I agree... VSL pianos are kind of a love/hate because the detail and configuration is insanely good, but there's something about those walls in that Teldex building that are hard-sounding. That's why I apply a slight dip in the mids on those, to try an soften the mid-fatigue.Garritan CFX Classic for me out of these. The VSL pianos are too harsh in these examples on this tune, but of course, velocity scaling & dynamic settings could alleviate this.
NICE!! Nothing more to say...My baby is a 5'10" Kawai RX-2 "Millenium Edition" that no virtual piano can replace.
That one surprised me too. I had to drag it over from my RAID archive drive because I don't keep the EW Pianos on my SSDs at 292GB, but I had a feeling, and it's not bad for this piece at all!thank you Paulie, of these probably Garritan Cfx and (surprise!) EW Steinway, surprisingly good...
I'm a big fan of the VSL Synchron pianos (sampled on their own Synchron Stage in Vienna, not the Teldex Scoring Stage which Orchestral Tools use, which is a warmer and more "lush" sounding space to my ears).I agree... VSL pianos are kind of a love/hate because the detail and configuration is insanely good, but there's something about those walls in that Teldex building that are hard-sounding. That's why I apply a slight dip in the mids on those, to try an soften the mid-fatigue.
No matter what I play, I always always come back to Garritan CFX Classic.
LOL stupid SoundCloud, it said Schubert was from a Grammophone Album. IDK if it is worth challenging. Schubert: Piano Sonata No.13 in A Major, D.664 - 1. Allegro moderato... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TDTZAY/ref=dm_ws_ps_adp (Radu Lupu)Because of an apparent copyright infringement on Soundcloud for the Shubert and Bill Evans piece, I wasn't able to upload it there unfortunately And it seems not all Chopin's made it to the playlist
That's capitalism for you.
In light of this, I've decided to pull all my entries from Soundcloud and deleted my posts in this thread. I don't want to deal with any issues on Soundcloud due to copyright issues.
I'll have a look at uploading the files again directly onto the forum.
Legend!!!Here is a list of lossless files (FLAC).
Sorry, I don't think this got answered! Obviously there can be 38,691 answers to that question since it's subjective. HOWEVER, here's a setting to try to add a nice reverb to piano and orchestra. It's A suggestion, not THE suggestion... just a place to start (expecting some darts to fling, lol!):How do you go about reverb? Are you using the VSTi's one or 3rd party? What parameters?
Sorry, I don't think this got answered! Obviously there can be 38,691 answers to that question since it's subjective. HOWEVER, here's a setting to try to add a nice reverb to piano and orchestra. It's A suggestion, not THE suggestion... just a place to start (expecting some darts to fling, lol!):
Use a Hall reverb with room size between 3.2-3.8. Maybe your DAW has a hall reverb built in. Valhalla I think is only $50 and people say it's great.
I put Pre-Delay at 25ms. Because the audience is listening from a bit of a distance they get all room with the source sound. Only with vocals to I crank that up to 120ms or so.
Mix at 100% Wet. Obviously, because you'll set the reverb up in an FX channel and use a Send from your instrument channels.
On the FX Channel, add an EQ: Put it right after the Reverb in the FX channel with two settings: a High-Pass filter at about 500Hz-600Hz at -24db/oct, and a Low Pass Filter at about 6KHz, again at -24db/Oct. You want to get rid of the mud and the third-order harmonics and whatever else flies around above 6KHz. Then your reverb will be sweet and clean. A lot of reverbs have an EQ built-in, like Waves H-Reverb.
From your instrument channel, create a Send to the reverb and play with the level of the Send until it all sounds "right". It's rare I'll send past 50% but that may be how Cubase and my Lexicon reverb work together.
So here's a statement that should start an argument, lol: I really really like the Lexicon sound. Others don't and it's usually love or hate. But there's a way to get a great orchestral reverb without spending $700 for the Lexicon PCM: Get the $109 MPX-i version. It has ONLY presets, you can't adjust anything, but you get the Lexicon sound if you want it. There's a specific preset that works great along with putting the stock EQ from your DAW after it. I just set it up in Studio One to take screenshots. Here's the preset on the cheap Lexicon:
Then I used the stock Pro-EQ in Studio One to set up the EQ after it. You will also see a slight dip at 2KHz, you can do that if you wish. I do because it's part of what's called the Abbey Road Reverb trick, but it doesn't make that much of an impact. Overall, this cleans up the reverb nicely:
So there's a place to start, 3.X on the room, filter out high and low junk and see how it works for you.
