hi there guys and gals..

I recently bought this virtual piano from our friends cybergene and he was absolutely professional while being incredibly friendly and nice, and i also have said a lot of things about this piano vi already, the reason why I'm making this thread is because I'd like to dive deep in the modern d and say everything i feel and know about it (all the pros and cons)

01 the interface.

it's a very well designated and user-friendly interface, all the necessary stuff are right in front of you when you load the sound bank, and other once-in-a-lifetime settings like velocity curve and tuning stuff are on other pages and it's always thrilling to have a nice graphical representation of the piano in from of you. the only thing i don't like (hate it immensely) is that it doesn't have a proper mic mixing page, not just volume control and all, something that lets you do everything to any single mic position, separate panning, delay control for a more realistic room response, eqing and such.

02 the tone.

well first of all two things are obvious, it's a very fresh and recently made steinway d, and they voiced it to be a studio piano (not a 100years old classically voiced one) so it intentionally sounds warmer and rounder then most steinway D's on the market, that said, that doesn't mean it can't go Loud or powerful, in the Matter of fact this piano sounds like a beast when playing forte.

03 dynamic range.

as i mentioned before in another thread, this is what i call a healthy dynamic range, it can go from whispering to screaming so smoothly, and all the in betweens are masterfully recorded and scripted as well,

honestly the dynamic response is a big part of this piano being so playable which I'm gonna talk about in a few seconds.

04 playability.

this piano plays really well, not gonna hype it up and say it's the sampled version of pianoteq, no, but it's very close, I'd say unless you're playing very fast the difference isn't noticeable (but there are things like phrasing and natural note connections that pianoteq does so well), as a said above, the dynamics are a very important part of this piano being so playable and what i mean by that is that not only it's dynamic but the layers are very well mapped, i think they've used some kind of calibration methods here, but it is very accurate.

05 the recording quality.

simply one of the best ones on the market, so many sampled pianos share the same problem when it comes to recording techniques, they think about sampling as recording, so they use the same techniques that they typically use for recording a song to record multiple sample layers, that makes piano sound thin and lifeless in the lower dynamic levels, and wild and overwhelming in the higher range, the modern d doesn't have any of those problems, it sounds full, punchy, woody, rounded and alive in the lower dynamics, and sharp, raw, powerful, dry and bright in the higher dynamics. but nothing is ever too much or too little, just perfect at least for my taste.

06 the voicing, tuning and preparation.

i remember reading some comments on piano work forum about the voicing being so dull and thick, they said the attack is bleeding into the sustain and makes the sound so dull and lifeless, i was fully prepared to hear that and get disgusted about it (cause the characteristics they mentioned are my worst nightmare on a piano sound and those comments are basically the reason i didn't get it back in the fall when it was a fresh product that everyone was talking good things about)

well.. after playing and listening to it for a few days (I've been playing for day and night) I don't hear that, a rounder and warmer attack, sure, but a dull and lifeless one, no not at all, if this was a classical piano (and not a MODERN one) i would have agreed with them but not when there's no evidence the company made this for classical usage.

the tuning is somewhat great, not perfect as the company says but it is very good.

the preparation is excellent, it sounds like a decent steinway d in a decent studio that also has a very effective Una corda pedal, the difference between the main tone and when the u.c is depressed is day and night and that's something you don't really see these days even on the most expensive acoustic pianos (a truly useful una corda regulation)

07 pedals and pedalings.

it supports everything, sustain, sostenuto and soft (Una corda) pedals, half pedaling, catch pedaling, re pedaling ect etc… (+ muted strikes which nobody uses)

one thing that stood out to me was how different half pedal samples on modern d and continues pedal on most other pianos are.

the partial dampening is new on vsts so i was amazed by it.

08 missing features IMO.

as i mentioned we need a proper mid mixing page, not just some volume faders for 3/5 mics.

we also need per note adjustments, but that's on uvi not vilabs.

09 some notes.

I've came across some weird sounding notes in my journey, the most annoying is the g#3 (if I'm not mistaken) it sounds nasal, thinn, and bright, not that i think this is a big problem that needs to be solved asap, just pointing out that it annoys me a little bit more then i thought and i hope they'd fix it, there are some of its neighbour notes that sound similar but this one is a completely different instrument on its own.

10 vilabs reselling policy.

last but not least, first of all it took them half a week to respond, and then they said that the seller needs to transfer the licence to the buyer and after that give them the sample library as well (i couldn't download it from their apps and website which sucks so badly)

cg was forced to upload the files on a server so i could download them, this is the crappiest reselling method I've ever seen.

anyway, i think the modern d is what I'd use for years from now on, it has a lot of qualities and it makes me more then happy to admit that most of the hype was real, i was afraid of being disappointed again, but I'm not.

Best regards🤍

mehrshad