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VSL Synchron Steinway D is coming...

Thanks. I really like the close tube, but it looks like if I want to get this mic settings I have to pay double price.
for me a better result is a mix of ALL close mics, similar CFX: full version or nothing.

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/sy-steinway-all-close-and-mid-mics-mp3.17080/][/AUDIOPLUS]
 

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  • SY Steinway all close and mid mics.mp3
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Okay, bought the full version and installed it yesterday. I've been playing with it. Overall, I think it's really a finely crafted piece of work. It is definitely a bright and powerful piano, though. It's not meant for thoughtful, poignant, smokey, introspective film score noodling (at least IMO). It seems designed to stand up and take charge and heaven help anyone in the way. ;) Definitely a place for that.

In trying to get the most introspective, close mic'ed sound out of it, the condenser mics are definitely my favorites. The tube mics sound too bright too me. There's a different quality to the ribbons that I might like and use in certain contexts. The have kind of an interesting, fuzzy character. I think the ribbons are most effective on things played in the midrange of the instrument, and probably best for simple playing (I miss fullness of the bass on the ribbons). To get a warm sound on any of the close mics, I do think you need to roll of quite a bit of high end. For me, though, if I didn't have the tube or ribbon mics, it wouldn't be a big deal. The condenser is the clear winner, IMO.

As far as flaws are concerned, there's a buzz on C6 that catches my attention, but I know real instruments do this sort of thing (and technicians often find it impossible to deal with these things). Also, it's the character of this instrument, but the highest two octaves are really quite percussive and ping-y. It would be hard to coax a singing tone out of that range, IMO.

I do think I'm forming an opinion on use of multiple mics on Synchron pianos (I have both of them). If possible, I think I'm going to prefer to pick one mic position, and just use that one, rather than mix a number of them, unless my goal is for a contextual piano back in the weeds, or something really ambient. I think what you're playing might really impact this choice. If you're playing fast, clean passages, or if you're playing clean, pure combinations (powerful octaves, fifths), using multiple mics works (again IMO). But to my ears, once you start playing complex harmonies, things get kind of trashy as multiple mics compete. I would think it's a matter of all those phase differences between multiple mics combined. And, I think it rapidly gets to a situation where you're exciting way more harmonics with multiple notes than you ever would on a real instrument, playing a particular combination of notes. I guess I'd rather just use one of my favorite external reverb plug-ins if I need more room than my chosen mic position offers.

To get a warm sound, I also experiment in decreasing the MIDI sensitivity quite drastically. That helps, but then you're simply not using the higher velocity samples. What I think also helps for a warm, close piano sound is adding a tape emulation plug in to at least add a tiny bit of noise floor. Otherwise, with just close mics, the instrument sounds too squeaky clean.

One more observation... To my ears, the una corda pedal on the Steinway D doesn't make that much difference. In contrast, using the una corda on the Synchron CFX is quite noticeable.
 
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Since it's the last day for the introductory price, I thought to share this recording and the walkthrough I did with the Steinway D-274.
It's a chamber piece for Piano and voice. As you know, it's definitely NOT easy for a virtual piano to stand with the dynamic of a real operatic voice for almost 3 minutes. I definitely couldn't do that with any other pianos of my collection.

Synchron Steinway D & MIR Pro - L'Alba Separa Dalla Luce L'Ombra

That recording has also been the chance to test out how the Synchron Series blends with other audio sources thanks to MIR Pro and the Synchron Stage package; in this case, the recording of a soprano performance. That's what I tried to show in this video:

Synchron Steinway D & MIR Pro - Piano and Voice - Walkthrough


I hope you find that interesting!
 
Since it's the last day for the introductory price, I thought to share this recording and the walkthrough I did with the Steinway D-274.
It's a chamber piece for Piano and voice. As you know, it's definitely NOT easy for a virtual piano to stand with the dynamic of a real operatic voice for almost 3 minutes. I definitely couldn't do that with any other pianos of my collection.