Oh, to add fuel to the fire, Christian Henson picked the Lexicon as his favorite reverb in a blindfolded shootout he did with Jake Jackson... probably regrets ever doing the video, lol! Here's the winning moment:
I like it too - very nice sound - like sitting back in a comfortable recliner sipping scotch - so warm.Like PaulieDC, here's my simple single contribution to this great thread. Waltz for Debbie with Xperimenta Due "First Piano". There's not much talk about Xperimenta Due in VI-Control but I like it.
View attachment Waltz for Debbie - Xperimenta Due.mp3
Thanks so much for this help on reverb. Often times I will just take the stock verb because I have not yet mastered my own verb. I do have Altiverb and this video helped me last night tweak it. You cover a lot of things too that I incorporated. Work in progress.Sorry, I don't think this got answered! Obviously there can be 38,691 answers to that question since it's subjective. HOWEVER, here's a setting to try to add a nice reverb to piano and orchestra. It's A suggestion, not THE suggestion... just a place to start (expecting some darts to fling, lol!):
Use a Hall reverb with room size between 3.2-3.8. Maybe your DAW has a hall reverb built in. Valhalla I think is only $50 and people say it's great.
Piece | Editor | Piano | Mic | Reverb | Adjustment |
Raindrop | EW | Bechstein 280 | Player | EW Hall LR | 3,0 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Bechstein 280 | Close | EW Hall LR | 4,2 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Bechstein 280 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 2,5 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Player | EW Hall LR | 9,8 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Close | EW Hall LR | 10,6 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 8,6 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Steinway D | Player | EW Hall LR | 14,6 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Steinway D | Close | EW Hall LR | 16,0 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Steinway D | Mix | EW Hall LR | 14,3 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Yamaha C7 | Player | EW Hall LR | 4,9 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Yamaha C7 | Close | EW Hall LR | 4,9 dB |
Raindrop | EW | Yamaha C7 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 4,6 dB |
Raindrop | SampleTekk | Rain Piano MkII | None | 5,6 dB | |
Raindrop | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann SM2 | Large Hall | 7,4 dB |
Raindrop | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann U89 x2 | Large Hall | 6,0 dB |
Raindrop | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann SM2+U89 | Large Hall | 6,8 dB |
Raindrop | Sonuscore | The Orchestra Grand Piano | Lid Closed | Concert Hall 1 | 7,4 dB |
Raindrop | Sonuscore | The Orchestra Grand Piano | Lid Open | Concert Hall 1 | 7,7 dB |
Raindrop | SoundMagic | Piano One | -6,7 dB | ||
Raindrop | Native Instruments | The Giant | Basic Giant | 6,4 dB | |
Raindrop | Native Instruments | The Maverick | Basic Maverick | 13,2 dB | |
Raindrop | Native Instruments | The Grandeur | Basic Grandeur | 5,5 dB | |
Raindrop | Native Instruments | The Gentleman | Basic Gentleman | 6,3 dB | |
Raindrop | Native Instruments | Noire Pure | Basic Pure | 17,0 dB | |
Raindrop | ChristianHenson | FamilyGrand | 14,5 dB | ||
Raindrop | Presonus | Studio Grand | -8,6 dB | ||
Sonata | EW | Bechstein 280 | Player | EW Hall LR | 2,9 dB |
Sonata | EW | Bechstein 280 | Close | EW Hall LR | 4,1 dB |
Sonata | EW | Bechstein 280 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 2,3 dB |
Sonata | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Player | EW Hall LR | 9,6 dB |
