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Embertone Releases: Walker 1955 Steinway 'D'

Hmm. I bought the full version, but Connect only downloads the AKG_Sus_6 and part of AKG_Sus_5 before it just... goes away? It doesn't say anything about crashing, the app just disappears and downloading stops with it. This is with v3.2.4. Haven't seen that before. Is there a way to manually download? It's crashed 5 or 6 times in a row. This is on Win 10 pro 64bit.

Edit* In case anyone experiences anything similar, I changed a setting in Connect to just "Download" instead of "Download and Install" and things are downloading without incident. I've not had Connect try to Download and Install at the same time before. It used to download everything and then install, this was trying to unpack and install at the same time the download was still going.

FYI, I heard from Stu @ Continuata about this. This is what he had to say:

"... it's because of all the individual zips sometimes whilst it's extracting when it goes to get the new file it can crash the extracting. Doing what he's done (downloading everything first) and then switching it back to download and extract and use shift Reset would work..."

I highly suggest that you let CONNECT do the extraction for you. Much less headache that way. Thanks!!

-Alex
 
Not seen it mentioned here specifically but, for those who don’t/won’t/haven’t updated to Kontakt 5.7 (Player or Full), there is a legacy version available on request. Legacy requires full kontakt v5.4.1 or later. This doesn’t affect me but, I’m pretty sure there are some out there that will want to know.

(This info is on the website but given most of us don’t even RTFM, I’m not sure we’d read to the bottom of the page).
 
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FYI, I heard from Stu @ Continuata about this. This is what he had to say:

"... it's because of all the individual zips sometimes whilst it's extracting when it goes to get the new file it can crash the extracting. Doing what he's done (downloading everything first) and then switching it back to download and extract and use shift Reset would work..."

I highly suggest that you let CONNECT do the extraction for you. Much less headache that way. Thanks!!

-Alex

That crashed it too for some reason. It's ok, I got them to download and extracting all in a go is simple with 7zip. Thanks for the help!
 
Sounds really nice! After being disappointed after EVERY purchase of a piano library before, it would be awesome if there was a crossgrade offer so that we can try it with little risk with the light version, and upgrade if we like.
 
Congrats on the release! The tone sounds lovely!!

I have some questions regarding sympathetic resonance: are both key and pedal resonance supported? And for pedal resonance, if a chord is hold and then the damper is depressed (100%), would there be a timbre change (like on a physical piano)? And is there a control of the resonance output?
 
Happy Thursday VIC Friends!

When we embarked on this sampling journey about 12 million years ago, we thought sampling a piano would be "easy". What a relief that we don't have to worry about LEGATO for once!



We were so, so, wrong. Down the rabbit hole we went! ...capturing this unique and beautiful instrument in as much detail as possible. And nearly 150,000 samples later, we have our flagship piano: https://www.embertone.com/instruments/steinwayD.php (Walker 1955 Steinway 'D'). A massive, gorgeous 9-foot beauty. Here are some features:

- 36 velocities per note
- All Pedal combinations sampled
- 10,000 discrete and authentic adaptive release samples
- Dedicated set of real and highly addictive staccato samples
- 6 mic positions, available 'a la carte' for $15/each

Default
Mics: AKG C414 XLS, ORTF Stereo
Position: 2 ft off the side lip at the curve of the piano.
Qualities: Balanced piano/room tone with a beautiful twinkly high register and tamed low end. Vibrant and hearty with enough air space to breathe.

Close
Mics: Neumann U87, A/B Stereo (Omni)
Position: 6 in off the strings
Qualities: Extremely intimate and warm with very little room ambience. Rich with string reverberance while capturing all the subtle mechanical sounds.

Hammer
Mics: Superlux S241/U3, X/Y Stereo
Position: 1 ft above pointed directly at the hammers.
Qualities: Punchy and percussive dynamics, great for pop/rock music.

Room
Mics: Schoeps CMC 6, A/B Stereo (Cardioid)
Position: 6 ft away 8ft high, pointing towards the inside of the lid from the audience perspective.
Qualities: More room ambience and reverb coloration while allowing the piano to fully resonate into the room. Great for achieving a traditional/classical sound in a concert hall or recital setting.

Wide Perspective
Mics: Modified Oktava Mk012, A/B Stereo (Omni)
Position: 1 ft from the piano at the player’s perspective, spaced at the full width of the keyboard.
Qualities: An experimental mic pair capturing an ultra-wide stereo image with a unique and enveloping character.

Binaural Perspective
Mics: Stereo binaural dummy head (affectionately named Bruce)
Position: 2ft from the the keyboard at the player’s perspective.
Qualities: Realistic spatialization, especially when listened through headphones.

https://www.embertone.com/instruments/steinwayD.php (<script class="js-extraPhrases" type="application/json"> { "lightbox_close": "Close", "lightbox_next": "Next", "lightbox_previous": "Previous", "lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.", "lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow", "lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow", "lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen", "lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails", "lightbox_download": "Download", "lightbox_share": "Share", "lightbox_zoom": "Zoom", "lightbox_new_window": "New window", "lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar" } </script> <div class="bbImageWrapper js-lbImage" title="stacks-image-a83486b.png" data-src="https://www.embertone.com/index_files/stacks-image-a83486b.png" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-single-image="1"> <img src="https://www.embertone.com/index_files/stacks-image-a83486b.png" data-url="https://www.embertone.com/index_files/stacks-image-a83486b.png" class="bbImage" data-zoom-target="1" style="" alt="stacks-image-a83486b.png" title="" width="" height="" /> </div>)
1955 Steinway D offers great depth of user control as well. We know that some people do not need 36 velocities per note, whether it’s because of the style of music or RAM limitations, so our instrument allows for full sample sets and specific velocities to be disabled and purged from memory. We also offer a number of customized effects such as EQ, Compression, Dynamic + Velocity Control, and some custom mastering coloration should you chose to use it. This allows you ultimate control over your sound!