Synchron Steinway D & MIR Pro - L'Alba Separa Dalla Luce L'Ombra

That recording has also been the chance to test out how the Synchron Series blends with other audio sources thanks to MIR Pro and the Synchron Stage package; in this case, the recording of a soprano performance. That's what I tried to show in this video:

Synchron Steinway D & MIR Pro - Piano and Voice - Walkthrough


I hope you find that interesting!

Thanks for sharing! I love things like this, and the piano's dynamics really are fantastic. The piano is completely convincing in my opinion.

The piano does sound a bit more wet than the voice and it sounds much darker which puts them into separate rooms to my ears. I wonder if others agree or not but the piano is a little muted, maybe a bump in some higher frequencies to bring it forward just a bit more, and an even-but-opposite cut on hers? I'm curious what other far more talented people think.
 
I wonder if others agree or not but the piano is a little muted, maybe a bump in some higher frequencies to bring it forward just a bit more, and an even-but-opposite cut on hers? I'm curious what other far more talented people think.

Do you have the VI, yourself? The thing I find about it is that it's quite a bright, powerful and aggressive instrument. So, to make it fit in various contexts, you really might want to tame it down a bit, or a lot. You can do that by limiting the velocity response, or via EQ (in fact, some of the factory presets have quite a bit of high frequency roll-off built into them). And interestingly, some rather extreme EQ does kind of work to mellow things out, but it works consistently across the whole range of the instrument (i.e. you're not doing a zone-by-zone voicing the way a good piano technician would do it). So, in bringing some aspects in control with EQ, you might end up making other areas a bit dull. It's really a judgement call, and personally, I find going either way can be valid.

If you don't yet own it, and you do get it, I think you'll understand once you start working with it. ;)

Weirdly, I think I've personally arrived at a point where I'm way more persnickety about the way a piano sounds in a recording I'm working on than I am when listening to recordings where I had no involvement. When I'm listening to other people's pieces, I'm paying more attention to the composition and performance than I am to the piano tone. If the piano on someone else's project is in the ballpark, I just accept it for what it is.
 
Thanks for sharing! I love things like this, and the piano's dynamics really are fantastic. The piano is completely convincing in my opinion.

The piano does sound a bit more wet than the voice and it sounds much darker which puts them into separate rooms to my ears. I wonder if others agree or not but the piano is a little muted, maybe a bump in some higher frequencies to bring it forward just a bit more, and an even-but-opposite cut on hers? I'm curious what other far more talented people think.

Thank you for listening! :)
For sure there's a lot of experimentation you can do with both products. I did that straight away when I got the Piano, so I didn't figure out already everything was possible to do! In general I definitely wouldn't say that piano is dark (I'm not saying you're wrong! it may sound dark here compared to the voice). On the opposite, comparing this piano to other piano libraries I have, I have to remove some highs and add low-mid to achieve the sound of the EW Pianos Steinway D, for example. That's the great part, you can really sculpt your sound because it starts very neutral, but still offering different sonic characters thanks to 3 very different close mikings (condenser, tube and ribbon).
 
I am indeed speaking solely in relation to the voice in the effort of getting them into the same room. Maybe the piano itself is bright, however in this recording I'm hearing a bit of an imbalance between it and the vocal. That's all I was trying to say :)

As a guy who doesn't favor Yamaha because of its brightness, I find it totally believable that the instrument itself would lean in that direction.
 
Hello!
While waiting for the VSL answer, do you know if you can set a non-linear (curved) MIDI-velocity transfer function in the Vienna Synchron Pianos player?
I have found nothing in the User Manual.

Anyway, the sound is fantastic!
 
Hello!
While waiting for the VSL answer, do you know if you can set a non-linear (curved) MIDI-velocity transfer function in the Vienna Synchron Pianos player?
I have found nothing in the User Manual.

Anyway, the sound is fantastic!

No you can't. It's one of the more regular feature requests that comes up.
 
I finally installed it. What a beautiful instrument. This is definitely the best piano sample I own or have played. It is magnificent in surround. Very, very pleased.
 
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