? Thanks for help. Also, the noise of the hall mic is so loud sometimes. It's really sad that they disturb the experience quite a lot. I guess I have to go hunting now for those samples in the 7th layer and delete them manually...


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## Andrew Aversa (Dec 17, 2020)

We are doing another denoising pass as we speak. Sit tight, the update should be ready within the next week! 

CC64 should work fine if continuous pedaling is enabled. Could you send a MIDI file w/ controller data where it is not working? We'll take a look on our end.


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## Gamma1734 (Dec 18, 2020)

Andrew Aversa said:


> We are doing another denoising pass as we speak. Sit tight, the update should be ready within the next week!
> 
> CC64 should work fine if continuous pedaling is enabled. Could you send a MIDI file w/ controller data where it is not working? We'll take a look on our end.


Sounds great!
About the CC64 issue, I am not exactly sure how to export Midi with controller data. But I can say that it works for other plugins I tried in Kontakt (e.g. Grandeur) and that the continuous sustain option is checked in Pearl. Also I see that my pedal indeed outputs continuous values in the piano roll, and I figured out (by drawing curves by hand) the the sustain cuts of in a discrete way at roughly 12% pedal input value (my guess is that it is 1/8 = 0.125 for some reason which I don't know). I pretty much spend some hours today to get it work and I'm literally wondering what I did wrong now. I hope I can figure out how to send a midi file, too, which I will do then.


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## shropshirelad (Jan 11, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> We are doing another denoising pass as we speak. Sit tight, the update should be ready within the next week!
> 
> CC64 should work fine if continuous pedaling is enabled. Could you send a MIDI file w/ controller data where it is not working? We'll take a look on our end.


Just wondered if the update was available yet? Not a pressing thing for me but I just remembered seeing this post from before Christmas.


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## shropshirelad (Feb 8, 2021)

Any further news on this Andrew?


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 8, 2021)

In terms of updates, we just sent a few customers an updated NKI to address issues with half-pedaling on some systems - we're waiting to hear back on whether that fixed their issue. As for the denoising though, currently at a standstill because even with the most advanced techniques we could find, the tone is just getting butchered... so we're a bit back to square one on that.


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## FlyingAndi (Feb 8, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> As for the denoising though, currently at a standstill because even with the most advanced techniques we could find, the tone is just getting butchered... so we're a bit back to square one on that.


That's too bad 😕
But I still don't understand this. Here's a simple example. The Hall mic samples of E6:
HALL_Sustain_Off_E6_V6_rr1 and HALL_Sustain_Off_E6_V6_rr2.
But for the next higher velocity V7 both round robins HALL_Sustain_Off_E6_V7_rr1 and HALL_Sustain_Off_E6_V7_rr2 have some pretty bad noise, but it's only on the right channel. How can that be, that the right channel is noisy but the left isn't? You can actually see it:





To me it seems as if the right channel didn't get the same treatment as the left channel.

The samples for the next velocity layer V8 are better than V7 with a little bit of rain/water flowing sound on the right channel but still OK.


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## shropshirelad (Feb 9, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> In terms of updates, we just sent a few customers an updated NKI to address issues with half-pedaling on some systems - we're waiting to hear back on whether that fixed their issue. As for the denoising though, currently at a standstill because even with the most advanced techniques we could find, the tone is just getting butchered... so we're a bit back to square one on that.


Andrew - thanks for your prompt reply and for your honesty, both of which are refreshing & welcome, even if the news is a little disappointing.


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## Gamma1734 (Feb 9, 2021)

I would also like to get that nki since I already mentioned half-pedalling doesn't work on my end.


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 9, 2021)

Here it is:









Dropbox - Error


Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!




www.dropbox.com





It appears to be working for those we've sent it to, so we'll be pushing it out through Pulse in the next 48 hours or so.

@FlyingAndi The issue is that during the session there was an electrical problem that affected either one mic, cable, or preamp used for the hall mics. It wasn't both channels. It was gradual and the engineer (who was also playing the piano) did not notice at the time. Of course this has been driving me up the wall for about 8 years now...