... and it's available with early bird pricing for a limited time. Learn more at our website and have a great day!

<3

Alex and Jonathan


This honestly sounds incredible! Great job you guys.
 
There has been some confusion about mic positions — especially concerning how much disk space. I’ll clarify here and will be updating the website with better info!

- Mic positions are “a la carte” and available only for the full (not lite) product

- each mic position takes up roughly 30GB- about 24,000 samples per mic position

- we will update the site shortly with better audio demos to showcase and describe each mic position.

Thanks!
Further clarification please. I'm only seeing mention here of “a la carte”, but the "1955 Steinway D + Full Mic Collection" purchase option listed on the website sounds like it includes *ALL* the mic positions. Is that indeed the case or am I interpreting incorrectly?
 
Further clarification please. I'm only seeing mention here of “a la carte”, but the "1955 Steinway D + Full Mic Collection" purchase option listed on the website sounds like it includes *ALL* the mic positions. Is that indeed the case or am I interpreting incorrectly?
That’s how I understood it (obviously need Embertone to confirm). I read it as essentially three options:
1. Lite
2. Full - includes default mic position and to which other mic options can be added a la carte.
3. Pro Complete - which includes all mic positions.
I use the term Pro Complete to try and differentiate. This isn't used on the website. (Again need Embertone to confirm this).
 
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Yep, as far as I can understand, there are 3 versions of the piano. Lite, Full, then Full+all mics. If I understand correctly you can have 'Full' 1955 Steinway D (just the main mics) for 99$ (SRP) and then add the different mic positions at 15$ each, which make a total of 174$ if you buy them all separately, or you can buy everything at once for 175$ (1955 Steinway D+ Full Mic Collection).
It's very nice to have the mic positions a la carte, because i.e. if you don't need/want the binaural or wide position, or you don't have the HD space, you'll be saving 15$ from the total price. Plus, for a piano with this specs, 175$ SRP for the full version sounds pretty good to me. You can have 3 mics for 130$ SRP. Pretty good deal from Embertone (as usual). ;)
 
OK . . . bought the Lite version to 'test the waters'. Purchased, downloaded & installed no problems.

First impressions - this is a very warm and 'playable' sampled Steinway D. I'm impressed. To my ears tonally similar to Cinesamples' Piano in Blue (which I own & use) but with more clarity and maybe not as 'character' sounding. I'd say it has the best characteristics of Piano in Blue and the new Cinesamples Cinepiano (going by the demos I've heard - I don't own Cinepiano).

Steinway were really onto something with these 1950's era grand pianos. There is a real charm to the tone - a sweet bell-like tone in the treble and a warm/resonant mid & bass, which can also 'bite' when needed. I'd imagine these characteristics would be even more evident with the full version of the Embertone Walker 1955 Steinway D.

Excellent job Embertone!
 
Just listening to some initial test recordings I made as I type this. Very authentic and convincing listening back through the Hi-Fi system in our house. The stereo imaging is excellent - the overtones mingle naturally, and at the default setting is not artificially wide. Really pleased with this.
 
OK . . . bought the Lite version to 'test the waters'. Purchased, downloaded & installed no problems.

First impressions - this is a very warm and 'playable' sampled Steinway D. I'm impressed. To my ears tonally similar to Cinesamples' Piano in Blue (which I own & use) but with more clarity and maybe not as 'character' sounding. I'd say it has the best characteristics of Piano in Blue and the new Cinesamples Cinepiano (going by the demos I've heard - I don't own Cinepiano).

Steinway were really onto something with these 1950's era grand pianos. There is a real charm to the tone - a sweet bell-like tone in the treble and a warm/resonant mid & bass, which can also 'bite' when needed. I'd imagine these characteristics would be even more evident with the full version of the Embertone Walker 1955 Steinway D.

Excellent job Embertone!
It’s funny that you talk about Piano in Blue, because the reason I bought this was to get something with a similar character, but more deeply sampled. So now I can rest my lovely Piano in Blue on another hard drive for a while.
 
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Just listening to some initial test recordings I made as I type this. Very authentic and convincing listening back through the Hi-Fi system in our house. The stereo imaging is excellent - the overtones mingle naturally, and at the default setting is not artificially wide. Really pleased with this.

Would love to hear your tests :)
 
There is re-pedalling though :)
Not having half pedaling is a bit of a shame, for solo piano, classical or jazz, I think half pedaling is way more important than repedaling. I mean, having repedaling is great, but should have been second on the list of 'pedaling features'. :)
Are we sure there is no halfpedaling? Haven't seen it on the website, so maybe is not confirmed...
 
Personally I find the demos are a bit hit and miss maybe. Not that they don't sound nice, but I find it hard to evaluate things like the bass notes, as they are doubled a lot by synth or other instruments, and some of the quirky playing makes it hard to judge. But when it is allowed to shine, this piano really does sound beautiful. And @rottoy's little experiment sounded great! Also it sounds a bit strange sometimes in the demos, I think just due to processing to sound like that for the track??

I have too many pianos and end up disappointed with them all, but this sounds like it does soft very well AND opens up nicely when you play it harder. I would love to hear the different mics.

And more demos please! :)
 
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