Sonata | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Close | EW Hall LR | 10,3 dB |
Sonata | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 8,8 dB |
Sonata | EW | Steinway D | Player | EW Hall LR | 14,2 dB |
Sonata | EW | Steinway D | Close | EW Hall LR | 14,7 dB |
Sonata | EW | Steinway D | Mix | EW Hall LR | 13,4 dB |
Sonata | EW | Yamaha C7 | Player | EW Hall LR | 3,1 dB |
Sonata | EW | Yamaha C7 | Close | EW Hall LR | 3,3 dB |
Sonata | EW | Yamaha C7 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 2,8 dB |
Sonata | SampleTekk | Rain Piano MkII | None | 2,8 dB | |
Sonata | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann SM2 | Large Hall | 6,0 dB |
Sonata | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann U89 x2 | Large Hall | 4,2 dB |
Sonata | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann SM2+U89 | Large Hall | 5,6 dB |
Sonata | Sonuscore | The Orchestra Grand Piano | Lid Closed | Concert Hall 1 | 5,2 dB |
Sonata | Sonuscore | The Orchestra Grand Piano | Lid Open | Concert Hall 1 | 5,7 dB |
Sonata | SoundMagic | Piano One | -8,3 dB | ||
Sonata | Native Instruments | The Giant | Basic Giant | 5,0 dB | |
Sonata | Native Instruments | The Maverick | Basic Maverick | 12,2 dB | |
Sonata | Native Instruments | The Grandeur | Basic Grandeur | 4,2 dB | |
Sonata | Native Instruments | The Gentleman | Basic Gentleman | 5,8 dB | |
Sonata | Native Instruments | Noire Pure | Basic Pure | 15,9 dB | |
Sonata | ChristianHenson | FamilyGrand | 12,3 dB | ||
Sonata | Presonus | Studio Grand | -11,8 dB | ||
Walz | EW | Bechstein 280 | Player | EW Hall LR | 1,7 dB |
Walz | EW | Bechstein 280 | Close | EW Hall LR | 3,4 dB |
Walz | EW | Bechstein 280 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 1,4 dB |
Walz | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Player | EW Hall LR | 6,3 dB |
Walz | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Close | EW Hall LR | 9,1 dB |
Walz | EW | Bösendorfer 290 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 7,9 dB |
Walz | EW | Steinway D | Player | EW Hall LR | 13,1 dB |
Walz | EW | Steinway D | Close | EW Hall LR | 14,0 dB |
Walz | EW | Steinway D | Mix | EW Hall LR | 12,1 dB |
Walz | EW | Yamaha C7 | Player | EW Hall LR | -0,2 dB |
Walz | EW | Yamaha C7 | Close | EW Hall LR | 2,0 dB |
Walz | EW | Yamaha C7 | Mix | EW Hall LR | 1,6 dB |
Walz | SampleTekk | Rain Piano MkII | None | 2,6 dB | |
Walz | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann SM2 | Large Hall | 11,1 dB |
Walz | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann U89 x2 | Large Hall | 4,1 dB |
Walz | SampleTekk | TVBO Yamaha C7 | Neumann SM2+U89 | Large Hall | 10,7 dB |
Walz | Sonuscore | The Orchestra Grand Piano | Lid Closed | Concert Hall 1 | 4,5 dB |
Walz | Sonuscore | The Orchestra Grand Piano | Lid Open | Concert Hall 1 | -0,9 dB |
Walz | SoundMagic | Piano One | -7,9 dB | ||
Walz | Native Instruments | The Giant | Basic Giant | 4,8 dB | |
Walz | Native Instruments | The Maverick | Basic Maverick | 11,3 dB | |
Walz | Native Instruments | The Grandeur | Basic Grandeur | 4,1 dB | |
Walz | Native Instruments | The Gentleman | Basic Gentleman | 6,1 dB | |
Walz | Native Instruments | Noire Pure | Basic Pure | 9,4 dB | |
Walz | ChristianHenson | FamilyGrand | 12,4 dB | ||
Walz | Presonus | Studio Grand | -11,8 dB |
Ha, I just got busted there didn't I? Thanks for calling me out on my bullsh*t.Noire is a Yamaha you do seem to like? @quickbrownf0x
No intention to bust anything really haha. I get the “brightness” argument to be honest…Ha, I just got busted there didn't I? Thanks for calling me out on my bullsh*t.
Some redemption; I only use the Felt patch.