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## FlyingAndi (Feb 9, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> The issue is that during the session there was an electrical problem that affected either one mic, cable, or preamp used for the hall mics. It wasn't both channels. It was gradual and the engineer (who was also playing the piano) did not notice at the time. Of course this has been driving me up the wall for about 8 years now...


Aww. That's really a pity, but that explains it.
Have you tried substituting the V7 samples with the V6 samples for the hall mics? (But maybe that would introduce some flanging, because you would combine different recordings.)
Or if you fade out thoses samples earlier? From the point where noise gets louder than the signal it's no use to continue playing that sample.

Anyway, it's still a wonderfull piano library and I love the other 3 mic positions.


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## Gamma1734 (Feb 10, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> Here it is:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I downloaded and copied these new files - unfortunately it still doesn't work on my end. It works with Modern U, all VSL's, Garritan, Grandeur, Maverick, Sample Sam Signature etc...
I really don't know what to do, but as a classical pianist, it's unusable for me. Is there a possibility to sell licenses?


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 10, 2021)

Make sure you have deleted the NKR/NKC in the ROOT directory of PEARL, and put the new NKR in the Samples subfolder. It should work. We've tested it on our end and it seems to be working for everyone else.


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## Gamma1734 (Feb 10, 2021)

in the Pearl Concert Grand folder i have folders: Documentation, Instruments, Legacy, Samples, Snapshots. Then three files PEARL Concert grand ending with nicnt, nkc, nkr, and finally a png file. I deleted the two files ending with nkc and nkr in this folder. And substituted them with the new 2 files. Isn't that what I am supposed to do?


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 10, 2021)

No, you'll want to delete the NKC/NKR in the main directory, and put the new NKR/NKC in the Samples subfolder. That should be the one the NKI is looking for. I just want to make sure that your copy is actually looking at the updated script.


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## Gamma1734 (Feb 10, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> No, you'll want to delete the NKC/NKR in the main directory, and put the new NKR/NKC in the Samples subfolder. That should be the one the NKI is looking for. I just want to make sure that your copy is actually looking at the updated script.


works.


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## NicolasG (Apr 22, 2021)

Ok seems like I am not the only one that deals with noise issues (just emailed Impact Soundworks about that). I love the sound of this piano, but the unwanted environment noise when holding down a note really long or pressing the sustain pedal really long (most apparent on the hall mics but also something on close) is a bummer. The sound of the piano is really beautiful though!


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## Andrew Aversa (Apr 22, 2021)

We're still trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. I think the hall mics are the worst offenders by far, so disabling them and using close, pedal + stage will give you good results on all but the quietest parts. This is a case where I wish we could go back in time, because the engineer at that point did not notice the noise buildup (particularly on the hall mics) and so we ended up with 2-3x *noise to signal* ratio. Very very hard to deal with it without sucking the ambience away...


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## Mark Schmieder (Apr 22, 2021)

It's a great library. I wish you the best of luck in solving this tricky problem!


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## CGR (Apr 22, 2021)

Although there are obvious issues with the Hall mics (including random bursts of white noise on some notes) I find myself mainly using the Close and Stage mics, and adding any extra ambience if needed for a Hall sound (the built in vintage verb works very well).

I find that even with a mix of the Close mics plus a little of the Pedal mics, it takes really well to adding reverb, given there is a lot of natural air & sense of space/depth in samples captured.

I'd be disappointed to hear the life sucked out of Pearl Concert Grand by too much de-noising of the samples (there's way too many sampled pianos like that on the market), so am content with where it's at now, and work around those limitations. Still one of my all time favourite sampled pianos - it really resonates and sings like very few others.


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## NicolasG (Apr 23, 2021)

Thank you, Andrew for being so honest and clear about it. Truly appreciated. And I fully agree with CGR. It is a piano sound I haven't found anywhere else yet, so I will stick with it (using it weekly in a Twitch piano stream, people love the sound). And even though there is some unfixable stuff due to the recordings, this is a beautiful piano library I keep coming back to.


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